The Pacific (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Orr]

BoB vs Pacific = Apples and oranges. I really don't understand why people think that Pacific has to be a "sequel" to BoB. It's not. The war in the Pacific was a completely different "personality" than the war in Europe, I know someone who was actually in many of the battles depicted in Pacific, and the show is pretty much getting it right.


I thought the Anna Torv cameo, while interesting, was completely gratuitous, and did not add a thing to what was going on, as opposed to the Greek girl (although I understand that was fictional).

Wife and I watched Part Six last night, and were worn out by the sheer terror those guys had to endure. And next week looks just as intense.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Originally Posted by Stephen Orr

BoB vs Pacific = Apples and oranges. I really don't understand why people think that Pacific has to be a "sequel" to BoB. It's not. The war in the Pacific was a completely different "personality" than the war in Europe, I know someone who was actually in many of the battles depicted in Pacific, and the show is pretty much getting it right.


I thought the Anna Torv cameo, while interesting, was completely gratuitous, and did not add a thing to what was going on, as opposed to the Greek girl (although I understand that was fictional).

Wife and I watched Part Six last night, and were worn out by the sheer terror those guys had to endure. And next week looks just as intense.

Also this miniseries is derived from more than one book about those Pacific battles which is unlike the single source used for BOB in which one company of men was the focus of the entire series. Furthermore, due to men rotating home in this series we will see some scenes from stateside that BOB did not offer us.





Crawdaddy

 

[Josh Dial]

Another key difference is the sheer timeline in The Pacific. We've already greatly eclipsed the amount of real time BoB showed us.

One of my favourite little touches is the map near the start of each episode (and, I think, once during an episode) where we zoom in from a wide shot of the Pacific, into some tiny spec of rock that doesn't even show up on most maps. The airfield on this episode was virtually half of the entire landmass!

I can understand the frusteration over the character development in the first episode, and even into the second. However, at this point, I think we know a fair deal about Leckie, Basilone, and Sledge (hah, Sledgehammer). To be honest, I think we actually know *more* about these guys, at least in terms of actual personality and character, than most of Easy company in BoB. If I had to write a short paragraph on the kind of person Leckie was, I could actually do it; I don't think I could do so with Toye, or Guarnere, or Webster.

The Pacific isn't about the bonds forged between comrades in the fires of war: it's about how the horrors and realities of war can change someone, force them to do the unspeakable. It's a different kind of story, that's for sure, and it's definitely a departure from BoB. I like it, though.

 

[Stan]

For those of us who missed this mini-series or maybe just an episode here and there, looks like HBO is repeating everything this week if you need to catch up.

They bounce around the different episodes throughout the week, or you can wait until Saturday morning when it looks like everything run so far is repeated sequentially, then on to episode seven on Sunday night.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I have been out of this thread for a while, but
have been watching every episode of THE
PACIFIC to date.

My initial fear was that one island is like
another and perhaps the viewers would get in
a rut watching the same jungle warfare over
and over again.

However, I was very surprised by the way
these stories are being told going from the
war front to stateside to medical leave. You
get some real time to vest in these individuals.

Really enjoying the series. I remember the
Normandy Beach landing of "Saving Private Ryan"
to be the harshest depiction of war on film for its
time. Watching the battle scenes in THE PACIFIC

makes that movie look rather pale in comparison.

 

[Garrett Adams]

I agree about gravity of the battle scenes. While some of the beach landings were horrific I have never seen anything approaching the carnage of the dash across the airfield.

 

[Rhett_Y]

I can't wait for this to be on Blu-Ray. I haven't seen a single episode but reading this thread alone I know I want it!!!!!

 

[Josh Dial]

The most recent episode featured some utterly horrific battle scenes. SNAFU is a great-but-disturbing character.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I don't find it poor, it's jut not Band of Brothers. I do like the characters they introduces, Lucky was a great character, as is the kid with the Heart murmer. There's a bit more sex in the mix, than in BOB, But the War Segmants are still pretty fantastic. I Too Prefer BOB, I think having a Single Character running thru the entire Run I.e Dick Winters made the Difference.

Originally Posted by Brett_M

I guess I'm in the mninoruty here but I think the Pacific is a very poor follow-up to BoB. I know it's different in almost every way in terms of the story and it's structure and that is not a bad thing. What is bad is the fact that I care nothing about these characters because I don't know who they are. The show reminds me a lot of The Thin Red Line, which is a hardship for me to watch. I've seen it twice and the second time was because I thought I was too hard on it the first time. Nope, it sucked again. They have one similarity: they have some excellent sequences but the parts down't add up to much. The show is a lot like real war -- boring stretches punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

The production values are good and it was nice too see Anna Torv in something besides Fringe. I guess I prefer a more linear story structure. I like BoB more for that reason.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Originally Posted by Josh Dial

The most recent episode featured some utterly horrific battle scenes. SNAFU is a great-but-disturbing character.

