Two weeks in and still no thread on The Pacific? I am shocked. I have been waiting for this series for almost 10 years and i have to say it is certainly up there with Band of Brothers. After last nights episode I am beginning to think it's even better. It has been surprising faithful to Helmet for my Pillow for the Guadalcanal episodes. If it's as faithful to With the Old Breed I will be beyond impressed.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
As much as I loved Band of Brothers, the first episode of The Pacific didn't really grab me. I think having the training episode of Band of Brothers to establish that I should care about the characters was very important to my enjoyment of that miniseries.
I haven't seen episode 2 yet, but I have it on the DVR.
Posted by aeolusdallas (Member # 11455) on :
There should be a training episode coming up soon. Eugene Sledge will be joining the Marines and several scenes in previews have shown him at Bootcamp. They have also shown Basilone teaching Marines in previews. As for the characters and getting to know them. Band of Brothers covered one group over a single year. Pacific covers 4 separate people over 3 years. Leckie, writer of Helmet for my Pillow early in the fighting, Basilone a very famous Marine at multiple points of the war. Eugene Sledge author of the absolutely amazing With the Old breed later in the war and Sydney Phillips real life friend of Sledge who served with Leckie. he is the bridge that connects the characters.
Each of the main 3, Leckie, Basilone and Sledge has what 3 or 4 buddies each but unlike BoB the story will not focus on them.
EDIT also episode 1 and 2 are considered the weakest of the 10 episodes. Although I was really impressed with part two.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
I couldn't have liked Band of Brothers more, and while I enjoyed the first episode of The Pacific, it didn't thrill me. I am going to try to catch the second episode tonight, but I agree somebody should have started a thread.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
I've had Band of Brothers on my "to-watch" list for the longest time, so this will probably give me a kick in the pants since I did very much like part 1.
I did have the toughest time telling apart the characters though which made it a bit confusing, but overall good stuff.
Posted by aeolusdallas (Member # 11455) on :
I find that rewatching the episodes helps with that. I didn't get all of Band of Brothers characters down till my third viewing. I am having an easier time with the Pacific. Mainly because I know the 4 principles and associate the secondary characters to them.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
LOL.....for those of you who may not know, there is a Sgt. York in the 1st ep , on board the ship getting ready to disembark for GC. He says he was planning on taking out a whole regiment of Japs himself, and that it would be a turkey shoot, just line them up and shoot them.
A Sgt. York IRL won for Medal of Honor for doing just that. But it was during WWI. He had 132 men surrender to him. October 8, in the battle of the Argonne, Alvin C. York captured 132 prisoners, nearly single-handedly, killing almost 30 men himself. He shot them using a method they used shooting turkeys at home, killing the last one charging him first so the rest didn't know their support had been killed, and preventing them for using bodies as shields.
LOVED the shout out to one of our WWI heroes. Posted by aeolusdallas (Member # 11455) on :
Doesn't Leckie even make that reference when Chuckler says that?
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Yeah, I think they were joking, as York was a very popular hero at the time of WWII.
Still loved it though. Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:He shot them using a method they used shooting turkeys at home, killing the last one charging him first so the rest didn't know their support had been killed...
Man. Turkeys have fire support?
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson:
quote:He shot them using a method they used shooting turkeys at home, killing the last one charging him first so the rest didn't know their support had been killed...
Man. Turkeys have fire support?
They apparently also use each other as turkey shields.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
Guns don't kill people, turkeys kill people.
Posted by aeolusdallas (Member # 11455) on :
Wow I actually cried during this episode. It was very bittersweet. I officially like the pacific at least as much as Band of Brothers now.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
(I've been watching Band Of Brothers, haven't watched this night's episode of The Pacific yet)
Band Of Brothers has been easier for me since I think I managed to tell apart the characters better since I do recognize a few of them, like morose Defying Gravity guy or Ross.
Posted by TheGrimace (Member # 9178) on :
As others have said, I've been enjoying it, but so far find BoB to be more approachable and compelling.
Some of the trouble is just the way the story goes (both in real life and on film). For BoB you get to know Easy Co for a while before seeing them in the muck of things, and the horror of war sort of creeps up on you. While D-Day was certainly traumatic, and every engagement was impactful, it wasn't until Bastogne that you really got the sense of the men's sprit breaking.
In the Pacific, however, you barely get to meet people and suddenly they're thrust into a Bastogne-like situation, but then almost immediately brought out of it and given a break in something like paradise.
Now I think this is quite likely the story they are trying to tell, as the Pacific theater was a very different war than the European theater, but it makes for an awkward story.
