REVIEW: HBO's 'The Pacific' Miniseries Engenders Debate, Draws Comparisons With 'Band Of Brothers'
By Mark Robichaux Multichannel News 3/8/2010 7:53:00 AM http://www.multichannel.com/article/450018-REVIEW_HBO_s_The_Pacific_.php In his voyage to the Pacific after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Eugene B. Sledge wonders: “Would I do my duty or be a coward? Could I kill?" HBO’s upcoming 10-part miniseries The Pacific answers that question, revealing the toll on this shy teenage son of an Alabama doctor as he became a hardened fighter of the 1st Marine Division, 3rd battallion, 5th Marines. Viewers won’t be disappointed. HBO miniseries The Pacific"HBO miniseries The Pacific"Executive-produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, the series tracks the experiences of three true-life Marines — Robert Leckie, John Basilone and Sledge. Scenes in the series have been culled from two books that anyone remotely interested in World War II will find fascinating: Helmet for My Pillow, by Leckie, and With the Old Breed, by Sledge. Fans of HBO’s highly successful Band of Brothers will make comparisons, and there will be endless debate over which is better. The opening score of strings and horns, combined with fierce charcoal sketching, is elegantly and artfully rendered. The acting, largely by unknowns, is exceptional, and the powerful battle scenes a la Saving Private Ryan will no doubt leave home-theater owners crouching white-knuckled in their recliners. Unlike Band, which followed a single group of Army paratroopers in Europe throughout training and combat, in Pacific, we’re following three disparate characters whose narratives intersect tangentially. For me, it took longer to build up sympathy. It’s when the series zeros in on Sledge’s experience that it really picks up. When young Sledge declares he’s enlisting, his father tries to explain his objection with his own experience as a doctor during the first World War: “The worst thing wasn’t they had their flesh torn out, it was they had their souls torn out. I don’t want to look in your eyes one day and see no spark, no love, no life.” Another big difference to Band, which follows the campaign in Europe, is the absolutely hellish conditions on the Pacific islands. There, the outnumbered Marines fight some of the fiercest, bloodiest battles of the war, including Guadalcanal, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and on the tiny speck of coral known as Peleliu. Warning: high body count, mostly Japanese. But there was a more pervasive enemy, too. As Leckie says during another downpour, ”Now our enemy is the jungle itself. ” Uniforms and boots literally rot from their bodies. And flies, dysentery, malaria, rats and crabs made conditions unbearable for the Marines in the Pacific, especially as mortar shells rained downed and bullets whizzed overhead. In more scenes than not, viewers can’t help feel profound gratitude for the deaths of freedom’s defenders on tiny islands a world away. The Pacific premieres Sunday March 14 at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) on HBO. -- ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 Mail: antunes at uh dot edu _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
