The Pacific.

[cliaz]

I hope this series captures the intensity of war with the Japanese....an opponent who was so different than the Germans, who would rather die than give up, and who tried to inflict as many casualties on the U.S. as possible even when the war was basically lost. If "the Pacific" can do that, it will take it's place right alongside BoB as one of the greatest war mini-series ever.

 

 

I believe they did big time in this episode. Wow. My grandfather was in both the Pacific and Europe theater during the war (navy). He rarely spoke about the Pacific and I think in general a lot of people are going to be somewhat turned off at how the Pacific plays through during the mini-series. It is vastly different than what happened in Europe in the sense that you couldn't just march towards Japan. You had to go in and take each little crap island back and then slowly progress to Japan. In BoB, they pretty much moved towards Berlin (of course taking breaks to go back to England, etc) so there was a slow progression towards the end game. The fight in the Pacific couldn't have been different.

 

 

It started off somewhat slowly like that last episode (part 1) but really picked up in the last half. When it started (e.g. Col, you have the whole Jap. army coming towards you) it was an amazing and, quite frankly action packed to the level of Michael Bay, battle with one company holding back the main assault from the Japanese army to re-take that air field. Shoot, when they were being hammered by those bombs and missiles, I said that was the Bastogne of Guadalcanal/Pacific theater. I couldn't imagine being hammered that hard (that's what she said) for as long as they did.

 

And when the fire fight began, wave after wave hitting their position was simply mind boggling. I couldn't imagine warfare like that anymore. We have all of these smart weapons that kind of remove us from the intimacy of close combat like that now. The whole part where dude went running out of their fighting positions (and exposing himself) to push down the mountain of bodies so they could have a clear line of fire was crazy.

 

And I especially thought the ending was very well done.

 

"Oh yea, where did you hear that froM? I mean, you didn't know about this place until you arrived."

 

"Everyone has heard of Guadalcanal. It's on the front page of every newspaper in America. Face it, you all are heroes back home."

 

::Looks of amazement::

 

I am sold on this series. I'm just not too keen on next weeks episode.

 

 

 

 

[MrTed46]

1 episode left...I enjoyed it alot

[rajncajn]

I have completely missed out on all but the first episode. I can never find when it's coming on the 101 channel & now that I've missed episodes I don't want to pick up in the middle.

[Double Agent]

I've been very impressed with this show. Not quite as good as BoB but I didn't expect it to be.

[MrTed46]

I've been very impressed with this show. Not quite as good as BoB but I didn't expect it to be.

 

I liked the first episode then I felt it was going downhill from around episode 2 - 4,5 but then the last couple of weeks have been great. I can't wait to re-watch them to get a better experience.

[Gopher]

I don't get HBO anymore, so I'm going to wait and just buy this set when it comes out.

[TimC]

I have completely missed out on all but the first episode. I can never find when it's coming on the 101 channel & now that I've missed episodes I don't want to pick up in the middle.

 

Ummm, I think only the first episode was on the 101 to try and bait you into getting HBO. None of the rest of 'em were on the 101. I don't have HBO so just waiting for the DVDs myself.

[rajncajn]

Ummm, I think only the first episode was on the 101 to try and bait you into getting HBO. None of the rest of 'em were on the 101. I don't have HBO so just waiting for the DVDs myself.

Bastards!

[Rovers]

The last episode was incredibly brutal. The Japanese used civilians as sheilds. One woman with a baby was wired with dynamite and sent out to the American lines. All the more personal to me, as I was stationed in Okinawa and visited the memorials. What was odd is that the natives weren't there, at their own memorials, it was all tourists. Most Okinawans could not speak any english, so I never got to know them very well. It seemed to me they just wanted to forget the war ever happened.

[Chargerz]

I liked the first episode then I felt it was going downhill from around episode 2 - 4,5 but then the last couple of weeks have been great. I can't wait to re-watch them to get a better experience.

I finished the book, and it progresses very much like this. It started well, slowed down in the middle, and ended great!!

