The Pacific

Introduction

Back in 2001, HBO in conjunction with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg brought us a landmark and hugely popular TV series set in World War II. Band of Brothers, based on a couple of books by deceased military historian Stephen Ambrose, told the adventures of members of the Screaming Eagles or the 101st Airborne Division, taking us from boot camp through D-Day and Bastogne to their final days in Europe based at Hitler's retreat, the Eagles Nest at Berchtesgarden.

The producers of Band of Brothers received a lot of feedback from US veterans who felt that their contribution in the other main US theatre of operations was not recognised, and so Hanks, Spielberg and Co. looked to see if they could feasibly pull something together for the Pacific campaign. And so The Pacific was born, following in the main three members of the US Marine Corps at various stages of the campaign.

First up was John Basilone (Jon Seda), the first enlisted man to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Honour for his action on Guadalcanal, following this with a Navy Cross on Iwo Jima, making him the only soldier to be awarded both the highest and second highest medals that can be awarded to US military personnel. Next up is Robert 'Bob' Leckie (James Badge Dale), a sports journalist and writer who wrote the book Helmet For My Pillow about his experiences. And finally there's Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) who wrote about his combat experiences in his memoirs entitled With the Old Breed.

The mini series is again presented in 10 parts and covers the major battles involving the marines during this capaign, some of the battles covering multiple episodes due to the amount of detail and action that the producers wished to show.

Picture/Sound
On blu-ray the picture is astounding, the CGI is fantastic and level of detail is phenomenal. This really is a superbly presented piece of television. Both the CGI and SFX are quite incredible for a TV series, especially when you consider the naval and amphibious portions of the series, and if you didn't know any better you'd be hard pressed to spot any obvious CGI.

The soundtrack is loud, damned loud, with the sounds of battle being over powering and immersive - you really will feel like you are there. And, of course, there's Hans Zimmer's gorgeous soundtrack that in its main theme at least carries the echoes of Band of Brothers to link with its predecessor.

Extras

Disc 6 contains the main extras that include a Making Of, profiles on the main characters and a piece on the campaign itself. These are all well done and in HD, but overall not really long enough to fill the disc. On the episode discs, two episodes per disc, you get the option of both enhanced viewing and the field manual. The former adds picture in picture interviews to add context to what you're watching, whilst the field manual allows you to move along the timeline of the episodes and watch interviews or view content based on major events within those timelines. The field manual in itself is very well done and is a superb extra feature.

Overall

There is no doubt that this series is technically superior to Band of Brothers with both the CGI and the intensity of the action portrayed. With numerous pieces of war footage for reference and knowing the Spielberg penchant for depicting realism in battle scenes, this is probably the closest you're going to get to being there and experiencing exactly what the US Marines of 1st Marine Division went through during the Pacific campaign. And you can be glad of that. The Pacific battles against the Japanese Imperial Army were a completely different kettle of fish from those experienced in the European theatre, with the Japanese following the bushido credo of no surrender and showing no mercy to those who did. This led to extremely bloody and merciless combat, with the Marines being forced to act in ways they probably wouldn't have imagined in order to cope with the ferocity and barbarism of their enemy.

This would have been bad enough but the conditions within the Pacific, for which there was no respite such as R&R or liberty in the European capitals, meant that the troops were constantly battling torrential monsoon rain and muddy conditions and infections such as malaria. Although there was a hospital of sorts for the most serious on the island of Pavulu, this was reserved for the most badly injured or ill and most had to just suck up minor ailments both during lulls in combat and when under attack. This mini series covers it all and so we see the effects of the rain and muddy conditions on the men and how they coped with combat in the same kinds of conditions with the added bonus of masses of dead bodies to keep them company. It's little wonder that the vast majority of veterans suffered from nightmares upon their successful return after the war.

Sadly, despite all the excellent things about this series, I couldn't quite find myself caring for the characters in the same way I did and still do for Band of Brothers. Maybe it's because here the story is more fragmented in that you're only following three people plus their comrades across different parts of the battles and with different experiences whereas Band of Brothers was truly focussed on a group of soldiers who fought side by side and therefore shared the same experiences. I suspect it also didnt help that in order to be realistic, the characters in The Pacific are shown to be much harder and stoic than their European counterparts as they felt that due to the heavy losses sustained that it was easier to not to know their comrades that well in order to cope. That comes across really strongly in places, especially with Eugene Sledge and his mate Snafu where Snafu in particular is extremely hard and mean to those around him. It's not until the end of the series and during the profiles of the vets that you realise just how close these men really were to each other, not surprisingly really.

Regardless, this is a superb series that realistically depicts bloody and intense combat with completely heartwrenching scenes, some of them within the combat itself (but not really giving you time to dwell) and outside the combat where you finally get some respite and the time to grieve - again, realistically. This set is going to end up in many Christmas stockings this year and anyone who has not yet seen this is in for a treat.

Recommended.