John Boorman's visualizes Robert S. McNamara's eleventh lesson of life and war; i.e., "...empathize with your enemy to better understand and combat him" and takes that notion to the extremes in this fabulous, intense movie metaphor.  Two soldiers -- American and Japanese (movie icons Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifuni) -- stranded on a South Pacific island, determined to fight to the death, instead discover life. A truly great war movie.  And ironically, a greater anti-war movie.