Also, apart from the last scenes in Part 2, I didn't feel as much urgency as I think they intended over the plight at Guadalcanal. The trouble being that things like "fighting the jungle" and being low on rations and ammo are devastating, but somewhat hard to convey on-screen. Basically, I didn't fully see why they would come out of the battle portrayed on the screen as such haunted men already.
this isn't to say that I didn't get something out of Parts 1&2. I think they were good, but based on the end of Part 2, I was expecting something more comparable to Bastogne, and didn't really get it.
----even more spoilery than previous statements---- perhaps the key difference was that at Guadalcanal I noticed perhaps two characters die who I was supposed to know but hadn't really gotten to know yet, whereas Bastogne killed or crippled a number of characters who I had come to know and love...
<Edit> Parts 1 & 2 felt like a few days or perhaps a couple weeks, but as I look up more of the history, I think it was supposed to be closer to 6 months...
[ March 29, 2010, 02:59 PM: Message edited by: TheGrimace ]
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Yep, and there were more than one or two battles. It went on night after night.....
Eventually over 20,000 Japanese troops were committed to the fight,
[ March 29, 2010, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: Kwea ]
Posted by aeolusdallas (Member # 11455) on :
Yeah Guadalcanal was rushed because the indend on spending three episodes on Pelelie then 1 each for Okinawa, Iwo Jima and New Britain plus a training/homefront episode.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
quote: Parts 1 & 2 felt like a few days or perhaps a couple weeks, but as I look up more of the history, I think it was supposed to be closer to 6 months...
That, to me, is where The Pacific fails. There is no concept of the amount of time that is passing.
One minute they are complaining about how the Navy isn't there, and the next they are greeting the Army. Um, how did the army get there (with vehicles and supplies!) if the Navy isn't there yet and the island is surrounded by the Japanese? I know from Wikipedia that the two scenes were likely months apart, but in the show there is absolutely no sense of how much time has passed.
Same goes for the Australia story. It seemed like the guy had been with the Aussie girl for at most a few days, but then all of a sudden the Mom is so attached that the girl ends the relationship because of it? I can only assume months (or weeks at least) had passed of him living there, but that wasn't conveyed at all in the show.
I'm liking the show more and more now that I have spent some time with the characters. I think having "January 4th 1943" or whatever at the beginning of each new scene would do a world of good.
[ March 31, 2010, 01:19 PM: Message edited by: Xavier ]
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
(How many sentences did the girl and guy exchange before jumping in bed anyways? It seemed like he had more of a conversation with the mother (and possibly even the father) than the girl herself before she jumped into bed)
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
That's the thing Mucus, with how vaguely time passes in the show, it could have been a month after he first moved in and I'd never know it.
[ March 31, 2010, 01:45 PM: Message edited by: Xavier ]
Posted by aeolusdallas (Member # 11455) on :
Wow this episode was intense! The actor who plays SNAFU is amazing. I was afraid that my heart would break for Eugene and it is. He is far to gentle a soul to be going through what he is going through.
Posted by TheGrimace (Member # 9178) on :
Yeah, Episode 5 actually makes me feel some of the horrors of war... Even the beginning stuff back at camp seemed to better convey some of the environmental stresses than previous episodes.
Posted by aeolusdallas (Member # 11455) on :
holy god
That was the most intense hour I have ever seen on TV. That scene with the tooth..I knew from the book what would happen but the entire time I was still screaming..... Sledge, Don't do it!!1 Also when Skipper Haldane died I was bawling like a baby
Posted by TheGrimace (Member # 9178) on :
I've appreciated the last few episodes much more than the first few. There seems to be more of a concerted sense of espirit de corps... we see and come to appreciate the Skipper as well as Gunny. We see and come to appreciate some of the inter-squad relationships of SNAFU being the initially more experienced member slowly giving way to Sledge, etc...
Additionally, they do a good job (especially this episode) of conveying the horror of the campaign. More than previous episodes I get a good sense of the psychological impact of never feeling safe (enemy springing out of your latrine or from a hole behind your lines or sneaking around in the night...) as well as the inhuman aspect of things. When they're fighting an enemy who no one can understand, who fights ferociously and never surrenders, etc... the fight becomes more of a man vs beast than man vs man battle.
The tooth scene was excellent, and brings a whole new appreciation to SNAFU, who's gone around the bend, but still wants to save Sledge from the same horrors I'm sure he's waking to at night... the plops at the beginning of that scene were deeply unsettling though. Effective, but unsettling.
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