Hell In The Pacific

The transfer of Hell in the Pacific is clean with few scratches or artefacts given the films vintage, and the sound is clear.

Inexcusably, however, the film settles into 4:3 pan and scan mode after the widescreen credits. Consequently one doesn't get a full sense of Boorman's compositions and claustrophobic close-ups come to dominate at the expense of agorophobic panoramas and tracking shots.

As one would expect, the disc has little in the way of extras. There are brief biographies of the two stars and a tiny stills gallery.

The extras also include some "original production notes" dating from 1968. In fact, the genesis of this Japanese-American co-production was rather more interesting than these let on, with different endings being shot and shown in the two territories.

The pan and scan presentation, coupled with the lack of the alternative ending, makes it hard to recommend this region 2 DVD over the US region-free release available on import.

The pan and scan presentation, coupled with the lack of the alternative ending, makes it hard to recommend this region 2 DVD over the US region-free release available on import.