10 Notable Movies Featuring (Mostly) Two Actors

4. Hell In The Pacific

John Boorman's 1968 war drama casts the inimitable Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune as two marooned soldiers on opposite sides of World War II who must work together to ensure their mutual survival.

Because it's not limiting enough to take two of cinema's most iconic stars and strand them on a desert island, Boorman goes one further by keeping the dialogue to an absolute minimum and even refusing to subtitle the foreign language dialogue to accentuate the communication issues between the two men.

The result is a suspenseful and brilliantly acted drama, albeit one that tanked on release due to expectations that both men would be starring in more effervescent, action-packed movies at this point in their respective careers.

Nevertheless, if you can forgive its infuriating ending, Hell in the Pacific uses its statuesque leads to impressively subversive effect.