The Pacific

This show is definitely as good as Band of Brothers. The churn rate of the soldiers is pretty devastating, but that's how it really was. Episode 8 was a nice break, and then, just when you forgot what you were watching...

My great uncle flew F4F fighters in the Pacific theater and I'm just completely riveted by the whole spectacle of it.
 
dmc said:
I had high hopes for this series and was REALLY looking forward to it.

Generally speaking I haven't found it to be very compelling. All of the ingredients feel like they're in place but it seems to lack a clear narrative through line. That combined with far less defined characters/relationships make it enough for me to loss empathy for the situation at hand.

Also, there was a certain level of naivety in how the characters behaved and reacted in BoB that doesn't seem to be present in the Pacific. Now I could be dead wrong but these characters feel kinda jaded and more "informed" than they should have been - almost like how they would behave in the Vietnam or Korean war time frame. There's something a little too barbaric about digging the gold from the dead Japanese soldiers teeth - that scene just didn't play for me. It felt very insert "horrors of war" scene here.


It's okay but no where close to BoB.



dmc
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The two books they were based both referneced the "gold teeth" many times, and in Sledge's case it was an improtant point for him because of the horror he felt at seeing it and then within a week it being a "normal" thing to do.
 
Relative to Band of Brothers Pacific just pales out, though Sledge's performance made the show more enjoyable than it should be. The miniseries seemed better at drama/romance, I.e. the side adventures when the soldiers were on a break in Australia or wherever else than the actual war.

I agree with the above about the gold teeth robbing, it was an important element to sledge questioning his humanity and morality, I got it, but it was as well executed as I liked it to be.
 
Jordan_Sopinsky said:
I think the interviews with the vets, in addition to the magnificently choreographed battle scenes, are the most compelling features of this series. If the goal of Hanks and Spielberg was for their viewership to marvel at WWII vets' courage, they've certainly succeeded.
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Interesting as I've read that Hanks was against doing the interviews this time around.

They are the best part.
 
I think Spielberg had a project that sought to interview surviving veterans. Could be his influence that they were included within the narrative. I love seeing these stories included.

The vignettes remind the viewer that what they're watching is very, very close to the reality of what actually happened. I've left both series feeling like few liberties were taken with factual history to support the narrative story lines.
 
boke said:
The two books they were based both referneced the "gold teeth" many times, and in Sledge's case it was an improtant point for him because of the horror he felt at seeing it and then within a week it being a "normal" thing to do.
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Yeah - I guess that I don't doubt that it was historically accurate. The scene just didn't work for me.


: )

dmc
 
I thought the last episode was the best directed and written of the bunch. Harrowing stuff, and seemed more in line with what I expected from this miniseries, knowing the horrors that went on in the Pacific theatre.
 
some of my favorite moments, the beach landing at Pelelu, the John Basilone episode.

I'm looking forward to the last one that goes into how it was to come back home.
 
Now that the series is done...overall it had great moments here and there but the whole thing just seemed to lack cohesion. I think following three unrelated characters for the course of the mini series was a bad idea, as I felt like no storyline was done justice. It was too fractured, and the emotional throughlines got lost. But they get an A+ for production quality.
 
It felt somehow kind of disjointed, to me. But really no less effective at conveying the unpleasantness of the warfare itself.
 
I haven't seen the last episode since I haven't gotten to torrenting yet, but I have to say this is a really entertaining series. Since I am taking USHistory this year, I have developed a respect and a more in depth understanding of what is going on. I find the way they depict the lives of these soldiers interesting as I knew some background information of these characters before watching the series. I give it a super A+. Can't wait to finish the series.
 
The final episode is beautifully crafted and I believe it succeeded—not in providing a last-minute ingredient for cohesiveness that several posts have mentioned the series lacks—by offering a satisfying and graceful leave-taking. I think this serves to better represent the reality of their experiences; disarray and disorientation were/are foes as well.
 
Jordan_Sopinsky said:
The final episode is beautifully crafted and I believe it succeeded—not in providing a last-minute ingredient for cohesiveness that several posts have mentioned the series lacks—by offering a satisfying and graceful leave-taking. I think this serves to better represent the reality of their experiences; disarray and disorientation were/are foes as well.
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I did not mean disjointed or incohesive in regards to the way sequences were filmed, or wanting some kind of closure in the last episode. I just mean disjointed on a basic storycraft level. The storytelling leapt all over the place and did not provide an opportunity to really hook into any one character. The storylines were too unrelated. I didn't feel I really got to know any of these people, just saw scattered bits. I wasn't emotionally involved, which is a different kind of disjointed than merely portraying the disorientation of combat.
 
I loved it, and I really liked the last episode as well. Can't get enough of good ww2 movies.
 
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