View Full Version : The Pacific - HBO Miniseries (Premieres March 14)
Melanie
06-29-2009, 12:49 PM
FINALLY a teaser trailer is available on the official HBO site.
The Pacific (http://www.hbo.com/events/pacific/video.html)
Originally to be shown sometime in 2009, the official site is now saying only 2010. I've read a few different places that it will be March.
Band of Brothers is one of my favorite shows of any kind. Incredible television! This one being about the Marines in the Pacific is an added bonus to me. Can't wait!
Strmchsr
06-29-2009, 03:53 PM
Thanks for the link, Mel. I love Band of Brothers, so I'm really excited about the Pacific Theater getting its due attention as well.
gueli
07-03-2009, 02:28 AM
:ditto:
this sounds like it could be great.
:thumbsup:
I am really, really looking forward to watching this!
PirateLover
07-05-2009, 02:53 PM
:thumbsup: Can't wait!
barnaby
07-05-2009, 03:25 PM
Big WWII and Band of Brothers fan here too.
Can't wait for The Pacific.
barnaby
07-13-2009, 09:21 PM
On a sad side note:
Darrell "Shifty" Powers of Band of Brothers fame passed away this past June. :(
Melanie
07-13-2009, 09:24 PM
On a sad side note:
Darrell "Shifty" Powers of Band of Brothers fame passed away this past June. :(
We're losing the Greatest Generation way too swiftly. :(
barnaby
07-13-2009, 09:45 PM
We're losing the Greatest Generation way too swiftly. :(
Yes we are. In my local paper, there are 2-3 every day. :(
Just a story from last week I want to share. I posted this on a fishing website I frequent, hence the mention of "The Barn".
I was working Wildwood Crest today and got to chat with an 83 year old gentlemen. He asked me if the "B" hat I had on was a Boston Braves hat. I told it was a Red Sox hat but was old and faded a little.
So we got to talking. He told me in 1947 he went to spring training with the Boston Braves. At the time, they had pitchers Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain. He never made it to the bigs though. We talked some old time baseball. I love to hear about the old players.
In talking about the spring training, he said in '47 he just got back from the service. I figured WWII, so I asked what branch. He told me he served in the 8th Marine as a P-47 mechanic in Okinawa. I thanked him for his service and told him I lived Millville where we have the P-47 Museum. He had been there to visit and see the museum. He shared some stories with me, one I found pretty interesting. He said he was more concerned about the poisonous snakes there than about the Japanese snipers. The Army Air Corps parachuted in 20,000 mongoose to take care of the snakes.
He told me his wife had just passed away this past March and he was having a hard time. I was more than happy to chat with him.
I doubt if Mr. Cavanagh gets on the Barn, but I just wanted to thank him for chatting with me. I have such a great respect for the people of his generation. It made my day.
Melanie
07-14-2009, 07:26 AM
Yes we are. In my local paper, there are 2-3 every day. :(
Just a story from last week I want to share. I posted this on a fishing website I frequent, hence the mention of "The Barn".
I was working Wildwood Crest today and got to chat with an 83 year old gentlemen. He asked me if the "B" hat I had on was a Boston Braves hat. I told it was a Red Sox hat but was old and faded a little.
So we got to talking. He told me in 1947 he went to spring training with the Boston Braves. At the time, they had pitchers Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain. He never made it to the bigs though. We talked some old time baseball. I love to hear about the old players.
In talking about the spring training, he said in '47 he just got back from the service. I figured WWII, so I asked what branch. He told me he served in the 8th Marine as a P-47 mechanic in Okinawa. I thanked him for his service and told him I lived Millville where we have the P-47 Museum. He had been there to visit and see the museum. He shared some stories with me, one I found pretty interesting. He said he was more concerned about the poisonous snakes there than about the Japanese snipers. The Army Air Corps parachuted in 20,000 mongoose to take care of the snakes.
He told me his wife had just passed away this past March and he was having a hard time. I was more than happy to chat with him.
