The Pacific

[RealmOfX]

I loved Band of Brothers and it's been way too long since I've watched it. After the Pacific ends, I'm planning to re-watch BoB from the beginning.

Speaking of rewatches, I'm planning a re-watch of parts 1-6 of The Pacific for the next two days. I was actually thinking that Part 6 marked a big shift in tone for BoB. Bastogne was E Company's darkest time but it was also their defining moment in the war. For those that survived, they hung in there. Likewise, the Marines' time at Peleliu seems to be the biggest turning point for them so far: Sledgehammer gets his first real taste of war and earns his nickname. Leckie and Runner, who've been with us since the beginning, get seriously dinged up are sent home. I've also heard that Peleliu had the highest casualty rate of any major campaign in the PTO. This is their Bastogne.

Peleliu whilst bloody wasn't the highest, off the top of my head Mariana (part of the same campaign as Peleliu), Iwo Jima and Okinawa were higher.

[Cold Fuzz]

Earlier today, I just finished my re-watch of Parts 1-6. I got a lot more out of Parts 1-4 this time around because of the context of Parts 5 & 6. The same thing happened when I re-watched Band of Brothers while it aired 9 years ago. For one thing, I got more comfortable with everybody's names, nicknames, ranks, and duties. My first run through Parts 1-4, I think the chaos of the jungle combat made it difficult to figure out what everybody was saying to each other at times. When I wasn't sure what was being said, I just turned on the captioning and all of sudden I picked up a lot of stuff that wasn't so easily discernible before.

Speaking of nicknames, I do notice that there's a greater number of memorable nicknames in The Pacific than in Band of Brothers. Maybe the Marines dish out the nicknames more so than the 101st Airborne? Anyway, I was think about everybody's nicknames and it turned out there's a very large number of them:

Lucky
Sledgehammer
Chuckler
Runner
Hoosier
Johnny Reb
Ack Ack
Hillbilly
Snafu
Gunny
Chesty

It's definitely an interesting set of nicknames. The only main character who didn't have a regularly used nickname was John Basilone.

Does anyone know why Sidney and his company were sent back home early? I think I missed that part.

The rest of Sidney's group wasn't sent home. Sidney himself though was "rotated" (his words back in Part 4) back home. They didn't elaborate on why unfortunately. The others in Sidney's group from the 'Canal--Chuckler, Runner, Leckie, Hoosier, and Gibson--stuck around.

Peleliu whilst bloody wasn't the highest, off the top of my head Mariana (part of the same campaign as Peleliu), Iwo Jima and Okinawa were higher.

I remember reading in college that Peleliu had the highest percentage of casualties for a major campaign. I'm certain that the Marines in Iwo Jima and Okinawa definitely lost a greater number of men though perhaps not as high a percentage as Peleliu?

[magictrick]

Just watched part 7 today. There are several harrowing scenes in this episode, truly bone-chilling I would say. But I enjoyed every minute

[Cold Fuzz]

Just watched part 7 today. There are several harrowing scenes in this episode, truly bone-chilling I would say. But I enjoyed every minute

Harrowing I would dare say that Part Seven was darker than Band of Brothers' darkest moments. Haldane's death was wrenching, especially how everyone was reacting. He supported his men, especially the younger guys like Sledge. He was courageous and heeded the welfare of his soldiers. What more could you ask of any leader during a time of war? And then he's snuffed out by a sniper's bullet.

Seeing Sledgehammer breaking down and descending into hatred was chilling to watch. He was a good and honest young man who showed enough compassion to comfort De L'Eau when he himself was in need of moral support. But, to use a Star Wars metaphor, I think Ack Ack's death was the catalyst for Sledgehammer nearly falling to the dark side. Snafu could see it, which is why I think he stopped Sledge from getting the Jap soldier's gold teeth.

[Cold Fuzz]

I watched Part 8 twice last night though I don't have too much to say about it. I knew Basilone would meet his end at Iwo Jima but seeing it unfold with Tatum and Evanson being able to do nothing but watch, was still pretty heavy. I know that Lena probably didn't regret him re-enlisting but I get the feeling the rest of Basilone's family probably didn't feel that away after they received word of his death. Given the sheer number of people involved in Iwo Jima and the appalling casualty figures, it's a not so minor miracle that Sledge & Leckie made it out of the war in one piece to write their memoirs.

Speaking of Sledge, his brush with the "dark side" at Peleliu has greatly changed his character. While he was able to display enough compassion to give emotional support to De L'Eau when he really needed it in Part 7, Sledgehammer's getting impatient with Snafu in Part 8. In the preview for Part 9, he really starts to show all the understandable anger broiling inside him.