Not just battle scenes, but post-battle. It was incredibly disturbing to see him casually toss stones into the open skull of a dead Japanese soldier, like tossing stones into a can as a game,and in earlier episodes his vulture-like way of harvesting gold from their teeth. Yet curiously, he prevents Sledge from going down the same path, I guess recognising a certain amount of innocence in Eugene that he lost a long time ago, and he persuades Eugene not to follow him into that darkness.

Other interesting vignettes: even the old grizzled Gunny lost it at one point (or was that the previous episode?), and when their respected captain died, they all had a moment.

 

[Josh Dial]

Amazing episode tonight. Emotional and wild.

 

[Jeremiah]

What trips/freaks me out in some of these battle scenes is that it's just luck that you live, when they are running across the air field or trying to take Iwo Jima, no difference between you and the next guy. Pretty scary.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

From what I understand, Mrs. Basilone never remarried IRL.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Jeremiah

What trips/freaks me out in some of these battle scenes is that it's just luck that you live, when they are running across the air field or trying to take Iwo Jima, no difference between you and the next guy. Pretty scary.

I consider myself a very jaded viewer but I think that's a big reason why I find the battle scenes in this mini-series really disturbing.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Jeremiah

What trips/freaks me out in some of these battle scenes is that it's just luck that you live, when they are running across the air field or trying to take Iwo Jima, no difference between you and the next guy. Pretty scary.

That's just one of the reasons why the surviving members of the 101st (Band of Brothers) get so emotional when talking about their experiences in Europe. They know all too well that it "could have been them" that didn't come home "but for the grace of God." They are sad that their buddies got taken...but know that it could have just as easily been them...and that is also a very tough thing to have to live with.

Think of the chaos of the Normandy beach landing when, with no protection, the American forces landed and crossed hundreds of yards of unprotected area in that major military initiative. That's one of the most powerful effects of the portrayal of the landing in Saving Private Ryan--you would have no way of knowing if one of the trillions of bullets flying through the air was heading for your helmet next. Or, if one of the big explosions would land right next to you.

Personally, I can't imagine it.

And I give all the respect to those that lived through such experiences and to those who didn't.

 

[Steve_Tk]

That's what bothers me. Doesn't matter how much you train, how great your ability is when it comes to running across those damn fields. You are just another pawn and if that mortar or random bullet comes your way then you are dead. If you live through it then it was just blind luck.

I thought it was the best episode of the season.

 

[Josh Dial]

Wow. What an amazing episode (ep 9). This one should win an Emmy.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Originally Posted by Kevin Hewell

From what I understand, Mrs. Basilone never remarried IRL.

That is my recollection as well; a few weeks ago I saw a book based on this TV series (I think), flipped through it and read the spoiler that Basilone died in the war. Oh well, since I was already "spoiled" I flipped a bit more and remember reading somewhere that "Basilone's widow never remarried".

"The Pacific", even more than BOB IMHO, seems to really highlight the random nature of who got killed and who survived. Just consider the scene when Peck (was that his name?) freaked out, his buddies desperately tried to get him down to safety, and just as they manage to, Hamm got killed instead. And on the flip side, Sledge wondering if it was their mortar round that fell into the villagers' hut that killed the parents of the crying baby.


A truly gut-wrenching episode. Very little feel-good factor, indeed in the entire series, which I suspect is why many here (including myself) have expressed a preference for BoB, which focused more on the theme as stated in the title of the series, which is uplifting and positive. We may feel a little differently next week when the final episode shows their return to civilian life, but even then, Sledge's little retort shown in the trailer doesn't make me optimistic.


The whole series has really played up the "war is hell" theme. Japanese soldiers using civilians as booby traps and human shields, American soldiers shooting an unarmed (presumably surrendering) Japanese soldier (at least I assume he was a soldier and not a civilian, it wasn't clear) and 'celebrating' like it was some victory.

(At first I thought the woman with the dynamite strapped around her was a suicide bomber, but seeing the Japanese soldiers later using civilians as shields, coupled with her attempts to hand off her baby, I realised she had been forced into it and was trying to save her baby by handing it off away from herself.)

 

[Ronald Epstein]

It has been a long ten weeks that I have been

watching The Pacific, but it was time well spent.


As this week's final chapter was almost ready to

roll its credits, tears filled my eyes. I knew they

would. To become so enveloped with these characters --

to see the hell that they went through -- and then to

learn about the real people whose stories were represented

was a very emotional experience. Many of these

soldiers died over the past decade.

Tremendous mini-series. I'll be buying this on Blu-ray.

 

[Marty M]

I thought the last episode was a great way to bring the mini-series to its conclusion. I, too was saddened by the end. It was a real nice touch to have the photos at the end of the real people the actors were portraying.