HBO's "The Pacific"

Well I'm looking for some updates:

Kai-Petri: You had two episodes under your belt. Have you watched anymore? If so what's your honest opinion?

texson66: You just got the DVD set and were going to watch it over Veterans Day. Did you get to? What do you think so far?

 

They replayed the whole series on HBO this weekend.

****SPOILER ALERT****​

The Japanese lose....again.​

 

...Not mentioned in the book, nor featured in "The Pacific" but still part of the story, is the superb antics of the quite eccentric mortarman, Lou Diamond of the 5th Marines.
Pity his story wasn't featured, at least in a vignette form.
Doc B

 

Having bought and watched the series (The Pacific) now, I have one question which may (or may not) be pretty dumb. In most of the scenes where they're marching around carrying the MG et all, I noticed one guy was always carrying what (to me) appeared to be a stick with a white end. I imagine this 'stick' had some sort of importance for it to be included so often? It certainly wasn't the MG Tripod/stand...so what in the devil is it?

 

they are "Aiming Stakes"

The gun-sight was 'zeroed' and the mortar set to true north by using a compass. Then two aiming stakes were aligned on the front and on the back azimuth of the compass through the gun-sight; this set the gun to true north.

 

Well, one of my gifts at Christmas was the DVD set for The Pacific. Last weekend my husband and I watched it over a 2-day period. We both enjoyed it. I didn't think certain "romantic" interludes during leave required as much time or detail - however, it is expected in movies these days and does relate to the different types of people the primary characters were, as well as providing a break from the intensity of the battle scenes. Seeing it on a big screen with surround sound was intense, compared to the one episode we saw last spring on the small television with no additional sound. During artillery and mortar attacks and other bombing, we could feel the sound and did pull us into the experience. While I had read Leon Uris' Battle Cry , saw Ken Burns' The War, and saw the requisite movies about the Pacific Theatre - I was a relative newbie and the series has developed a greater interest for me in learning more. I thought it was well done, and I'm glad that they had a last episode which closed up the story lines for each of the primary characters, and which reflected the real experiences of returning combat Veterans, in a similar manner to The Best Years of Our Lives. When I saw the scene with the father listening to his son's nightmares, it made me think of the nightmares my Dad would have over the years as a result of his experiences in ETO.

 

I also received the box set for Christmas and enjoyed it to no end, the final disk with the "extra" stuff was damaged, and I await a copy of that disk from Netflix as we speak. If you liked that, see if you can find The Pacific: Hell was an Ocean Away by Hugh Ambrose. I found it on my audio-books section in my local library which allows me to download an audio book and listen to it for free.

This is much more detailed than the HBO series, even though the television mini-series was developed from it.

I listened to it twice completely, and was never disappointed. This is from a review of the book; Six months before his death from lung cancer in 2002, best selling historian Stephen Ambrose said, "I would like to have Hugh finish that book for me. It's not going to just fade away. It's going to see the light of day one way or the other."

"That book" was a history of the World War Two battles in the Pacific; and "Hugh" was Ambrose's son and frequent collaborator. Now, ten years after father and son started sifting through 87 boxes of material and hundreds of interviews, oral histories, letters, diaries and memoirs, The Pacific is finally reaching its audience -- both in bookstores and in the HBO miniseries, produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goeztman, the same team which brought Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers to the screen.

I can highly recommend this, either in print or on audiobook it expands the number of men followed from three to five, and includes the stories of a Naval aviator who flew at Midway in a dive bomber, as well as a Marine who was left behind on Bataan, escaped from the prison camp, joined the Philippine guerrillas, left the islands and returned to lead a combat mission.

 

Clint I'm really glad you enjoyed the series. For a while here it was taking a pretty bad beating. I thought it was very good.

 

I suspect that the expectaion was closer to Band of Brothers, but this ones tone and style was quite different, though well made I agree much harder to watch I think.

 

I had lost track of the thread where you asked me to post my opinion after I had watched it. So I figured I'd just put it up here. There might have been something "flawed" in my set on a few other disks (besides Disk six which won't play) as well. Some of the "night fighting" scenes were so dark that a muzzle flash was all that could be seen sometimes, with dialog in the background. Of course since that is most likely exactly what a moonless night in the South Pacific was, dark and ominous I won't complain too much. But, overall I was impressed with the filming and the CG construction of so many long gone vehicles was super. The AmTracks, the B-29s, the Shermans, etc. was well done and understandable as most of them don't exist in reality anymore.

I know there are a few "operational" units of course, and these would have been needed to get the "specs" down for the CG effects, but the sheer numbers were awesome. Just as they must have been in the time. All in all a fine mini-series.

 

I was impressed with their depiction of the Japanese tanks, very well done I think.

 

The first time i watched BoB i was hooked, yet its been 2 years and i Havent bothered with the pacific, might pick it up on Blu Ray.

 

I think you need to give it a viewing. When I first saw "Band of Brothers" I liked it, with each subsequent viewing I got more out of it because I noticed more of the background stories and interactions. I had the same with the Pacific, I noticed many more small things the second time around. If I were to pull one of the two DVD sets out today to watch, it would be "The Pacific". Both are great productions but the Pacific leaves you emotionally exhausted.

 

Exactly my thoughts Bob. The Pacific goes a bit more under the skin than the BoB does. Remember the stone snap scene with the death japanes Soldier.

 

Yeah, you knew he'd been in combat a little too long. You really came to appreciate the Snafu character and understood how he felt about Sledge. His weak attempt to lie and keep his friend from going down the dark path he himself had already gone down was touching.

 

Nothing to add, Bob! The dark trail is his trail to go. Hell thats a place where i won´t to be at war.

 

The mini-series is pretty faithful to Sledge's and Leckie's books. I was not as familiar with the Basilone story, but figure they must have been fairly faithful to it, as well.

You know the men of Easy Co. were just so compelling, so heroic, and Band of Brothers captured everyone's attention. But this mini-series is every bit as compelling. You really should watch it.

 

I know i shouldn't revive a three year old thread, but i'm surprised no one mentioned the episode where Leckie was in a psychiatric hospital.