Customer Reviews

The Pacific [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(356)
4 star:		(122)
3 star:		(60)
2 star:		(42)
1 star:		(57)

 

 

This program follows 3 Marine heroes, their comrades and their sacrifice against a fearless enemy. You will feel every emotion as you watch this epic series. There are several scenes that will never leave your mind. This is an accurate depiction of combat in the Pacific theatre. Its very inhumane at times and not always easy to watch. Having said that-its something everyone should see, regardless of your interest in World War 2. The level of detail and battle sequences are amazing. The amphibious landings and the hell thats thrown at these guys is unthinkable. The fact that the Pacific war isn't covered enough, makes this educational for some and intriguing to everyone. Thanks to Clint Eastwoods great movies(Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags Of Our Fathers) and Speilberg/Hanks -The Pacific, we are starting to get some great coverage in this area. Of more importance, the men who gave so much are getting the recognition they deserve.

I have read some of the other reviews here and I can't understand the anti- reviews. This is not Band Of Brothers Part 2, its not trying to be that series. This series is much more personal. We get to see how bad the fighting was and how it changes these men. This series focuses on 3 marines, instead of a platoon of guys and their leaders. Band Of Brothers is awesome, everyone knows that. BOB was also 8 years ago and its had its day in the sun. We all have it on dvd and will enjoy it the rest of our lives. I think some people have let the past 8 years of BOB marinate in their minds. Instead of coming into this series with an open mind, people were ready to pick it apart, because they love BOB so much. I think once this set comes out on blu ray and you can spend a weekend enjoying what a great series it is, you will see that it stands on its own. I heard one guy after the first episode say " its slow, I hope it will pick up" . The first episode of BOB was boot camp and getting ready for D-day- that was a slow episode, but very enjoyable- just like this episode one. But in this series the marines are already on Guadalcanal and the action has begun in earnest.Makes no sense.

One of many aspects I enjoy about The Pacific is the time the soldiers spend away from the battlefield. I think they do a great job showing whats on these guys minds, what they have to fight for and how their fate on the battlefield effects so many. Theres an episode where they are stationed in Australia and you can see how some Aussies can't wait for them to leave. While others fall in love with the soldiers or welcome them into their lives. Its a dynamic of war that is easier to cover in a series this long.

The Marines weren't just fighting a fearless, well trained enemy- they were fighting the jungle as well. Which is also well covered in the series. I can't imagine living in these conditions, let alone fighting the Japanese. The diseases and lack of proper supplies killed thousands of soldiers(on both sides), who didn't have the chance to decide their fate on the field.

The acting is well done by the 3 main performers portraying Basilone, Leckie and Sledge. The chemistry between Jon Seda(Basilone) and Annie Parrise(Lena) is hard to find. I thought the episode where they meet, fall in love , marry and seperate because of Basilone's Iwo Jima mission was one of the best in the series. It seemed like every episode was better than the previous. It kept getting better. There are many episodes and moments that make this great. The 3 episodes that encompass the Pelieu battle are intense, brutal and realistic for battle. I feel like the brutality and ruthless battle of the Pacific war is captured very well here. This warfare is much different from the European theatre. The Japanese won't surrender when the odds look grim like the Germans did countless times. It gives the viewer an idea of how savage the fighting in the Pacific would have been. There is a scene where the Marines are trying to cross an airfield- but the Japanese are waiting and ready. The following moments are above what we have seen in Saving Private Ryan for graphic war violence. For a good while its unrelenting. Another moment that will stay with you is when Sledge is on Okinawa- the last battle. He enters a small shelter to find a crying baby. When he looks around he finds a woman close to death. She wants him to kill her to end her pain, even putting his gun to her head. But he is done killing. Its a powerful moment. There are good hearted moments to find too. The episode where the Marines are in Australia is great. And the final episode finds the soldiers trying to make a life for themselves in post war America. Several find love and begin fresh. Leckie(James Dale)who earler in Australia lost love, finds love with the woman he had been writing too throughout the war. Although he never sends the letters- figuring he wouldn't survive the war! The people who made the Island sets should be given praise too. The battlefields are very realistic.

The special features are definatley worth your time. The first section covers several marines with profiles lasting around 10 minutes per marine. Some of the interviews are from several years ago, when they were still alive. Its priceless archival footage of our countries heroes. There is a making of "The Pacific" feature that covers all the research that went into making th sets and recreating the battles. Extremely impressive! This is top shelf film making here. The final section covers the reasons for the savagery of both sides in this war. As well as helping some to understand the conflicts of cultures.