 

I don't get HBO anymore, so I'm going to wait and just buy this set when it comes out.

I've already put the DVD set on my wish list for Father's Day, my birthday, or Christmas.

[BeeR]

I don't get HBO anymore, so I'm going to wait and just buy this set when it comes out.

Or you could just download it

 

Watched first 4. Worth the watch, but I love WW II stuff so that's not hard to be. What I liked about these kind of series is they aren't as "Hollywood" as the box office stuff. Mixed feelings on the action scenes. On the one hand, some intense and great moments, for example (* mild spoiler alert *) them taking pot shots at the Jap soldier till the one guys sees how fn sick that is and just kills him......but I can't stand when they do this bit where you can't tell wtph is going on. I don't care or buy the "but it adds realism" angle. I can't enjoy action I can't even see.

 

The whole Aussie love story bit was also kinda weak IMO. Women were so hot in those days though. When women was women vs tacky/trashy/pseudo-men

[Rovers]

Just finished both books, by Lechie and then Sledge. There was obviously some additional research done by the producers, as neither book had any sort of epilogue about the different charachter's post war stories.

 

The two biggest discrepencies were:

 

Lechi's GF in Australia was nothing like the one in the series. She was actaullay married to a man not in Australia at the time. Lechie didn't even know she was married until she had to leave the country to be with her husband. She returned just before he shipped out, and they spent the night in a park.

 

The other thing was Gunny Sgt Haney. He did not crack, not close. Peleliu was his third landing campaign of WW2. He was at Guadalcanal and Gloushter (sp) before Peleliu. Marines who completed their third campaign were always rotated back for jobs in the states. He was over 50 years old at the time, and on his second day at Peleliu when he simply admitted he could not bear up anymore to the heat and the battles. Being a WW1 vet, and a volunteer, as well as being a non regular marine, it was his choice as to whether or not to keep fighting. Saddest thing about Gunny Haney is that no one seems to know what became of him after the war and his return to the states. I am sure he would be surprised to learn of his present day fame, and the respect he has from many grateful Americans. Sledge said of Haney "He was not born of woman, he was issued to the marines by God."

 

There were many other things... Sledge says it wasn't he who slid into a water filled foxhole amid decaying bodies and maggots, but rather a friend of his. He also said that this marine went into that hole head first. A few guys helped scrape the maggots and decaying slime off his uniform... but he had to keep going wearing those same clothes apparently.

 

Both books are good reads. Lechie is more biased and slanted, especially how he judged officers, while I found Sledge's book a more enjoyable read and more objective. Sledge never held that old woman in his arms as she died either. She had asked him to kill her, and he went for a medic instead. On his return, another marine had just shot her in the head. The guy was actually bragging about it. Both Sledge and the medic nearly beat the crap out of him.

 

In both books, I am surprised there were no stories of officers getting fragged. I suppose if it happened, neither would admit it. There certainly were a couple who might have deserved it.

 

One more item... when they were stuck in the mud at Okinawa, and that one soldier lost it, ran up the ridge and started shooting and screaming wildly? He was dragged down by a Sgt and sent home, and no marine died trying to save him when he cracked like that. Hollywood fluff. There was an accurate account of a marine who was killed when he started screaming at night by another marine. They first tried slapping, punching and several shots of morphine to quiet him from giving away their position all to no avail. Then they hit him with a shovel, and it was a fatal blow.

 

I recommend both books. I regret having ignored the opportunity to visit more sites in Okinawa when I was stationed there. For the most part, the Okinowans try to forget about the war, there are no preserved battle fields and few monuments, but remain in a running battle with Japan over the role the Japanese had in all the civilian deaths and suicides that occurred. The Japanese prefer to pretend none of that ever happened. The Okinawans want it in their history books. The Japanese do not.

