THE PACIFIC
Executive produced by Tom Hanks‚ Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman
The Pacific is an epic ten-part miniseries from HBO and the team that made Band of Brothers.
The Pacific tracks the intertwined real-life stories of three U.S Marines‚ Robert Leckie‚ John Basilone and Eugene Sledge across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theatre during World War 2.
The miniseries follows these men and their fellow Marines from their first battle with the Japanese on Guadalcanal‚ through the rain forests of Cape Gloucester and the strongholds of Peleliu‚ across the bloody sands of Iwo Jima and through the horror of Okinawa‚ and finally to their triumphant but uneasy return home after V-Day.
The Pacific is primarily based on two memoirs of US Marines‚ Eugene Sledge's With The Old Breed: At Peleliu And Okinawa and Robert Leckie's Helmet For My Pillow.
The series also draws on Eugene Sledge's China Marine and Chuck Tatum's Red Blood‚ Black Sand‚ as well as original interviews conducted by the film-makers.
Staring:
| James Badge Dale | |||
| Joseph Mazzello | |||
| Jon Seda | |||
| Ben Chisholm | |||
| Chris Milligan |
I spent 9 years in the Navy on submarines in the 70s, and while I'll never compare my service to the war in the pacific I understand the stress you feel, the agony of coming back into the world and seeing no one knows what it's like. I know the bonds formed with the people surrounding you, they know how you feel because they were there too. Spending week after week isolated from the world does something to you, and changes you forever, some never recover from it. The only thing I don't like about this show is having to wait a week for the next episode, exciting, emotional, honest, and without exception this is the best show I've seen in years.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to critiquing movies I'm generally pretty nit picky... but this movie was done extremely well. I'm actually surprised anyone would have rated this less than a 9 or 10. I would like to know how this series could have been done any better? The directors captured many of the various perspectives and angles without any pandering or bias (just the army). Most movies these days have so much pandering and bias they are difficult to watch. The only thing I didn't think was painted well or accurately was the army throughout this series. They suffered the same rate of casualties as the marines and were just as involved in many of the battles. In many cases they were under marine command and part of secret operations that we aren't even told about today. Several army soldiers that would have otherwise been given medals of honor weren't able to receive them because they were involved with secret operations that went against the Geneva convention. I realize it's focus was on the marines and the written pieces by 2 of the soldiers. It's sad, but the marines and the army hated/hate each other. I'm sure if they took some written pieces from a couple army guys it would have painted the marines in a bad light as well. The movie is done so well you literally almost grow with the characters. I see myself going from being green, to being traumatized, to being ruthless and back to having a heart again. My emotions continually went through several of these types of cycles.
ReplyDeleteI have no ties to either branch by the way and I'm generally strongly opposed to war. In the last 100 years World War 2 was arguably the only necessary war, but would have never came about in the first place had it not been for world war 1. Since I'm on a slight tirade, the wars of the last 50 years are absolutely ridiculous... they're all under the assumption that the criminal gang also known as the government knows something we don't and are acting in our best interest... common sense and history tells us otherwise. I have the out most respect for the soldiers of today, but it's sad because they're dying for the government not for our freedom. I would never want them to believe that though. I want them to believe that cliché/propaganda, so they can go to sleep at night believing there was a reason behind their sacrifice.
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
ReplyDeleteEveryone is raving about BOB and how this compares, but I've not seen BOB. I have seen Saving Private Ryan and feel that this is very similar to that but with more. I was a little confused at the beginning because of the lack of character development but after the third show I realised that this wasn't important. It's not about us getting attached to the players as people at all. The purpose of the show is much clearer. It succinctly demonstrates the uselessness of war and makes you feel it, live it as they do. We see these young men go off to war with various reasons and ideals and then we see what it does to them. War wastes those that die and those that fight and survive. There are no winners. It is a disgusting, revolting process and I wish that everyone could watch this and see that nothing can glorify war. Historically, it would be a mammoth task to repeat the absolute facts so we are getting a basic outline of the order. What is wrong with that? it covers enough. If you want historical accuracy you'd have to expect to watch a soap for 5 years.