MovieChat Forums > Hell in the Pacific (1968) Discussion > Ending

Ending

posted 19 years ago by thegreatmifune
38 replies | jump to latest

Could explain where the explosions where comming from at the end? Why in the world would they end the movie this way?

I don't think the sound of bombs exploding near the end were really bombs, but were part of the score to emphasize the growing tension between them. You can hear the bombs getting louder as each character gets angrier. I think the ending is not showing an actual explosion of the building they were in, but represented the explosion that went on inside the building. I imagine one character ended up killing the other inside the building and we won't know who killed who.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] max619 17 years ago

The building they are standing in begins to shake and then there is the big explosion. There must have been an acutal explosion. Good idea about the bombs being the emotions of the two men though.

[–] spitfireap 17 years ago

Yeah, the shaking and explosion is all for effect. The building didn't really explode - that just symbolizes that the men are fighting and one has killed the other (imo).

[–] diesoon 17 years ago

I just think that the bomb was to show the brutality of war, when mifune started to look at the casualties of war in life magazine. The two soldiers are separated and developed some kind of relationship, and the truth is they should be fighting, for all the people that died in this war, in the name of honour. And they are just drinking alcohol, singing and arguing. And finally one of them realizes what's going on there, the bomb is just to show his anger. That's my interpretation.

[–] robinvalid 17 years ago

It was just on TCM --
the epilogue says the walk away was the original ending --
but it was not well received, so the studio added the boom --
which sounds like shelling (likely Navy and big).
Neither ending was very popular.

I thought that as they cleaned up, returned to the scene of the war,
and seeing the magazine pictures of the war and the dead,
the situation changed from one of (mutual) survival and cooperation,
back to conflict -- and conflict ends in . . . death.

The explosions from the shelling, growing louder, closer,
The war returns, the building goes up,
and continuing explosions over the end credit --
that's war.

[–] wesj-2 17 years ago

Just saw it on TCM too. I was like wtf? when it ended, but got the point of that ending. I think the original ending where they shake hands & walk away woulda been better though. Great acting & movie.

[–] kaaduge 17 years ago

I too just watched it on TCM (hard to beleive that it was TCM's 1st showing)- loved the film - just wish the studio did not add the bomb ending. I feel the director had his vision and should have been upheld.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] flyer333555 17 years ago

I posted this on other threads.

The ending is based on the wrong premise.

My father was drafted in ’43, posted to an antiaircraft artillery battalion in Panama. Went to Louisiana in ’44. The unit moved to Texas and California in ’45. Was posted back to Texas in July ’45 to train for the possible invasion of Japan. He came home with a notebook of his classes while in the service.

On this notebook he had basic German commands. Sit down. Come here. Stop. The numbers from 1 to 10. On this notebook he had names for maps in Italian. He had Japanese characters for maps. If the training had gone on as scheduled, I believe he would have had more Japanese language classes. The A bombs intervened, his training ceased and his battalion was disbanded soon after they were dropped.

It stands to believe that although the military would not have trained a real-life Marine in this situation to be a Japanese conversationalist, he should have had some basic Japanese. There were a lot of Japs which attended Western universities before they were in the military. So again it stands to reason that a real-life Japanese officer in this situation would have been able to communicate.

But I guess that if Hollywood would follow real-life rules we would not have many thought-provoking films.

I understood the ending yet I still did not like it for reasons I posted above.

[–] thewholebrevitything 17 years ago

Who knows how long they were adrift and then waiting on the island. Maybe they just forgot that training ? Or perhaps soldiers at the beginning never received it, but recruits towards the end of the war did - like your father ?

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[–] Suzume-san 17 years ago

As I said on another thread, I don't see either man as the ideal attentive student. The Pilot can't even be bothered to read his survival manual properly.

Kambei of the Descending Gormful Bedafter Gumi.