[Cold Fuzz]

I was doing some research about Helmet For My Pillow and With the Old Breed and I found this rare color photo of Sledge in dress uniform:



Joe Mazzello's resemblance to the real Sledge is pretty undeniable after seeing this photo, especially with the red hair.

[magictrick]

Just saw Part 8 of the show. I wasn't familiar with the history but I felt the show was foreshadowing Basilone's death. I read up on him after watching and it was good to know that the show stayed true to the important historic facts.

[DigiFluid]

I like The Pacific, but certainly don't love it the way I did Band of Brothers. The pacing of The Pacific is all wrong. All the pieces are there, but they're paced/arranged poorly and it makes the whole series suffer. For instance:

Guadalcanal/Leckie: Guadalcanal should've been spread out across three episodes. The first two felt jumbled and rushed, and I really didn't care who lived or died. If they'd spent longer on getting to know them and making the Battle of Guadalcanal feel like a significant battle, I might've actually given a crap by the time they spent their fourth episode in Melbourne.

Gloucester/Pavuvu-Banika: The Cape Gloucester/Pavuvu episode should have spent more time on the battle, and less on the looney bin. Don't get me wrong, it was interesting to see a different side of the war and I still would've wanted to see it, but it shouldn't have gone on for as long as it did.

Peleliu/Iwo Jima: The Peleliu trilogy I enjoyed as-is, but Part 8's Basilone story just felt like an enormous waste of time. It would have been better if, instead of forgetting about the character for 3 episodes, they'd showed his time at home and training new Marines as the B-plot in the Peleliu episodes. And then, come Part 8/Iwo Jima, they could've showed it for a much lengthier span of time and his death would've been far more impactful than it was in the final product. Especially if we'd been shown a bit of time afterward and the impact his death had on the Marines that he'd just finished training.

[Morbo]

This series has been phenomenal. It's not supposed to be compared to Band of Brothers. It's a different war, with different people, fought differently, with a different focus.
BoB was based on Ambrose's book about the entire company. It had a different feel. Many viewers complained it was so hard to follow because of the huge cast.
The Pacific was made to only concentrate on a few specific people, with some other characters flanking them.
The pacing has been great, actually I think. They aren't just going balls out showing carnage and death. It's mixed perfectly with the emotional turmoil, and daily living plague these guys went through on these islands. They're showing it could change in an instant. But at the same time there was a lot of hurry up and wait.
I wouldn't say BoB is better. I would say they are equally amazing for what they are portraying.
I am loving it. Visually, it's stunning. I think they are doing a fantastic job showing what it was like for these guys. The jungle, the heat, the insanity of the landings and how insane the Japanese were as warriors. It was a bloody mess. And this shows it.

[DigiFluid]

The BoB comparison was a passing one, not meant to reflect the tone of the other criticisms.

Independently, I think its pacing and storytelling is a bit weak and needed to be worked out better before the final product was aired. Whether this is a problem of script or editing I don't really know, but it's there and it stands out like a sore thumb. It's a beautifully shot series, the colour tones, visuals, even the acting I have no issue with.

But when the characterization is so haphazard, so poorly laid out, it very negatively affects the storytelling. There are a lot of ways (I wrote out a few in my previous post) that they could've taken what they already had and structured it better, so that the story was more compelling; instead of, as it has been, rather boring.

To come back to the Band of Brothers note, however, I do think the comparison is justified. It's from the same production crew, the same executive producers, and was promoted as their follow-up series to Band of Brothers. They invited comparison, and to try to go back on that at this point is a little absurd IMO.

[Skydiver]

THe Pacific has been put forth as a companion piece to BOB, so i can see the comparison.

Pacific is a far more brutal and graphic than BOB, but you know, the pacific conflict was different from europe. the germans surrendered, the japanese died before surrender. europe was a bit more civilized, as odd as that sounds, while the pacific arena was totally kill or be killed.

I do feel that Pacific is choppier than BOB. There's no sense of moving along in time, rather hop here, hop there, fragmented bits and pieces of story.

the relationship angles seem to stick out.It's almost like some criticized BOB for a lack of 'meanwhile, at home' stuff and so it's stuck in there. Honestly, I'd rather have a more cohesiveness in the story than the romance.

it's not bad, but i wonder if they had focused more on the soldiers and less on their romances, if things would be more compact

[Morbo]

I think the Pacific campaign was choppier though. It was island hopping all the way. Like I said, a lot of hurry up and wait until they invaded another beach. Then it was hell. Then, it was hurry up and wait again.

Can't wait to DL tonight's ep. I hear it was amazing and brutal.