I doubt if Mr. Cavanagh gets on the Barn, but I just wanted to thank him for chatting with me. I have such a great respect for the people of his generation. It made my day.
Great story!!! If you see him again, tell him those poisonous snakes (habus) are still there on Oki. ;)
Melanie
11-03-2009, 08:53 PM
Just saw a pretty extensive preview on HBO for this, and it's saying it will air in March. I'm so excited!!!! :yay:
NotaGeek
11-03-2009, 11:37 PM
I am SO excited Mel!
sportsguy2315
11-04-2009, 12:21 AM
I am SO excited Mel!
I agree with Michael on this one; I caught on with HBO's mini-series with "John Adams" and I'm so excited that they're finally covering the Pacific Theater now, but hopefully if Pearl Harbor is included they'll do a better job than a certain film did ;) . Seriously though, having been to Pearl Harbor and staring down at the wreckage of the Arizona is one of those moments that will never leave me and I'm so psyched to see this roll out in March (Or for non-HBO subscribers like me, sometime in the summer on DVD).
ibrowse17
11-04-2009, 09:44 PM
Very much looking forward to this:thumbsup:
diz_girl
11-05-2009, 10:07 AM
Another Band of Brothers fan here. I'd have to say that it was probalbly the best show that I've ever seen on TV.
I look forward to watching The Pacific. It has most of the same production team (Spielberg/Hanks) and some of the same writers. It will obviously draw many comparisons to Band of Brothers, which will be hard to top, but if The Pacific comes close, then it will definitely be worthy of watching.
barnaby
11-10-2009, 06:21 PM
I agree with Michael on this one; I caught on with HBO's mini-series with "John Adams" and I'm so excited that they're finally covering the Pacific Theater now, but hopefully if Pearl Harbor is included they'll do a better job than a certain film did ;) . Seriously though, having been to Pearl Harbor and staring down at the wreckage of the Arizona is one of those moments that will never leave me and I'm so psyched to see this roll out in March (Or for non-HBO subscribers like me, sometime in the summer on DVD).
From what I have read, it is going to be about the 1st Marine Division including battles in Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. It is based on a couple books - With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa and Helmet for My Pillow
Melanie
01-07-2010, 07:47 AM
Ahhhhh....I'm going crazy waiting for this!
Premiere is Sunday, March 14, 8pm (EST). HBO is now re-airing Band of Brothers in that timeslot in prep for The Pacific.
barnaby
01-08-2010, 12:23 PM
I got With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge for Christmas. Going to read it before watching the mini-series. Like to get the other book too.
Melanie
03-14-2010, 07:37 PM
Yay - tonight!!!! :thumbsup:
Semper Fi, do or die
Hold 'em high at Eighth and I :flag:
Mousefever
03-14-2010, 08:34 PM
I'm a little jealous since I don't have HBO! I already told my husband that I want The Pacific series for Christmas. I love watching Band of Brothers and I can't wait for the companion series!
Amy
Can't wait to start watching this tonight! Looks like it's going to be a good one:thumbsup:
MNNHFLTX
03-15-2010, 09:56 AM
We don't have HBO either, so will have to wait for it to come out on DVD. For those who watched, I'm curious to know what you thought of it.
I DVR'd it, but haven't watched yet. I'll be curious to see how it is. I've heard mixed reviews. There have been a few complaints that it seems sort of revisionist and a little political in a PC sense.
I hope that's not the case.
PirateLover
03-16-2010, 04:44 PM
It's hard to tell so early. The first episode was good, but in my opinion not as good as the first episode of Band of Brothers. The previews look exciting/intense so we shall see.
Melanie
03-16-2010, 06:44 PM
I so wish it would have been two hours so as to develop the characters a bit more. We barely saw Basilone, and I was very distracted by the fact I thought the actor playing Leckie totally reminded me of Orlando Bloom.
diz_girl
03-17-2010, 01:45 PM
I saw it and while it was good, it wasn't as good as Band of Brothers. As Melanears stated, it was only an hour long, which impeded character development. And they were already on Guadalcanal at just 1/2 hour in. Granted, the war in the Pacific was longer than the one in Europe, but the filmmakers really needed an entire episode to get us familiar with the main characters, Robert Leckie, John Basilone and Eugene Sledge.
