Hell in the Pacific

Hell in the Pacific is a 1968 wartime survival film directed by John Boorman and starring Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, the only two actors in the film. Set in the Pacific War, it follows an American pilot and a Japanese naval officer who are stranded on the same uninhabited island. It is about the importance of human contact and the bond that can form between enemies if they lack external influences. The film was released theatrically in the United States on December 18, 1968. It received mixed-to-positive reviews, but was a box-office bomb, earning $3.2 million on a $4.1 million budget. The disappointing performance of Hell in the Pacific was attributed to perceived similarities in premise to Frank Sinatra's None but the Brave (1965) and the film's abrupt ending, which failed to impress audiences.