Hi all!
very interesting thread.
As the first 4 episodes are aired here in Italy, I was wondering if the product itself was so and so, or it was just me that could not fully connect with it.
Well, I've found out that it's not me!
All what you said is completely correct: the characters are much less convincing than in BoB, too romance, too much outside knowledge is needed to understand the plot (consider also that here in Europe in genral and in Italy in particular, we are not much aware of what the war in the pacific ment). Also the action scenes don't get me. I mean, ok it's the jungle, ok it's night: but ehy, I just can't get involved by seeing nothing!
Also what you said on the lenght of the episodes is correct: here in Italy they are aired 2 at the time!
I am considering not to watch it any more... too bad...
ciao
Edo

I've enjoyed watching the Pacific, but it was a let down considering how absorbing Band of Brothers was. I've read With the Old Breed by E. Sledge and picked up many things that were in the book. I think the combat scenes were very well done and drew you into the mindset of the soldiers. The final episode was disappointing since it didn't tell you much about there life after the war. A brief note in BoB about their lives after the war was plenty.The Pacific focused on 3 main characters and their lives outside of combat, then left you wondering how they coped at the end of the war.
Karl,I think a mini series on the 8th Air Force would have alot of potential.
Edo- You should definetly watch the rest of the series...Vince

A bit of a let down, I expected somthing equal to Band of Brothers and Pacific just didnt measure up. "My 2 cents worth", milvehfan

I stopped watching after Episode 2... It didn't catch me at all. After the first episode I had the feeling that I missed something of it... but apparently it was THAT short. The built up is crap to say the least... 1 minute guys still in the US next Minute guys getting a briefing on a ship. next minute foot on Guadalcanal, next minute shootout with the japanese... end of the show no clue who I was going to follow and who were the maincharacters.
Episode 2 did not catch me at all and fell asleep halfway. For what is said about it being the most expensive series ever produced... Well the camerawork and Special effects were pretty good... Sadly.. the story is too much Hollywood.

Band of Brothers was good from Episode 1 to 10. I actually stayed at home on sundays (barnight) to follow it on the BBC, when it came on Dutch TV I seen them all and when it came to DVD I immediately bought it. And watched it a lot. And probably will see it a lot more.
The only effect the Pacific had on me is that it was able to diminish my interest in the pacific even more then it already wasn't. I have not even bothered to tape or download the episodes. I probably will not buy it either and whoever gives the series to me as a present will no longer be friends with me.

The last one is obviously a joke but I think the series is not as good as they could have made it.

Wow - some of you guys are hard to please. This is not a BoB redo in the Pacific. BoB concentrated on ONE unit and some of the men. The Pacific concentrates on the MEN and not the units. Bob Leckie falling in love in Melborne is HIS experience it is part of what defines him as a man, a Marine and later as a writer.

I do a some trouble with the nudity - could have toned that down alot and not affected the storyline. I still believe this treatment of the Pacific is one of the best I have ever seen and I do plan to buy the DVD set when it comes out.

Hi Frank!

You're right about the show's focus being on the men, but my complaints concern what (to me at least) were the shallow treatment given the characters and the all-to-often choppiness in the plot lines.

The problems stem from trying to cover so much ground in just ten very compact episodes. Instead of 12 continuous months of operations with a single company as in "Band of Brothers", "The Pacific" tried to span more than three years of fighting across an ocean and lives back in the States. With such ambitions and a limited amount of screen time, developing characters is a challenge.

Where the writers erred was in not letting Leckie and Sledge speak for themselves. Leckie wrote extensively after the war about the campaign and his experiences and was a successful author. Sledge became a college professor and later in life compiled an articulate and moving memoir about his training and combat on Peleliu and Okinawa. What better material could a screenwriter have? As I stated in an earlier post, having the actors use a voiceover approach would have worked immensely well. Another movie that used this well was "The Boys in Company C".

Where the directors (and probably the producers) erred was in plot development. The episodes skipped around so much, the viewer needed to use outside knowledge to keep the story straight, and Episode 8 (the Iwo Jima episode) was a hopeless muddle.

