MovieChat Forums > Hell in the Pacific (1968) Discussion > Interesting Avoidance of Physical Confro...

Interesting Avoidance of Physical Confrontation

posted 17 years ago by jeffyoung1
1 reply | jump to latest

I was intrigued by the opening scene where both men, Lee Marvin's character and Toshiro Mifune's character stand off against one another then back down.

This avoidance of confrontation reminded me of National Geographic, the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet.

In nature when two animals realize they are both more of less evenly matched and run the risk of mutual killing or gravely wounding each other, they typically back off. The confrontation may be solved by which animal makes the most noise or the biggest display.

Marvin and Mifune were no exception. Both men quickly sized each other up. Both were of equivalent size, fairly healthy, and armed only with sticks. Marvin had a knife but knew Mifune's spear and homemade sword outranged him.

Both men momentarily imagined killing the other, but realistically realized they stood a 50-50 chance of killing each other. It was actually a smart move for both men to back down on the confrontation.

Marvin then takes to tormenting the hapless Mifune, messing with his head. The scene where Marvin urinates on Mifune was LOL.

[–] Suzume-san 17 years ago

Thanks, Jeff, nice thoughts. The crucial turning-point of the film, IMO, is the moment when Mifune has Marvin at his mercy, grabs the knife and goes to kill him, but can't bring himself to do it. From then on, much though they bicker, we know that they won't do each other serious harm.

BTW, Marvin was actually five inches taller than Mifune, though the way the film is shot you rarely see them together in a way that shows this. I don't know whether that would have been deliberate.

Kambei of the Gormful Gumi.