I would recommend this series to anyone who has an interest in World War 2, film making, great story telling and those who like to feel the spectrum of emotions when watching something this good.

First let me say that HBO, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Hanks deserve a standing ovation for making this epic piece of history. I just finished watching the last episode. Once I saw the first episode, I was mesmerized for the next 9 weeks! I scheduled everything on Sunday around watching "The Pacific".
Outstanding acting, incredible cinematography, great music score, realism that is scary! I'm running out of superlatives to use! It's not better, than BOB! It's just as good and just as heart warming, and gut wrenching as BOB. Both of these historical mini-series deserve equal credit. Don't let some of the reviews here influence your judgement not to watch it. Yes there are those that feel strongly about one or another, but I don't believe that was anyone's goal in making the Pacific. I believe, especially Tom Hanks, just has this compelling, passionate desire to put both theaters of WWII in the minds of both, those that served and those of us who have not. The mellow drama movies of post WWII lead many of us who did not serve, to think about WWII as a hero's time in history. I would never discount any heroics which there are plenty to be seen, It's just that both of these series, Band of Brothers, and The pacific, set the stage for us to all share in the reality of war. Some reviewers here have commented on how there feelings were evoked while watching, In a few words, I felt like I was there each week, and each week after watching an episode, I would look at there reality and think about my past week, good or bad and feel proud to be an American Citizen!

I'm an aging baby boomer, 64, and my Father, who is 88, and still with us, was a ambulance driver on the front lines in Germany, France, and a few other countries. My father also suffered from some of the mental duress from his time served. With this Memorial Day Holiday upon us very soon, I would like to say a very sincere, Thank You, to ALL who have served in ALL the wars that have helped make the United States of America a country I'm still proud of.

Mr. Spielberg, and Mr. Hanks, Please do what ever you can to bring more of these fine mini-series covering the Korean War, the Viet-Nam War, and both Iraq, and Afghanistan Wars. They deserve your serious passion, commitment, and wonderful talents! My Mother was an English WWar II Bride, so let's just say Hip, Hip, Hooray!

I've already ordered my Blue-Ray release of "The Pacific"

Outstanding!

I enjoyed bits and pieces of this mini-series and from my readings of E.B. Sledge and historians of the Pacific battles I thought it accurately portrayed the combat experiences of the Marines in that theater. I found the brief strategic overviews narrarated by Hanks before each episode to be helpful, and I thought the combat scenes and the portrayal of the Marines' misery was well done, but on the whole I found the mini-series unsettling in a number of ways and I don't think I'd watch it again.

Most importantly, I feel the format of the series was disconnected. In attempting to weave together the stories of three Marines who weren't necessarily fighting shoulder-to-shoulder, we get glimpses of each Marine and are then moved on to the next one. The effect this had on me was such that I'd begin to care about one of them but would then be quickly shifted away to the next one. So I found I really didn't care about any of the characters until E.B. Sledge heads off to combat, which is several episodes in. Since I'd read his excellent book I'd already had an interest in seeing his story played out on screen, but when the story moved from Sledge and back to the States for a Basilone episode I found myself a little annoyed. (To be fair the creators were moving through episodes chronologically so by default something like this is bound to happen, but in my opinion it did more to hurt the flow than help it.)

Compounding this I felt a number of the episodes really slowed the tempo of the series down (e.g., the leave in Australia episode, the Leckie convalescing episode, and most of the Basilone falling in love episode). Here again we'd be thrust into one situation (intense combat) then rapidly shifted to an entirely different one (frolicking with Australian women), or vice versa. I understand that the creators wanted to portray the experiences of these specific men, but just as I started to really feel cohesion amongst the fighting men in the jungles or beaches, we'd be thrown back into these individualized stories, which, again, I had trouble caring about. Additionally, I think this format led to stilted dialogue since the characters themselves could never really find their groove within the series. I often found myself tuning out of conversations because I just wasn't invested.

If one were to insist on comparing this series with 'Band of Brothers' I would say that 'The Pacific' lacked the cohesion of that series - mainly for the reason that in 'Band of Brothers' we followed one unit from the beginning of their war to the end of their war, which was geographically confined to a relatively small Europe; whereas in 'The Pacific' we more followed individual men across locations which were often separated by thousands of miles of ocean. This geographic separation coupled with the constantly shifting protagonists/backdrops really threw me for a loop.

