Agree on the "intimate" scene. Sid Phillips' was much more tastfully done. Hmmm....could it be because Dr. Phillips is still around and didn't want his character's...um, "O-face" immortalized on screen?

Agree on the "intimate" scene. Sid Phillips' was much more tastfully done. Hmmm....could it be because Dr. Phillips is still around and didn't want his character's...um, "O-face" immortalized on screen?

That's classic....I had that same scene in my head as I was typing that...lol

"Oh----OH!!----OH!!!

Love that movie.

Please stop comparing this to BAND OF BROTHERS!! I think many of us have been spoiled with recent fantastic WW2 war movies. Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, etc have spoiled us into forgetting how far these movies have come. The weapons, uniforms, equipment, vehicles, sounds, realism, etc have been top notch. So far I feel as I have been on a time machine. All of the sets have been amazing! I know that a good story is important too, but I feel like many of you in that things are about to heat up. I've been fortunate to discuss a lot of this series with my grandfather. He served in Tropic Lightning Division in the Phillippines. I'm eagerly anticipating watching it with him.

Hey guys and gals...

...it's a WAR movie...not a "combat" movie. War involves more than shooting and being shot. The War involves more moral choices and disappointments than pulling or not pulling teeth out of Japanese corpses (and not so corpses). War involves the women waiting for their loved ones, fearing they will never come back; mothers swallowing their paralyzing fear; fathers proud, envious, fearful and resigned. As for the men in the series? Sex, food and family are HUGELY important to men when they finally get out of combat. Ask a veteran. And it's not silly or romantic or gratuitous. It's a deep part of the experience of men at war. Profound even. You think the episode is about the men getting laid? Please watch it again. It's much deeper than that. Stella dumping Leckie is worthy of examination because it will have a HUGE effect on him.

Any, those are my five cents.

Hey, some of us liked it, AC...

I liked it. I didn't think it felt as rushed as the first two.

and some us expect to really like it... when we finally get to see it *sigh*

well said AC you really need to go tell this to the pre-teens over on imdb

You'll love it, Simon. This Septic wouldn't steer ya wrong...

septic?

... sceptic?

... seer?

... soothsayer?

Septic tank mate, ya know tank - yank?

oh, that septic

forgive my slow brain. it's late in the day and I haven't had my first glass of wine yet

I did like this episode a lot and as other have said, it is a good change of pace before the meat grinder to come. My wife has complained about lack of character development in the 1st 2 episodes and she got it now. I can't wait for episode 4.

I know the feeling...

All right, which other WWII mini series produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg and HBO should we compare it to? Don't get me wrong though, we should wait until all episodes have aired, and we've gotten acquainted with the characters and perhaps even given the series multiple viewings before judging it as a whole.

I don't know why parents sit down and watch a mature series like this with their kids and then complain about how graphic this or that was. You know what you were getting into with this series. Language, violence, and "some" sex ala Band of Brothers. I don't know why anyone should be surprised. All these emotions and aspects of life were very much on the sleeve of the soldiers, and in order to tell the story accurately, every one of them has to be depicted.

Exactly. BOB is the standard in which all war movies/series should be judged. Even moreso when we are talking about a series that was created by the creators of BOB.

Enough of Leckie and Stella. I think JP and Basilone's scenes were very moving. JP really showed how much he respected and cared for his friend. He prevented Basilone from stealing the MP's jeep and when he was saluting the new recipient of MOH, you can see he was sincere and truly honored. It was well acted. The last scene saying good bye to his dear friend was heart-wrenching as you can see JP tearing up a little while giving words of encouragement.

Guess I should read all the episode synopses....

Nothing about Luzon, Corregidor or Manila? I guess because 1st Marine was not involved....

Shit!

There were Marines involved..dunno about Lengayen Gulf though. Dad says Marine bodies were stacked like cordwood in Luzon though, as were Japanese....

Damn, I may stop watching.....crap, who am I fooling?

Well, there will be Army troops on Peleliu and Okinawa, Coz. Can't vouch for any of the Marines saying nice things about them, though!

another blog...



http://rpowell.livejournal.com/17317.html

well in my defense I must admit we Kiwi's don't use rhyming slang, we tend to call things by their proper names... Bloody Yanks... Bloody Poms... Bloody Aussies...

Bloody Yank? Ahh, I've been called worse...



From my travels to Mexico and Central America, "Hijo de sesenta mil putas" was always a personal favorite...

why 60,000? lol

Don't know, that's just the expression, I guess! That one was said to me in jest. I think...

