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The Pacific -(Warning: Spoilers Inside)

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  • The Pacific -(Warning: Spoilers Inside)

    Ok, so I'm watching this new miniseries "The Pacific".

    I've enjoyed "The Band of Brothers" immensley so I thought I'd give this a shot.

    "Dissapointing" does not even begin to cover what I'm feeling.

    I was always interested in our campaign in the pacific (more so than the european campaign) and I was hoping to learn something but all we got was a "Band of Brothers" in the Pacific.

    The fact that the Navy chickened out (maybe too harsh a word) and left the Marines hanging on the 'Canal was ommitted and all we got was "the Navy was sunk" dialogue between a couple of Marines. Henderson field was mentioned numerous times but we never even got to see it. It would have been nice to actually see the damn airfield.

    The usual "the enemy has loved ones too" scenes were done to death in the first episode.

    And this pisses me off no end these days. In every war movie we see these days (not just this mini series), the same theme always seems to be "the enemy is human also and we did terrible things" schtick. I've seen it in "The Sand of Iwo Jima" and I'm seeing it in spades in this miniseries as well.

    I know our soldiers did some terrible things but it seems these days, the enemy is portrayed as some local hick that got caught up in the winds of war and our soldiers were just mean.

    In fact, the only things I really enjoy about this series is the five minute montage in the beginning where real vets describe their experiences and the awesome opening credits.

    I'm hoping this series picks up but I'm seriously doubting it.

    What do you guys think?
    Last edited by YellowFever; 08 Apr 10,, 09:45.

  • #2
    Agreed.BoB was a marvel.This one had a full episode of Marines f...ing and drinking,which is a cheap attempt to cheat me of my money and waste my time as a spectator.
    The clone never beats the original and that's the case here.
    Those who know don't speak
    He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

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    • #3
      I'll get to see it next week.
      sigpic

      Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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      • #4
        Originally posted by YellowFever View Post
        The fact that the Navy chickened out (maybe too harsh a word) and left the Marines hanging on the 'Canal was ommitted and all we got was "the Navy was sunk" dialogue between a couple of Marines. Henderson field was mentioned numerous times but we never even got to see it. It would have been nice to actually see the damn airfield.
        Well, it was based on the account of several people who participated... That particular episode was based on the account of Robert Leckie, who was not deployed at Henderson field during the battle itself.

        Originally posted by YellowFever View Post
        I know our soldiers did some terrible things but it seems these days, the enemy is portrayed as some local hick that got caught up in the winds of war and our soldiers were just mean.
        What? They showed a wounded guy blowing up medics as they are trying to aid him.
        In Iran people belive pepsi stands for pay each penny save israel. -urmomma158
        The Russian Navy is still a threat, but only to those unlucky enough to be Russian sailors.-highsea

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        • #5
          In general I agree with what seems to be the consensus here so far. While I wouldn't say The Pacific has been bad, some of the magic that was in Band of Brothers is just missing from it. Hard to put my finger on what the reason is.

          Originally posted by Mihais View Post
          Agreed.BoB was a marvel.This one had a full episode of Marines f...ing and drinking,which is a cheap attempt to cheat me of my money and waste my time as a spectator.
          The first episode of Band of Brothers ("Currahee") was almost entirely boot camp. A later episode ("Why We Fight") didn't really have any action scenes, that I can remember.

          Incidentally, I also thought those two were the best episodes of the series, and I thought the third episode of The Pacific (the one you refer to) was the best of the ones they've aired so far. Not every episode has to be a non-stop gun battle, and I think that episode did the most to build characters and tell a story. YMMV of course.
          "Nature abhors a moron." - H.L. Mencken

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          • #6
            BoB somehow seemed more focused and put together to me, they should have put in an extended boot camp episode in the beginning rather than the melbourne episode. Also as it keeps shifting every episode instead of showing the same guys always its tough to follow whats going on.

            From a TV action point of view BoB was definitely more intense.
            Last edited by bolo121; 08 Apr 10,, 11:51.
            For Gallifrey! For Victory! For the end of time itself!!

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            • #7
              I dunno, I'm liking it so far. BoB was great, but I'm judging this one on it's own merits, not as a comparison.

              I'm also comparing it a lot to Leon Uris' Battle Cry, in that aspect it's slightly lacking
              Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

              Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

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              • #8
                the one poblem I have is the constant jumping from one group to another in each episode. While in BoB you followed the same unit from boot camp over normandy to the end of war, here you now have three different ones which makes it rather hard to get atteched in the same way one did in BoB.

                About Humanising the enemy "too much"..bob did pretty much the exact same just for example the Generals speech at the end of the show:



                Or the death of the one young German soldier which caused one officer not to fire his weapon another time for the rest of the war.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Genosaurer View Post
                  In general I agree with what seems to be the consensus here so far. While I wouldn't say The Pacific has been bad, some of the magic that was in Band of Brothers is just missing from it. Hard to put my finger on what the reason is.



