HBO's "The Pacific"

"sorry this video is not available in your region"

.........my luck

 

I must confess I fell asleep watching the first episode. (I had just finished flying across the US to LA after driving between Baltimore and Boston in a major rain storm for my MIL's funeral. And it was late EST time too)

I think the directors failed at the get -go: training was hardly mentioned and that's the whole basis for Lucky Lieke's book. Likewise, more background on Sledge and Bastilone could have gotten the audience drawn in better.

Remember how BoB's begins? Its all of Easy Company in GA dealing with the chicken **** Captain. After one or two episodes, you could see how Easy company was gelling into a cohesive unit and loyal to Winters. You as a viewer are now more interested in what happens to each person on a fundamentally deeper emotional basis.

And the landing on Guadalcanal scene, I think, just didn't portray or draw the audience into the anxiety and/or fear of those Marines getting into their assualt boats or the relief of landing unopposed.

Remember before flaming me, I am NOT criticizing the real vets in WWII, just the 21st century directors.

 

things to remember:

The Pacific is not BOB. Because of this and the fact that it is 10 episodes it almost impossible to show each of the 3 main characters in training long enough for it to matter. This is why The Pac left out the training, that is clear to me.

Also, about the combat, it's just getting warmed up. Lots more to come...

There will be a lot more about Sledge and Basilone to come.

 

Hello ChaoS,

Wow you are so lucky

Regards
Kruska

 

Excellent first episode! Well done. can't wait for episode 2

 

Oh good we will see okinawa. I know they had to do guadalcanal because of the time line, and I'm not saying the TTR is a good movie, it just seems annoying that something is being done about an island twice. It's like seeing 4 movies on the battle of buldge, when they could have done the hurtgen forest, attack on the rhine river, fighting in italy etc.

 

The music and start actually gave me a bit of a feel for Ken Burn's "The War." I expect the problem is trying to find the balance between providing information for those who know nothing but are expecting to watch a "war/action" series, those who know a little, and people like many on this list - who could have been technical advisors! I did find myself engaged by the character whose father was more concerned with his car's axle than saying goodbye to his son (I figured that wouldn't give too much away to those who've not seen it!). It will be hard to follow up Band of Brothers, but then it will also be up to the audience to realize they are depicting a different type of battleground, etc than the European theatre. I'm interested that in future episodes 4 of them are directed by the director who did "Fugitive Pieces" which was about a child survivor of the Holocaust and his life. I enjoyed that movie - but it certainly was not an action-type; perhaps, the action will be more background in The Pacific? Sadly I will probably miss episodes 7 to 9, as that is when we will be in Europe - although we'll be home for the 10th!

 

Glad to hear you'll be heading home fro R & R! Hope you will be there for the UK release.

 

Thanks to all for the running commentary - I'll just have to wait like everyone else 'over here'.

Personally, I'm very glad that the Spielberg/Hanks team is doing this ; as we've seen on this Forum in threads such as 'Why is the Pacific Theatre overlooked?' it's important not to forget what happened. As happened with Band of Brothers, I'd expect that this series will considerably raise interest in 'the Pacific'......

 

Why? the series follows three main charicters of the 1st Marine Divison. They fought on Guadalcanal, so why should the series leave it out? Remember, TRL followed the army not marines.

Hi Lou, Thats the same website I saw it on. I too was kind of shocked that they would show it, but pleased none the less

 

I'm still out on this one. The map used at near the start of the program doesn't show Karafuto or Formosa as Japanese territory. That should have been a pretty basic piece of research.

Also, the racial issue will get old if "yellow monkey" gets overused. There seems to be more sympathy for the Japanese as regular guys than I remember seeing in Band of Brothers. The Pacific War was brutal and no quarter was given because of Japanese fighting sensibilities, not because they were perceived as "yellow monkeys".

...and the Tom Hanks comments to Time Magazine didn't provide me a lot of confidence either.

 

Well they had him looking at the photo because not all Marines hated the Japanese, some hated what they did but realized they were still soldiers sent to fight. And if you didn't have that scene, you'd be left with watching the Marines enjoy shooting off the last soldier's flesh with the springfield, which wouldn't leave a good taste in some viewer's mouth. They just wanted to get in all view points I guess.

 

Perhaps you're right. Speilberg and Hanks know Japan is a huge market for their work and any controversy could lead to a boycott. Sony's got a pretty big toe in Hollywood, too. Maybe I'm cynical about this, but we'll have to wait and see.

 

Let’s not forget that Sony owns MGM, Columbia, Screen Gems, and Tristar as well as a great deal of the distribution system anymore. Now, with Sony’s ties to television distribution in the cable networks, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that the series was made with that in mind as well.

See:

Sony Pictures - Corporate Fact Sheet

As to Tom Hanks' and his comments I would point out that he is an ACTOR, paid to both act in and promote his latest work. I also didn't put any level of verasity on his comments on the Catholic Church or its "enemies" after his movies; The DaVinci Code, nor Demons and Angles. He is an ACTOR fer kripes sake.

Even though I enjoyed Hanks' work in Apollo 13, I don't consider he or Ron Howard to be experts on the workings of NASA either. Enjoy the entertainent, that is all it is supposed to be. I also don't have HBO access (lack of funds), but I do get and watch the movies made for HBO later on Netflix.

 

Thanks for the tip Lou, it is a done deal I'm now a "registered member" of HBO.com What a deal. Thanks again.

 

"About 3.1 million people signed up for the Sunday night premiere episode of HBO's expensive World War II epic, "The Pacific," according to Nielsen.

"HBO, which spent around $200 million making the 10-part miniseries and millions more on hype, said the audience for the debut was 22% higher than the premiere of its last big miniseries, "John Adams." The pay cable channel has been heavily promoting the Steven Spielberg- and Tom Hanks-produced event and even took the unusual step of offering the first episode for free on DirecTV as well as on its own website and on Fancast.

"For those curious as to how 'The Pacific' stacks up against 'Band of Brothers,' HBO's first big World War II miniseries from Spielberg and Hanks, which premiered in September 2001, comparisons are more difficult. That's because at that time Nielsen did not measure HBO's individual channels, but rather combined the audience for all of HBO's channels into one number."

Over 3 million viewers sign up for HBO's 'The Pacific' | Company Town | Los Angeles Times


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