From what I understand, they're following three main characters, Leckie, Basilone and Sledge, who aren't necessarily at the same place at the same time, as Sledge is still at home at the end of the first episode. So it will probably seem more scattered than Band of Brothers, since they aren't following one specific company throughout the war, but three individuals.
Also, two excellent films about the war in the Pacific came out a couple of years ago (Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima) and The Pacific will be compared to those too. I think that Band of Brothers was compared to Saving Private Ryan, but Band of Brothers was better in that case.
One side note, the theme music isn't as moving as that of Band of Brothers.
Melanie
03-23-2010, 08:43 PM
Wow, this episode really emphasized what different wars our men were fighting the Pacific and Europe. Not only were the men in the Pacific fighting a much different enemy, they were also enduring a totally different environment/climate.
Guadalcanal was brutal. But then war is hell, no matter what. Pretty amazing what Basilone did there. I can't even imagine having that courage. Next week is sure to have folks up in arms, but I think it's nice to see how the war affected the homefront. If I had even one complaint about BoB, it was that, but I really didn't mind at all in the long run. :)
Okay so I'm caught up now ...
I pretty much agree with what everyone has said here. It's good, but not as good as BoB as of yet.
There are a couple reasons for that in my mind. #1 (for me) I'm just not as familiar with the story of these guys as I was with the Easy Company story so it's tougher for me to jump right in and connect. #2 I don't feel like they really spent any time developing the story of the soliders like they did with BoB. I mean you had the whole first part of BoB that takes place at Toccoa and you really get to see how things develop with Winters and Sobel and all that and how his NCO's rallied around him ... it really built up the back story around the men before it got to the actual war.
But anyway, the visuals were pretty stunning and obviously the story is incredibly compelling so I'm going to be a loyal viewer for sure. Also, I saw no evidence of any revisionist history or PC-ifying of the story. Not sure where people got that from.
barnaby
03-27-2010, 10:35 AM
I am glad to see the the series is being historically accurate with the small things like the Marines having the 03 Springfields and using the mitts for the M1917 machine guns.
Only negative so far about the series, and I hate to compare it to BoB, but there is "quicker" character development. But I guess you have to look it without BoB in mind and realize The Pacific is its own separate series.
PirateLover
03-27-2010, 07:41 PM
My grandfather was in the Navy during WWII and spent time at some point on both Guadalcanal and Okinawa. I know he was definitely away in 1943 because that's when his first kid (my Uncle) was born and he wasn't there for it. I'm pretty sure he didn't come back until 1945 at the earliest because I remember a story about my Uncle being about two and asking my grandmom who the strange man was.
From what I've been told he was not on either island during major land battles, but did witness some aerial battles, and experienced some bombing on one of the islands though I forget which one. Grandpop never really shared as much of that stuff with me, though I plan to get over there soon to get it down and recorded before it's too late (We missed the chance to record the stories of my maternal grandfather who served one war-time and one peace-time term in the US Army that took him all across the globe. Luckily we do remember some stories and have lots of pictures since he was an amateur photographer).
Anyway the one thing my pop always talks about is how stinkin' hot and miserable it was there. It sounds gross, but he tells a hilarious tale about the oversized cook dripping sweat into their soup (Bug Juice they called it), everything was slop and you just had to get used to it. He did say how many of the men's bowels just got torn up sometimes (as we saw in the last episode) and how you couldn't afford to be embarrassed about anything.
There's a few other good stories but I'd like to clarify them with him first before I share. (One is a humorous tale that includes an unfortunate end for a Koala :( )
PirateLover
03-27-2010, 07:42 PM
Oh, an additional thing. I agree that the lack of character development in the beginning is why I think I was not enjoying it as much as BoB. However I just had time to watch all the extras on HBO on demand and it was great in helping me understand who these men were and the sequencing of the series.
