OT "The Pacific": Your Reviews

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

This show is just getting better. I love it!

Yeah but it's ending soon.

[KG Erwin]

Four more episodes to go. Yeah, I'd looking forward to the DVD set, too. I guess that Leckie is heading back to the homeland, but Sledge is just getting into the war. Basilone will tire of the war bond drives and will ask to get sent back to action.

[Chickenboy]

Watched Episode 7 last night. Very well done. I'm appreciating the hardening of "Sledge" from a genteel upper class Southern boy to a steely-eyed Marine. If you could bottle that look he shot that USO REMF at the end of the episode, you'd have a war-winning weapon. I really like Sgt. SNAFU as a character too.

Also appreciate how the tropical nastiness of Puv'uvu seems like a lovely paradise after months on Pelileau.

Looks like Episode 8 will focus on Basilone's return to a fighting unit.

My take on the series' political overtones is that they are subdued, secondary to character experiences and development. Other than an oft reviled, sometimes respected enemy, the Japanese are just that-an enemy. I know that many, if not most, Marines that returned from the war held lifelong animus towards them and I get why. But the central theme of this dramatic series isn't about overarching strategic views or lingering emotional wounds of the war, but rather how the war changed men. That story is always worth watching, IMO.

[cantona2]

If one episode can save a series that one will! BoB standard. Great acting, you get taken on that journey with those soldiers.

[D.Ilse]

I stopped watching after I missed a pair of episodes in a row..waiting for the June DVD release now to finish..but I finished the Audiobook in the car(I have a 2hr communte daily, since Pop Radio sucks, and my local NPR station nixed classical music, I listen to books)

I think it the lack of unit cohesion that makes me like Pacific less than other WWII series, Band, Piece of Cake, All the King's Men(WWI), Dark Blue World, or even Enemy at the Door and Island at War, have a better feel of Cohesion than Pacific.

I mean two of the main characters, Sledge and Sid. Do not serve together really, the both serves AS mortar men, but in the book they are in contact while on the bivac island before Pelileu's invasion, with As Sledge came into the theater after failing the V-12 program and Sid going to the States first to Florida then to the V-12 program.

The Book also doesn't follow Leckie, but does add a Marine Officer captured in the Phillipeans, becomes a POW, escapes, becomes a guerrila fighter, finally gets back with the Marines, and goes back into Combat. The other change is following a USN Dive Bomber pilot.

I guess the sinew that connects all the characters is the buildup/invasion of Pelileu since all 5 in the book have some kind of connection to that campaign, weak connections but it's all I can see for any.

A story focused on a single squad/company would have been better, but I don't think many units fought in the PTO from 1942-1945 that were not on board a ship or squadron. The USAAF in China would have made a hella better film in my opinion.

[JudgeDredd]

tbh, from what I've read around the net, it seems ridiculous that this was ever likened to Band of Brothers apart from the obvious connection of Speilberg and Hanks.

I haven't seen them yet as I'm to tight/too wise (delete as required) to pay Sky for a subscription to some crappy film channels so I can watch the series...but (again from what I've read) it seems very disjointed...and following what? 3 characters? From a division? And they're not all in each of the episodes?

I will most definitely get it on DVD...but my concerns about the cohesion and depth of the story increase everytime I read about it.

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

If you could bottle that look he shot that USO REMF at the end of the episode, you'd have a war-winning weapon.

I thought that LT. was gonna get a serious wake up call! If looks could kill he would have been dead.

I think a great job was done with Sledge's character. Sgt. SNAFU was awesome too. I love the scene where Sledge was going to take out the dead Jap's teeth.

[jomni]

ORIGINAL: D.Ilse

The Book also doesn't follow Leckie,

Leckie's story was taken from another book.

A story focused on a single squad/company would have been better, but I don't think many units fought in the PTO from 1942-1945 that were not on board a ship or squadron.

Agree. But casualty rates are so high that you won't see a grunt serving all major battles.

[Stele]

I'm liking how the Pacific is picking up now. Peleliu episodes are fascinating.

Also, SNAFU creeps the heck out of me. I'd want him in my squad in a fight against Martians, but I'd hate to dorm with that guy.

[KG Erwin]

As I suspected, my favorite character is Sledge, but I miss Leckie now. I haven't warmed to Basilone very much, but that may change once he returns to battlefield action. As for Snafu, well, he's a special case. Interesting that he and Sledge eventually become best friends.

I suppose I'm gonna have to revisit "With the Old Breed" once the series is completed. I've seen & heard enough interviews with the real Eugene Sledge that I can place a voice to what I'm reading.