                  The first episode of Band of Brothers ("Currahee") was almost entirely boot camp. A later episode ("Why We Fight") didn't really have any action scenes, that I can remember.

                  Incidentally, I also thought those two were the best episodes of the series, and I thought the third episode of The Pacific (the one you refer to) was the best of the ones they've aired so far. Not every episode has to be a non-stop gun battle, and I think that episode did the most to build characters and tell a story. YMMV of course.
                  Yep,but those episodes from BoB were,well,about the band of brothers.How they start as zeroes,train to be heroes and why the whole bunch is brought together in the first place(last episode that shows that).The main character is the unit,not some individual.IMO,of course.Not an movie expert.
                  Those who know don't speak
                  He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. Luke 22:36

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Stan187 View Post
                    What? They showed a wounded guy blowing up medics as they are trying to aid him.
                    Actually I was talking more about the sadistic acts committed by the marines where they use an unarmed Japanese soldier as target practice by shooting the arms, legs, etc all the while laughing.

                    Also the part where a marine strangles a wounded japanese soldier to death while looking right into his eyes.

                    I'm sure these acts of horror are mild compared to what goes on in real wars..
                    ...but why is it that we only see the marines commit these acts and not the enemy?

                    Oh well.....

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by YellowFever View Post
                      Also the part where a marine strangles a wounded japanese soldier to death while looking right into his eyes.
                      Were is the sadistic part ?
                      J'ai en marre.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by YellowFever View Post
                        Actually I was talking more about the sadistic acts committed by the marines where they use an unarmed Japanese soldier as target practice by shooting the arms, legs, etc all the while laughing.

                        Also the part where a marine strangles a wounded japanese soldier to death while looking right into his eyes.

                        I'm sure these acts of horror are mild compared to what goes on in real wars..
                        ...but why is it that we only see the marines commit these acts and not the enemy?

                        Oh well.....
                        Could it be because the series is based in the first person perspective of Americans? Presumably few who were not taken prisoner actually saw Japanese atrocities of the type you describe being committed - just the aftermath. I'm betting that you'll get to see enough aftermath to satisfy you as the series goes on. In fact, later on there is apparently a bit of 'poetic license' taken with an event from one of the books where a marine shoots & kills a wounded woman. it is 'cleaned up' to have her dying in the arms of one of the Marines instead. Political correctness?

                        Just curious, did we actually see Germans committing atrocities in BoB? Been a while since I've seen it, but I don't recall anything more than aftermath.
                        sigpic

                        Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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                        • #13
                          The Landsberg KZ was shown in rather big detail, besides that episode I can't really think of another example.

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                          • #14
                            *Many of your museum ships right now are doing a part with HBO on The Pacific and are sending live recorded messages that you record on location to your troops. Dont forget to send a message of thanks if you attend one of these locations.:)
                            Last edited by Dreadnought; 09 Apr 10,, 13:30.
                            Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by YellowFever View Post
                              Actually I was talking more about the sadistic acts committed by the marines where they use an unarmed Japanese soldier as target practice by shooting the arms, legs, etc all the while laughing.

                              Also the part where a marine strangles a wounded japanese soldier to death while looking right into his eyes.

                              I'm sure these acts of horror are mild compared to what goes on in real wars..
                              ...but why is it that we only see the marines commit these acts and not the enemy?

                              Oh well.....
                              Think about it, it is a one hour episode in which they try to boil down a campaign of significant length, right? So what we see is narrative compression. All of the elements that are essential learning by the character, these things took place with the real people but in time frames unsuitable for television.

                              So what do we have? Marines discover mutilated Marines in the forest-->showing brutal enemy. Then they fight a battle and find the pack with Japanese soldier's belongings that has letters/pictures-->humanizing the enemy. Then Japanese wounded blows up two medics with a grenade-->brutal enemy. Marines toy with Japanese soldier-->shows their reaction to the brutal enemy, and humanizes and acknowledges Leckie as the thinker/philosopher type like he was shown to be on the ship.

                              In other words, there is a lot of story-telling wrapped up in a very short amount of time. I haven't read the books, so I don't know if it is all 100% percent out of there. But it certainly does the job well on its own. That character development in particular is vital, since we need strong characters in order to follow a series that is not about one particular company.

                              Furthermore, there is hints to the cultural confusion. The Marines laugh as they see the Japanese soldier begging for death.. it does not make sense to them because they did not know much of Bushido at the time, and it shows their experience with it first hand. The concept of honorable death and the Japanese interpretation of it was completely foreign. All of that gets across in a few incidents with the span of 10 minutes. To me, that seems like great television. Probably my favorite 10 minutes in the whole series so far.
                              In Iran people belive pepsi stands for pay each penny save israel. -urmomma158
                              The Russian Navy is still a threat, but only to those unlucky enough to be Russian sailors.-highsea

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