That's my log

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Blog focused on archiving and retrieving information about John Boorman's hidden gem, Hell in the Pacific (1968).

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Toshiro Mifune with director John Boorman and crew members filming Hell in the Pacific (1968)

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Curious VHS covers for Hell in the Pacific (Bulgarian and Swedish).

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Toshiro Mifune in Hell in the Pacific (1968)

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"At one point Mifune captures Marvin and enslaves him, but he finds he's haunted by Lee's eyes, which follows him everywhere."

John Boorman in Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman

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Lee Marvin in between takes while filming Hell in the Pacific (1968)

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Rather, they wanted to show that two men who had formed such a bond could not possibly kill one another, and so conceived a dénouement inspired by the final lines of T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men." Which ends "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper," as the two men, once again faced with the reality of the war, walk off in different directions.

Fragment recovered from The Cinema of John Boorman

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Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune on location filming Hell in the Pacific (1968)

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Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune with director John Boorman in between takes while filming Hell in the Pacific (1968)

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"Later, Marvin turns the tables on Mifune and, like Mifune, he finds it more difficult to be the master than the slave."

John Boorman in Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman

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PARALLELS: Hell in the Pacific (1968)/ Brokeback Mountain (2005)

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"I wanted to illustrate this by having Lee try to have Toshiro fetch a stick. Treat him like a dog. It was Lee's idea to become the dog himself."

John Boorman in Lee Marvin: A Personal Portrait by John Boorman

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Lee Marvin with director John Boorman behind the scenes on Hell in the Pacific (1968)

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Lee Marvin in between takes while filming Hell in the Pacific (1968)

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Lee Marvin & Toshiro Mifune in Hell in the Pacific (1968) dir. John Boorman

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Different endings for Hell in the Pacific in The Cinema of John Boorman.

An external source mentions that Marvin's character is decapitated by the Japanese recruits in the second ending.

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According to Japanese quiz show 'Did You Know?!' (知ってるつもり?!), Mifune was instructed by director John Boorman to cry upon seeing a photograph of a dead Japanese soldier published in Life magazine, but he strongly opposed this, saying:

“Don't be ridiculous! Japanese soldiers don't cry! They don't show tears in public!”