Finally, I am no wilting flower but parts of the series were about as grim as war movies get. This is by no means a knock on the series - as I believe these scenes were accurately portrayed as the men wrote them - but it added to my general sense of discomfort. I have only sympathy for the men who were asked to fight in those horrendous conditions, and to see this fighting portrayed on screen was powerful indeed. I'm glad the creators undertook this effort to honor these men, and I'm glad I watched the series once to gain an appreciation of the veterans who fought in the Pacific; but mostly because of the cohesion issues mentioned above I'm not sure I'd want to view the series again.

When The Pacific first aired, I, like many others, had high hopes for it due to Band of Brothers. I was disappointed. Then I began trying to base the series on its own, without trying to follow in its brothers footsteps. I was still disappointed. The series just didn't seem to make much sense. Characters would come and go and it was very hard to figure out who was who and who was doing what. I didn't understand why an entire episode had been devoted to love/relationships. I was just all in all disappointed and couldn't figure out why with a 200 million dollar budget The Pacific was made the way it was.

Months later I watched it again. I love it. Having the knowledge of who the characters are and being able to go into the series knowing who is who and where they are made it very enjoyable. I understand now why they made the creative decisions to take some time to show the marines outside of the fighting. It's still not Band of Brothers, but then again it wouldn't, and shouldn't, be.

I think everybody should give this series a chance, and if you watched it once and didn't really like it, I challenge you to watch it again. You may still not love it as much as Band of Brothers, but I definitely think you will get more out of it the second time around.

The superb HBO Miniseries "The Pacific" is another remarkable collaborative production effort by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. It follows the US Marine Corps through the horrific World War II Pacific battles of Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Short interludes in Melbourne, Australia; Paris Island; and some stateside hometowns provide a jarring counterpoint to the battle scenes.

Comparisons with "Band of Brothers" are perhaps inevitable. "Band of Brothers" had the advantage of following a single unit through the war, and was derived primarily from Stephen Ambrose's superb book of the same name. The narrative thread of "The Pacific" is the experience of three individual Marines whose lives are reasonably well documented. However, their stories overlap minimally, and the ensemble feel and continuity of "Band of Brothers" is lacking. Perhaps in compensation, "The Pacific" is a gritty, violent, and painfully graphic presentation of what it was like to be a Marine in the Pacific war.

The three Marines featured in the miniseries are meant to be broadly representative of the Corps. John Basilone is a pre-war Marine who wins the Medal of Honor at Guadalcanal, and is sent home to sell war bonds. He will fight to return to duty, first as a trainer of new Marines, then as a leader of troops at Iwo Jima. Robert Leckie joined up after Pearl Harbor and survived the fighting on Guadalcanal before being sent home for wounds suffered at Peleliu. Eugene Sledge joined up a little later, held out by a medical condition, and would serve "With the Old Breed" at Peleliu and Okinawa, as his autobiography puts it. He carries the narrative to the end of the war, in the mud and carnage of an Okinawan battlefield populated by large numbers of civilians as well as combatants. A final episode captures the efforts of the survivors to reintegrate back into civilian life.

Each episode of "The Pacific" opens with a few remarks by surviving veterans and a voice-over narrative by Tom Hanks that connects the episodes. Every effort appears to have been made to show authentic uniforms, weapons, and equipment. The individual episodes run less than an hour, but they pack an emotional punch that should be plenty for all but the most hardened viewers. "The Pacific" is highly recommended to those viewers who found "Band of Brothers" to be a worthwhile experience.

Tom Hanks came to Cleveland earlier this month and gave a presentation on non-fiction in film, and it included a sneak peek of a scene from "The Pacific." He showed an amazing clip from the upcoming HBO miniseries, and it was truly stunning. People say the opening scene in "Saving Private Ryan" is unforgetable, which is true, but I can definitively say that the scene we saw from "The Pacific" has all that drama and perhaps more. My heart was pounding watching the young men take the beach. I instantly cared about these Marines, there was a true connection to them -- the acting is superb. I didn't think it possible that "Band of Brothers" could be topped, but I'm telling you, if the scene we saw is any indication, "The Pacific" is going to go gangbusters. Buy stock in HBO, and line up the Emmys now.

