Pacific

[trax1]

I said that 3 pages ago...but just because the first episode was available from HBO for a week people wanted to believe otherwise.   

Yeah I mentioned it a couple pages ago as well, a couple of times too actually.

[Reaper90]

Well, all you who were complaining about "character development" sure got some last night. 

[gyrene81]

Yeah, last night's episode was a bit boring...except for the Greek girl... 

Can't wait to see what kind of trouble Basilone gets into when he gets back to the states. Should be a good mix of action and character stories in the next episode.

[Fencer51]

Well it's official, this is a fictional story with real names.  I will now question everything I see for the remaining 7 episodes.  I had been suspicous about things for the first two, but last night I went and dug up my 30 yr + copy of Lecke's book.

I had read "Helmet for My Pillow" by Robert Lecke.  It has stuck in my mind because in Junior High when I did read it the first time, I was shocked at the behaviour of the Marines in the book.  From AWOL, to some purely sick things they did to the Japanese bodies it was completely against the Hollywood depiction of our troops and any other book I had read to that point.  Also the people in the book are always referred to by nicknames, never their real name.  All in all several things which at the time I thought "odd".

Darn near everything shown last night after they got to the Stadium and left AWOL was fiction.  There was no Greek Girl.  There were three girls in his time in Australia, the first one he hooked up with, and when he got back to her place she just had a bed in a room and wouldn't do anything until she got a ring on her finger (amongst other things).  She thought all Americans were millionaires.. he left in disgust (his words).

The second was a girl, bar maid, one of his buddies was actually seeing.  She and he would take walks in the park together and talk.

The third was named Shelia (what else) and he met her on a tram, but she fell into his lap and he wouldn't let her up.  They dated (polite word) until she had to go to Tasmania, and then she told him she was married.  She showed back up for a single evening months later, then disappeared again.

When he got arrested for pointing the gun at the officer... he and Chuckles (I think that was the guy) had went AWOL to avoid marching in parade.  They then stood along the road yelling at the Yanks as they marched by whilst consuming large quantities of beer, a common theme in the book.  They faded into the crowd when their buddies showed up and watched them march by from the back.  Chuckles had guard duty that night, so he returned to duty, while Lecke remained out.  When Lecke showed back up he had brought more beer for Chuckles.  After awhile Chuckles excused himself and left Lecke with the gunbelt.  The Lt walked up, Lecke pointed the gun at him, screamed about him being a cigar thief and the Lt made a break for it.  He returned minutes later with a Cpl and Sgt who snuck up on Lecke and subdued him while the Lt talked to him.  Then Chuckles showed back up.  It wasn't his "loss" of the Greek Girl which caused this incident.

All in all this is quite sad that they have taken two famous books Lecke's and Sledges and only used them for an outline and characters.  Nothing in this can be assumed to be a real depiction of what the people in the books and series saw and experienced.

[gyrene81]

Nothing in this can be assumed to be a real depiction of what the people in the books and series saw and experienced.

Of course not Fencer...that would be too much for the civilians to handle...much like your reaction when you read that book for the first time...nobody living now wants to see the "real truth" enacted in a highly publicized series...simple men put into extreme circumstances do extreme things. They did the same thing in Band of Brothers.

[Stoliman]

It is unfair, but perhaps inevitable, that it is compared to "Band of Brothers".  In BoB, they had the advantage of the training episodes first to establish and build characters.  Pacific didn't allow for that.

Further, while Pacific, IMO, briefly addressed how touch and go Guadalcanal really was, it really did nothing to expand on how it was won.  Just boom - scene - and the battle was won.

And last night's episode in Australia just seems oddly out of place in a series of this nature.  It should have been called "Everyone Goes To Australia And Gets Laid".

[Dadsguns]

I understand and know of the history about the happenings when the US was in Australia for some R/R, but seriously, last nights episode went way above what was needed to know about it.  The entire show was about it.  I thought it was rather distasteful to spend so much time on it. 
However I understand that they are telling a story of this man and what he experienced during his time there. 

So far I think they have cut corners on some actual events and fluffed others, like some of the battles were shortened to a pathetic level, yet spent an entire show about their liberty during R/R.   

If this trend continues with this film, I think they will fall short of the success that BoB had.  IMO

[indy007]

Tom Hanks & Speilberg pretty clearly said this wasn't a historical review. They said the episodes were about trying to immerse you in the characters experience. Said all of this in the endless commercials for it running on HBO.

It's entertainment, not history guys, don't get too wrapped up in the details.

I was personally expecting more. I read "Helmet for my Pillow" a few days before the first episode. I expected quite a bit more detail... didn't get any of it. Then, I saw the interviews with the creators. Made a lot more sense that things on the show weren't going to jive with the book accounts.

[Stoney]

It should have been called "Everyone Goes To Australia And Gets Laid".

Well, that's basically what happened during the "Battle of Melbourne".  That period in the 1st MarDiv's WWII history is renown for some pretty epic boozing and whoring.  You gotta consider that these guys were young and had just come off the Canal.  They were the epitome of living and loving fast, something that's been happening since the first organized army in antiquity. 

Taking poetic license with the source material doesn't trivialize the series, especially when it comes to staying "true" to Leckie's sea stories about libbo in Australia.  To be honest, it was my least favorite part of his book because I thought it detracted from his overall story.  Regardless, this past episode was a bit superfluous, but in the end, its important to show what these guys did during their port call.  Libbo in general, can get a little whacky from time to time.

[Saxman]

I got a kick out of it. Especially the MPs taking revenge on the wasted Marines the next morning with the loudspeakers, one soldier passing out falt on his face while in formation, and the Lt.--also totally blitzed--dismissing the company.

And while the events may not have gone down for the characters in the episode EXACTLY as it did in real life, what's important is that it captured the ESSENCE of what happened.

Well, that's basically what happened during the "Battle of Melbourne".  That period in the 1st MarDiv's WWII history is renown for some pretty epic boozing and whoring.

That's the really important thing: that the series is at least faithful to the general idea of what these men went through. And part of that is getting @$%&-faced and and shagging half of Melbourne their first trip back to civilization after spending about 6 months in absolute hell (however bloodier the combat got later in the war, I've always gotten the impression from the books that--excluding the POW camps, fo course--no place in the Pacific compared to the sheer misery of just BEING on Guadalcanal).

[RichardDarkwood]

You all realize that each episode is not directed by the same person, or produced.







Todd

[lyric1]

Being a Melbourne boy myself I am glad they at least filmed it there. Rather than some other city trying to look like Melbourne.