[johnnycanuck1944]

The actor playing Sledgehammer is great, however, I think he should have had a southern accent like the real man .I believe it would have made his role even more powerful. I have watched the Sledge interviews enough that I almost expect his voice to appear in the miniseries. [:)]

[JagdFlanker]

i'v watched the battle scenes from SPR and BOB all at least 30-50 times EACH, from their initial release onwards (VHS then DVD then a re-released DVD for SVP, and TV/initial DVD/blu-ray for BOB), and one guarantee i can give you is that for this initial showing of Pacific we are NOT seeing 5-10% of the final product

for example the final battle in SPR was initially very confusing to me since it seemed like a bunch of little scenes all taped together to make a big mess, but in the more recent releases they added a LOT of scenes to it and it now makes total sense when you watch it and you see how the battle progresses much more smoothly now

also in the carantan ep of BOB the carantan battle was also initially sort of jumpy but they have since added a lot of little scenes and it now makes perfect sense and progresses very smoothly when you watch it

so by virtue of what i'v seen from SPR and BOB you can bet your sweet ass there is a lot cut out of this initial showing of Pacific which is why it's currently "jumpy", and within a few years they will release the "final" cut which will fill in the series more completely

[Capt Cliff]

Was a bit disappointed in Part 8. The story about John Basilone seemed a bit rushed. The combat scenes at the end also seemed an after thought. Like oh yeah he dies. Didn't really tell us what he was doing, just bogus combat action scenes. Oh and they should have mentioned he got the Navy Cross for what he did and that he died on day one of the battle. So he win's the Medal of Honor on "The Canal" and the first day back in combat on Iwo he wins the Navy Cross!! Disappointed that one of the bravest of the brave should be shown like that.

[cantona2]

ORIGINAL: Capt Cliff

Was a bit disappointed in Part 8. The story about John Basilone seemed a bit rushed. The combat scenes at the end also seemed an after thought. Like oh yeah he dies. Didn't really tell us what he was doing, just bogus combat action scenes. Oh and they should have mentioned he got the Navy Cross for what he did and that he died on day one of the battle. So he win's the Medal of Honor on "The Canal" and the first day back in combat on Iwo he wins the Navy Cross!! Disappointed that one of the bravest of the brave should be shown like that.

Agreed

[jomni]

i expected a sex scene. but there wasn't any.

[Goblin]

I've now dozed off during 2 of eight episodes, and outright skipped two also. Never happened once during BoB. I wish I had dozed off during number eight. As described above - they blew Basilone's story to heck. No explanation of why he went to back to combat, 20 minute romance and marriage, teleportation straight to combat. A few flashy scenes with no context whatsoever, and dead. Major disappointment. I'm starting to think I may save some money on the DVD's...[8D]

[Zakhal]

Perhaps the scope was too big. They should have concentrated the series on one or two battles in the pacific. Start with guadalcanal and really make it seven months long. And then take another battle from the end i.e iwo jima and call it finished. Put the atomic bombs and short occupation of japan in the end if possible. Thats more or less what I expected to see.

In bob combat happened mainly from june 1944 to jan-feb 1945. Thats 7-8 months. Pacific starts august 1942 and tries to show 30+ months of it in less amount of screentime (each episode is shorter than in bob).

If bob had been done "pacific" style they would have started it 1942 in north africa. Of course that doesnt guarantee a mess if its done right. I.E "Patton" showed us the war from 1942 to 1945 while been ony few hours long and still made a good movie. Whats wrong in "Pacific" is a sum of things. Somoone in the movie business might know better.

Concentrating on one battle alone i.e guadalcanal might have been easier. Making the movie last the whole war covering all aspects of it was too challenging for the director. He simply wasnt up to it.

EDIT:

If pacific bored you I suggest checking out "Shtrafbat". Its a BoB-style 10-episodes long russian series about penal battalion in ww2. Better than pacific if you dont mind the subtitles.

Shtrafbat

Gritty tale of a Soviet 'penal battalion' in World War II, 7 December 2006
Author: jbillburg from United States

With the war not going well for the Soviet Union, Stalin accepted volunteers from the prisons and used the prisoners as shock troops. This is the story of one such battalion. There are petty crooks, political prisoners, soldiers kicked out of other units, gray-haired veterans of the White Army plus some dangerous criminals.

They are thrown into battle ill-equipped, untrained and face the threat of the NKVD if they show signs of cowardice or failure.

The special effects are rudimentary and many of the minor characters are one-dimensional, but the overall story is very human and riveting.

[ilovestrategy]

I too thought the episode was rushed. One minute he's telling her he might get shipped off and the next scene is marriage! 

[KG Erwin]

None of the guff I've heard here surprises me, as it seems that some of you expect the real-life experiences of these Marines to play out like a DAR of one of your wargames.

[Goblin]

It likely would have been better written then, and followed the actual events more closely.

Why do you think people are disappointed with this series? Just curious. You slam critique as 'guff'. There must be a reason. Maybe tell people why you think this series is well written?




Goblin