Forgotten masterpieces: In 1968, John Boorman directed an extremely original film about WWII. Set almost entirely in the backdrop of a deserted island, there is very little dialogue, as the story is meant to show the confrontation between two enemy soldiers -one American, one Japanese. Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin, both veterans of WWII, give impressive performances in that smart, exciting and visually magnificent movie.
The cinematography and themes of hunting are strongly echoed in the 1987 film “Predator,” by John McTiernan, who was inspired by John Boorman’s masterpiece.
Thank you to Maria Leland for her contribution in the making of this video.
10 Comments
nice collage.
Kinda watched it
Better than the movie.
Mifune is great here as always, but the ending of this movie is very anticlimatic
Absolute masterpiece. Graced by 2 masters. 💥💓
You can look at the water, on the Sun, and at hunting on American soldiers Toshiro Mifune.
What's really fascinating is that Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune really did fight on opposite sides, though not directly against each other. Marvin was a marine, wounded on Saipan. Mifune was a photographer for the Japanese Army Air Service.
Hi there, how did I miss this? It is wonderful, the way you cut the scenes, and piece them together from this masterpiece enriching it with the music is art itself. If anyone would deliberately choose not to watch this film after seeing your video, he must be most unreasonble and one that wants to miss out on greatness. I know it was really hard for Mifune and for Boorman to make this film together because of a possible Japanese scriptwriter messing up Boorman's intentions in his transaltion, but Boorman a hard Englishman finally got through to Mifune a very proud and a hard man too, and this miracle was born. And, yes, Boorman was right after all. It had to be a serious film, and the character had to be serious and desperate and not funny and clown-like at all. It worked best this way.
I saw the film in the mid to late 1970s, I grew to greatly admire the careers of both Marvin and Mifune <3 Your edit here is really wonderful, thanks very much!
Lee Marvin travels 1,000 miles to overcome Toshiro Mifune and succeeds.