Melanie
05-09-2010, 10:25 PM
You know, I've really struggled with this series, wanting to love it like I loved BoB, knowing it was coming from the same source, and having a personal attachment to the story. I'm obviously a little slow ;) being that I'm married to a Marine, hear about these battles often (as they are such a great source of pride to the Corps) and have even lived in one of these locations they fought in (and believe me, there is still a lot of resentment), but I finally think I understand why we get so many tellings of the war in Europe, and not the Pacific. There is no way to romantisize what happened in the the Pacific. No way. And romantisizing is what people want, myself included.
The weather, the locations, the environment and the mentality of the enemy make this story in the Pacific hard to watch. But boy, have I gained such a deeper appreciation. After 14 Marine Corps Balls, I doubt I'll be sitting through the upcoming one with dry eyes.
Ugh, I totally agree Mel. The war in the Pacific was just a brutal, brutal campaign. The guys in the ETO had frigid weather to worry about sure, but for the most part (outside of the hedgerows) the terrain they fought in was reasonable. But even more important, their enemy was (for the most part) reasonable.
The horrid conditions in the PTO as far as the heat, humidity, disease, parasites combined with the sheer brutality and stout resolve of the opposition just made it a really, really ugly war. There's just no way to glamorize tens of thousands of guys dying to take a tiny little island that turned out to be insignificant at the end of it all.
That being said, I've never known that much about the PTO in terms of specifics like I have the ETO, so I'm really enjoying The Pacific in spite of all that. It's fascinating.
NJDad
05-11-2010, 06:31 AM
Yup. There's no liberation of Paris to lift your spirits up. And there's no marching into the capital to end it either.
diz_girl
05-11-2010, 11:42 AM
The series is increasingly difficult to watch with each episode, so much so that I just can't imagine having to live through it or any war. It was just horrible. How can you fight against an enemy who has no problem strapping a bomb to a woman carrying her baby?
As far as romanticizing war, adding to what Mel said, I think that we're prone to it here in the U.S. because we haven't had a war fought in our country (territories excluded) for more than a century, so we haven't seen it directly affect our lives. It always happens somewhere else and we might see it in the news, so we are spared the true horror of it. Of course, there are Americans who have served in wars overseas, but they are the minority of our population, so the romanticization of war frequently prevails. The Pacific is doing an excellent job of doing showing us the horror, which makes it so difficult to watch.
I know that BoB was eventually shown on basic cable, with only a little editing. But I can't see how it can be done with The Pacific. It is just too consistently gruesome. Yes, the beginning of Saving Private Ryan was shown in its entirety on network TV, but that was a small fraction of the movie, so they decided to show it. With The Pacific, the gruesome parts are the majority of it.
I don't know if snafu was based on a real person, but the snafu-Sledge friendship is interesting to watch. As Sledge is losing his humanity, snafu is trying to help him keep it, knowing that he may have lost his own humanity somewhere along the way. I knew that Sledge made it home, but it's nice to see that snafu made it through too.
Note to the moderators - I hope that I could write snafu in a post. I did a preview and it made it through, but just PM me if that word is off-limits.
How can you fight against an enemy who has no problem strapping a bomb to a woman carrying her baby?I don't know, but we're still trying to figure it out today. Fanatacism is difficult to combat through any reasonable means. Muslim fundamentalist terrorists bear a striking resemblance to the Japanese in WWII.
As far as romanticizing war, adding to what Mel said, I think that we're prone to it here in the U.S. because we haven't had a war fought in our country (territories excluded) for more than a century, so we haven't seen it directly affect our lives.I definitely agree with you there.
Note to the moderators - I hope that I could write snafu in a post. I did a preview and it made it through, but just PM me if that word is off-limits.I think that term has gone mainstream to the point that it's fine.
barnaby
05-16-2010, 02:54 PM
I don't know if snafu was based on a real person, but the snafu-Sledge friendship is interesting to watch.
Corporal Shelton was a real person.