Edited December 11, 2010 by Rovers

[Gopher]

When this series came out on HBO (which is not a part of our TV package at the moment), I told myself I would just wait for it to come out on disc, and then buy it (which is what I did for Band of Brothers a few years ago). So, my wife and I are in Costco last night, and I notice that they're selling the complete box set, including a "picture book," with an instant $10 rebate included. DVD set for only $39.99, and just $10 more for the Blueray version. Done deal. I grabbed one of the Blueray box sets, threw it in the cart, and informed my wife that she doesn't need to do any Christmas shopping for me this year. Can't think of a better way to spend $50.

 

Now, the only question is how do I go about watching this... I could watch it one episode at a time, over the next week or two, in between working and helping with our ten-week-old. But, knowing how intensely good BoB was, part of me wants to just wait and take a day off from work, stay home (by myself), and just watch the entire series in a day. The problem is that there is no way I'll be able to do that until probably January/February, at the earliest, and I just don't know if I can stand the waiting any longer.

[Rovers]

When this series came out on HBO (which is not a part of our TV package at the moment), I told myself I would just wait for it to come out on disc, and then buy it (which is what I did for Band of Brothers a few years ago). So, my wife and I are in Costco last night, and I notice that they're selling the complete box set, including a "picture book," with an instant $10 rebate included. DVD set for only $39.99, and just $10 more for the Blueray version. Done deal. I grabbed one of the Blueray box sets, threw it in the cart, and informed my wife that she doesn't need to do any Christmas shopping for me this year. Can't think of a better way to spend $50.

 

Now, the only question is how do I go about watching this... I could watch it one episode at a time, over the next week or two, in between working and helping with our ten-week-old. But, knowing how intensely good BoB was, part of me wants to just wait and take a day off from work, stay home (by myself), and just watch the entire series in a day. The problem is that there is no way I'll be able to do that until probably January/February, at the earliest, and I just don't know if I can stand the waiting any longer.

 

I would suggest one episode at a time, but watch each one twice before going to the next one. That was basically what I did with each episode. There are many things you can miss on the first viewing.

 

Hanks and Spielberg did take some "Hollywood liberties" along the way, but I think rather than just retelling each of the three sodlier's stories, they sometime changed and combined events to present what it was like, rather than remaining 100% true to the accounts in the book.

 

An interesting tidbit... Basilone was put in for a second medal of honor for his actions on Iwo Jima, but they were reluctant to give any man the nation's highest award for valor twice. By all accounts, he was deserving of a second, but they downgraded it instead.

[kpholmes]

Just finished watching Band of Brothers for the first time, in glorious 1080p.

 

Lived up to all of they hype I've been hearing over the years, and can't wait to start watching The Pacific.

 

[Rovers]

One more thing that was over played... neither Lechie or Sledge had as much moral conflict in killing, based on their own writings as it was portrayed in the series. They hated the Japs. It was more after the war they began to look at the enemey as human beings. More than feeling comapassion for the Japanese, they hated the politicians who they blamed for being at war in the first place. It was the senslessness of all the killing that got to them. Learning that they were considered expendable in the execution of the war and the battles. That is when soldiers and marines just fight for the man next to them. There is no more "cause" to fight for, other than for each other.

 

Our history books make it out to be all because of Pearl Harbor, but in the 20 years leading up to the war with Japan, the US wasn't some innocent victim as our history books like to portray. We were just as involved in land grabbing as the Japanese, Chinese, Russia and Australia were. These countries even had summit meetings to try to agree on how to carve up SE asia (including the Koreas) and the Pacific. When Japan felt they got the short end of the stick, they decided to take what they wanted, in fact, what they as a resource poor country felt they had to have.

 

The Germans and Japanese made it easier to justify the war because of their brutality and their propensity to committ genocide without hesitation. Germany because of Hitler was doomed, and was going to go to war.... but the war in the Pacific could have been avoided.

[Chargerz]

can't wait to start watching The Pacific.

 

I'm hoping to get the DVD set for Christmas!!

[tazinib1]

Just finished watching Band of Brothers for the first time, in glorious 1080p.

 

Lived up to all of they hype I've been hearing over the years, and can't wait to start watching The Pacific.

 

 

Welcome to the brotherhood.