I stumbled across this last night on Turner Classic Movies. Knowing absolutely nothing about the plot, I was intrigued when within the first ten minutes of watching there were maybe three words said, and these were all Lee Marvin talking to himself.
The film stars the aforementioned Marvin as a United States Marine and Toshiro Mifune as a Japanese Officer stranded together on a deserted Pacific island during Wold War II. The Two men are at first hostile towards each other, with Mifune attempting to protect his water and Marvin psychologically attacking him. Eventually they from a fragile relationship over the building of a raft and their attempted escape from the island. The cinematography on the island is gorgeous and the scenes at sea are realistic. All this serves as a backdrop to the fantastic performances from both actors.
The one problem is the ending. I later learned that this was tacked on by one of the producers after he was unhappy with the original conclusion.
The film is directed by John Boorman.
Two side notes:
A website for a screening at Harvard two years ago says this film is in english and japanese with english subtitles. The version I saw last night contained no subtitles and it worked very well. It further showed the lack of communication between the two men with the audience (well, me) not knowing what the Japanese soldier was saying.
About half way through the film I thought the islands looked familiar and had appeared on a season of Survivor. Sure enough I was right. As the title card for The End appears another note is presented underneath, "filmed entirely on the islands of Palau." This was home to the tenth season of the show. And yes, I realize this means absolutely nothing to anybody but me, either way I'm still patting myself on the back.
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