Melanie
05-16-2010, 06:48 PM
I can't wait for tonight. Got my tissues ready!
diz_girl
05-17-2010, 10:00 AM
Corporal Shelton was a real person.
Thanks. I saw that at the end of last night's episode. I wrote what I did because sometimes writers combine characters to help the story along, even when working with factual, historical data.
diz_girl
05-17-2010, 10:01 AM
I can't wait for tonight. Got my tissues ready!
I needed them too. For just one scene though, when Sledge breaks down while hunting with his father.
barnaby
05-17-2010, 12:57 PM
Thanks. I saw that at the end of last night's episode. I wrote what I did because sometimes writers combine characters to help the story along, even when working with factual, historical data.
I know what you mean. I know they did it for Black Hawk Down, they combined/renamed characters.
I think for the most part that in Hanks and Speilberg's two WWII series, they keep the charcters true to life as far as names, ranks, etc. However, they do take some literary license in the script to help make a better film and story. I know they did with BoB. I haven't read enough about the Pacific to know if they did in the latest series.
Great final episode last night. I thought it tied everything up well. The part with Sledge hunting was heartbreaking. :(
Hammer
05-17-2010, 01:24 PM
Haven't posted in this thread until now...
Thought the finale summed up everything well. I had 2 "tear up" moments: The scene with Sledge and his Dad and when Basilone's widow went to visit his family, though I was also sad when I saw at the end that she never married again.
Melanie
05-17-2010, 09:06 PM
Yeah, both of those moments were tears for me too Christine, along with Snafu not waking up Sledge at his trainstop to say goodbye. And then seeing he didn't speak to his fellow Marines until Sledge's book was published - wow, heartbreaking.
Great ending. In retrospect, I loved this series.
Oh and I loved Leckie pointing out he was a Marine as opposed to a 'soldier'. HUGE pet peeve of mine!!!
barnaby
05-18-2010, 12:25 PM
Great ending. In retrospect, I loved this series.
At first before seeing the whole series, I was a little disappointed. I thought it was a bit disjointed.
But as it went on, and I look now at the series as whole, I thought it was well done. I have an even greater respect for those guys and went through that war. And that saying alot because I had a immense respect of the WWII vets, even before seeing the Bob and Pacific series.
I haven't seen the finale yet, but I just wanted to chime in and say that I thought this series was amazing. It started off a little rough for me, but looking back I think that was a result of my lack of familiarity with the PTO. As I've mentioned previously, I was quite familiar with the Easy Company story so I was able to jump right into BoB.
I can't say enough about how great I thought The Pacific was. It really opened my eyes to just how brutal and awful the fighting in the PTO was. I mean, I knew it was bad but this ... wow. Just ... wow.
Watching this series will definitely lead me to start reading whatever I can get my hands on about these guys. Fascinating stuff!
wdwfansince75
05-18-2010, 02:22 PM
Ian, may I suggest "Follow Me: The Story of the the Second Marine Division in World War Two", and "With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa". Also, anything by Robert Leckie, especially "Strong Men Armed: The United States Marines against Japan". I understand that his "Helmet for My Pillow" was at least part of the basis for the series.
I consider his "Wars of America" the most accurate history of American armed forces from colonial days to Desert Storm. He was a Philly guy...Served in the 1st Marine Division...Earned (the hard way) a Purple Heart.
Great ... thanks for the recommendations! I'll check those out.
SurferStitch
05-18-2010, 04:07 PM
It was an incredible series. The battle scenes were so real.... effects, emotions, acting....they really nailed the horrendous conditions that the men had to endure.
The scene with Sledge and his father hunting was probably the most emotional scene in the entire series. It was hard to hold back the tears during that one.
Very, very well done.
I finally managed to find time to watch the finale yesterday and it was as good as everyone said it was. Even though I knew that moment with Sledge and his Father was coming, it was still pretty powerful.
I managed to hold it together until the final credits. When they gave the rundown on what happened to everybody and then you got to find out who the gentlemen from the opening monologues were for some reason that just got to me ... awesome series. Awesome.
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