One other bothersome aspect was the overuse of direct action sequences. While this may sound odd about a war film, the way the fighting in the later episodes was depicted became repetitious and boring. Hollywood has certainly made combat ultra-realistic in the past decade, but "The Pacific" gave it a detached, almost clinical feel. Use of montages with music and voiceovers would have made it more visceral--just look at how effectively the technique was used in the Ardennes combat sequence in "Patton" as the general recited the weather prayer.

In all, "The Pacific" was a noble effort, but it spread itself too thinly as a moving narrative.

---Karl

i agree completely, 10 episodes was too small a scale hell tarawa wasn't even depicted, and one episode for iwo jima? which to be fair flags of our fathers and letters covered this, but still it didn't have the same pull that BofB had. my one question on a modelling point would be were all the vehicles the marines used in the pacific that shade of green? or is this another error on the part of the production team?

Hi Ant!

Be careful with the visuals on the show. They made errors with the ships in almost every episode, eg. Fletchers in at the Guadalcanal landings, Tokyo Express destroyers sliding by in broad daylight, a fast battleship at anchor beyond the piers at Banika (from the mental hospital episode), ships cruising with the jack still flying, and so on.

--Karl

P. S. I still look forward to an 8th AF dramatic mini-series.

Agree 10 episodes was not enough. But as i did with Band of Brothers I tried to read the book as each episode was shown. There were 2 important characters in the book that were never mentioned in the show. And while Lecky was mentioned in the book it was not at the level that the show had. Ifound the book to be much better that the show.
As far as the Green color goes there is a good explanation and several comments about it over on the Pacific Campaign Tread.

thanks Karl, and you too Sal, yeah the books are a better read, but then most books are i could list several war films that are based on books and compared to the books they fall short, especially once hollywood has given them the editing treatment, enemy at the gates, black hawk down for example. as for the green color i'll take a look at that pacific thread Sal thanks again

"my one question on a modelling point would be were all the vehicles the marines used in the pacific that shade of green? or is this another error on the part of the production team?"

I went to the Pacific Campaign site. Marine Green is not OD Green - but closer to Forest Green. There is a rather long description of how the Marines acquired vehicles, etc. The tanks were US Army issued and painted OD. The LVT's were US Navy and started as a blue/gray and later painted green or Camo. If you notice in The Pacific - trucks, half-tracks, jeeps were painted this Forest Green.

Cannot judge the accuracy of the ships since most Navy ships are LGS's to me - Large Gray Ships.

Tarawa - although a significant battle in the Pacific was not covered since none of the main characters went to Tarawa. Iwo Jima battle scenes lasted as long as john Basilone did. Again this is not a history of the war in the Pacific it is about a few of the men who fought in the Pacific.

I too would have liked some more voice over to explain what is going on. If you were not up on the Pacific or read Hugh Ambrose's book, The Pacific - it could be confusing. On the Iwo episode - Tom Hanks in a voice over states that at Iwo the Marines suffered more casualities than did the Japanese. 23,000 Marine casualities to 22,000 Japanese. What Tom didn't say was the total deaths at Iwo were about 7,000 KIA and 16,000 WIA to 22,000 KIA for the empire. Although what he said is techincally correct - it could give a viewer the wrong impression -

Tha battle sequences are not "staged" in my mind. Not clinical. I felt for those Marines trying to take this islands from the Japanese. The "slaughter" at Peleieu and Iwo were just that, slaughter. Marines drove head on into fortified Japanese positions and paid a hevy price to wrestle these islands away from a determned and skilled enemy.

Even with its "warts" I believe The Pacific is a noble effort that shows us the war on the other side of the globe was just as important.

couldn't agree more Frank and thanks for the indepth answers. i agree it's a worthy effort, and a testiment to the Marine Corps as a whole. i like the scene in the last episode where Lecky goes to pay the cab driver, and he says "no you Girines went through hell and suffered malaria in them jungles, whilst us guys in europe got liberty." i thought that was very poignant because it summed up what the differences between the two theaters of war. in europe they could relax on liberty in paris, where the marines who were pulled off the line we sent to another island where luxuries were few and far between. both my grandfathers fought in the war, but died before i was born so i never got to ask them about their experiences but my parents tell me that their fathers would never talk about the war. i guess it's hard for us to even imagine or comprehend what parts of these mens souls they sacrificed to maintain the freedom that so many people take for granted. Ant.