I've been thinking the same thing. For whatever reason, it seems more was bitten off than could be chewed...especially in such short episodes. Where BoB could allow things to develop and give us more detail within the context of one cohesive storyline, The Pacific has to cut to the chase right away before moving onto the next highlight. What we're left with is a visual timeline, or highlight reel, as opposed to a gripping drama that allows us to experience the hell of say, a sweaty three-day march, instead of merely suggesting it with a quick/gory blister-lancing scene before squeezing in the next highlight.

We all want to enjoy this show - and in our own ways we are, or we wouldn't be logged onto this site. That said, The Pacific - in addition to the burden of following multiple independent stories - seems more gratuitous and "pop-culture friendly" than BoB. It seems to spend a little more time showing things like graphic puke scenes (don't we all know what it looks like w/out seeing it come out of someone's mouth?) and the obligatory titillating love-scene in order to appeal to the masses a bit more. All of which, I have no problem with...so long as it is supported by the details and emotional attachment that the story deserves.

One last thought: to me, the humor seems a little more sophomoric and doesn't seem to trust the viewer's intelligence as much. For instance, this is 2010, so most of us have been drunk/hungover beyond disbelief at some point in our lives. That said, how often does somebody pass out and fall flat forward on their face in real life? It just doesn't fit. This series is supposed to be heavy, thought-provoking drama and the reverie scene was so over-the-top that it seemed more appropriate for "Stripes" or "Private Benjamin".

Just my thoughts. I know there's a lot of people who love everything about the show and thought things like the reverie scene were terrific...and I respect that...I just enjoy discussions like these.

It's interesting how many movies have successfully shown us gut-wrenching love affairs torn apart by the realities of war without the benefits of a graphic love scene (Casablanca, anyone?). I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with Trudi...I just think that the "accuracy" argument is kind of hollow in explaining why an explicit (or semi-explicit) sex scene "needs" to be included. Are any of us so simple that we don't know what occurred when two people are shown closing the bedroom door or waking up together? Make no mistake, sex scenes are explicit for one reason and one reason only - to generate ratings - NOT (usually) to accurately depict a character's emotions or experiences. I do however, feel that most of us have no real comprehension of the gruesome brutality that defined these boys' lives on a near daily basis...and that the graphic war scenes do force alot of people to better appreciate what they - and any soldier in any war - went through or is going through.

After having watched all three again last night, I think the series is too produced. It's like they took too long to create it, over thought everything, over lit everything, over wrote everything. It doesn't come across as real and organic as I had hoped. Even the sound seems fake with the overdubbing in too many places. And too many of the scenes, including on Guadalcanal, seemed like over art directed Hollywood sets with perfect lighting and too many perfect props. I even think some of the actors are "over acting". Any of this make any sense???

Having said that, I am enjoying the series so far and am hopeful they get better and draw me in more emotionally - I am just disappointed with the production.

You're right. Sometimes they fall backwards...

I think it's really pretty similar. The march in BoB in training where Christenson gets yelled at by Sobel is barely shown at all either. We're just used to it at this point, since we've seen the show so many times.



Graphic puke scenes, like Hoobler (I think it was Hoobler?) tossing his cookies running up Curahee? And the sex scene with Janovec is a lot shorter, of course, but it's still there.

I think a lot of the problem is that we've only seen 30% of the full series. Once we get to the end, we'll look back a lot more and like it, because the characters mean more to us.

I'm curious what you mean by "pop-culture friendly". Do you mean puking and sex? Because I think those of been happening for a long, long time. Just because something is cliched (and I realize you didn't use that word) doesn't mean it shouldn't be shown. As you rightly note, its the "details and emotional attachment" that make it key. This series without the misery and the highlights they experienced would be doing the Marines a disservice.

I think for me Episode 6 (The Breaking Point) of BoB is what finally ties us all in, and I suspect the 3 part horror of Peleliu will do the same for this series.

In the first episode, which was apparently fine for the whole family, we saw severed genitals stuffed in the mouth of a decapitated head… That seems like a more graphic scene. (Perhaps less awkward, but definitely more disturbing.)





Well HBO has no advertisers, so ratings don’t exactly translate into revenue. They do however need to keep subscribers (and to sell mutiple disc box sets). HBO generally survives more on critical acclaim and awards than ratings...Their shows hardly put up the numbers of network hits.