Any work, be it a poem, a book, a movie, or a TV series, should be evaluated for what it is, not for what it is not. So I suggest forgetting comparisons to "Band of Brothers" and let "The Pacific" stand alone, which it does very well. We Americans are so Eurocentric -- most of us are of European extraction -- that we know little of the Pacific side of WWII which, by the way, had been underway for almost two years before D-Day. The Army thought the Marines were condemned to anonymity in the vast reaches of the Pacific. Instead, from Guadalcanal to Okinawa, the Marines found eternal glory. They conducted one of the longest and most successful campaigns in all military history. They were the only branch of the U.S. military with the doctrine and the equipment to show up on an enemy beach, knock down the door, and take real estate away from the enemy. We know about the eight-day Battle of the Bulge because books and movies have been done on that topic. This series shows us the six-month campaign for Guadalcanal when the Marines were abandoned on a hostile shore by the US Navy; they had no George Patton to bail them out, all they had was each other. The series shows us how the Marines did one "forcible entry" after another as they marched toward the setting sun that was Japan. We see how inconsequential little postage stamp islands were sanctified by the blood of U.S. Marines. "The Pacific" shows us the Marine Corps heritage of valor that goes all the way back to Belleau Wood. Every American should thank God for the United States Marine Corps. This series shows us why. So, to Spielberg/Hanks, I say Bravo Zulu.

While watching this series, I always had the nagging thought in my mind as to what point of view the producers were taking with this. Where were they coming from? The negative view taken of American Soldiers is overwhelming. Someone not knowing much about WWII would come out of this with a very skewed view of what really happened. I am sure that there were many men that were cruel and did many despicable things. On the other hand, there were many more that did their duty as best as they possibly could given the whole horrendous situation of a war that had to be fought. I kept waiting for a "why we fight" episode as they did in Band of Brothers, and it never came. Let's not forget that the nation of Japan was responsible for this. The deaths of millions of Chinese and hundreds of thousands of citizens of other countries were the sole responsibility of the nation of Japan. It bothers me tremendously that we seem more concerned about the hundreds of thousands killed by the atomic bombs being used to end the war than the "millions" that were killed by the Japanese using conventional means.

The series did not flow. I found it extremely difficult to feel anything for Leckie as he was portrayed, which in my mind, was immature and a total pr@#k. Unfortunately, his role in the series was prevalent. I knew about John Basilone, and it was difficult for me to follow his story when I knew the eventual outcome. I wish that we could have become more familiar with the thoughts of Eugine Sledge. It seemed like the the whole series was more visual than substance.

It, in my mind, is a watch it once miniseries. I received the DVDs as a present. I doubt that I will watch them again. I have watched Band of Brothers many times. I would only recommend this series to true fans of Military movies, history, etc.

This review is a response to the several alarming reviews that claim this series is inaccurate and that the violence of American marines towards the Japanese has been exaggerated or flat out made up. Anyone who is making these claims has not studied the Pacific theater of World War II. It was extremely violent and racism played a huge part in motivating that violence on both sides. Any veteran of this war will tell you this. E.B. Sledge says as much in his book "With the Old Breed", one of the books this series is based on. Entire books are based on the racial aspect of this part of the war: "War Without Mercy" to name one. To try and sanitize the Pacific war and turn it into a clear-cut black-and-white good vs. evil interpretation is an insult to everyone who fought there. Some also claim that Japanese atrocities are covered up by this series. Not true. In the very first episode we see American bodies disrespectfully mutilated by the Japanese. On Okinawa we see the Japanese use civilians as shields or suicide bombers in their attacks. The goal of the makers of this series was to explore what war can make good people do, and the price they pay for fighting it. The series is excellent in that respect.

I've read two of the books on which this screenplay was based - Sledge's "With the Old Breed" and Leckie's "Helmet for a Pillow." Doing justice to these accounts would be tough, but the series was a worthwhile effort. Four stars is a fair rating in my opinion.

When the series was being televised, I heard some complaining, bordering on whining in one case, that the series was "no Band of Brothers," i.e. boring. I appreciated The Pacific's lack of treacly sentiment- something that came through in Band of Brothers- my opinion of course. In the interest of disclosure, some of my compatriots are easily bored, and the non-battle sequences were clearly equivalent to walking on hot coals for them- some of these guys can't watch a movie without yakking on their Smartphones several times throughout. If you have attention deficit, maybe steer clear of trying to watch this.

Thanks to the producers and directorial staff for trying to make a fair account of how the Marines lived, loved, wondered about their futures, and fought a vicious enemy in often appalling conditions. I won't minimize the sacrifice of these men by complaining that depictions of their lives don't have enough action. I thank my lucky stars that I never had to go through anything like it.