The Pacific: Part 9

[SuBWaYCH]

I am truly speechless.

[fudgums]

Same as well.

[Saxman]

There's one image it's going to take a LONG time to get out of my head.

[Golfer]

Read the book.

[firbal]

My wife and I have been watching these each week. The have done a real good job of triing to capture the look and feel of that part of the war. And I have learn a few new thing from it. But the look of it is great. My wife has gotten a better apprecation of what the military goes through in a war.
But I think each show needs to be 2 hours long, not 1 hour. There is just too much missing from each part. When it ends, I always think there needs to be more to it. I was just thinking that with other mini serise, the did pretty with the hour. I just wish they used more time on each part. Part 9 need more for that battle. I cann't wait for the set to come out.

[Saxman]

One thing they could have done for Bassilone was spread out his romance with Sgt. Riggi over more of the series. Bassilone was at Pendelton by Dec. 1943 and met her at that time, and they married in July 1944. The miniseries gives the implication Bassilone was still on the War Bond drive until after Peleliu (September-November 1944). I saw a lot of complaints about Part 8 by the decision to squeeze his entire relationship with her into the episode (although I thought it was rather effective). They could have EASILY improved the pacing by spreading them out across several episodes.

The biggest problem The Pacific faces is one of scale. Band of Brothers followed its characters over about a year and a half. The battles they were involved in were generally short-term affairs of a couple days to weeks at most (even The Battle of the Bulge only lasted about a month). The Pacific is covering a FAR larger timescale (1942-1945) and land battles in the Pacific were of FAR greater duration, with combat lasting for several MONTHS. Of the five battles covered by the series, the shortest was Iwo Jima at about a month. The rest dragged on for from three to SIX. Peleliu was the obvious "set piece" of the series, and rightfully so, but they could have easily made an entire miniseries about just ONE of these battles. I don't think an extra hour for each episode would have really done the trick. They almost needed another 5 or more episodes to REALLY tell the story they wanted to tell.

[Reschke]

I have only seen the first and the eight episodes and I thought that both were done well. I agree that they should have spread out the romance a little more but it was a tough one to know that shortly after they got married Bassilone would be dead on Iwo Jima.

[Stoney]

I have only seen the first and the eight episodes and I thought that both were done well. I agree that they should have spread out the romance a little more but it was a tough one to know that shortly after they got married Bassilone would be dead on Iwo Jima.

And the other challenge would have been to cut away from the drama of Peleliu in episodes 5-7 to give Manila John 5-10 minutes of love story each episode.  It wouldn't have meshed well.  The bottom line is that they could have made 20 episodes of this story, and still skimmed the wave tops on some of it.

[Yeager]

yep.  I was a little apprehensive of the series for the first three episodes but with each successive episode the Pacific has simply improved to a breathtakingly superb quality.   Just wrapped up no. 9 and it was stunning, tragic, frightening, sorrowful, had a very very deep emotional quality to it.  Superb film making.  I will be viewing the entire series again once it comes out on DVD and I expect it will be even better with subsequent viewings.

All I can say about Band of Brothers is that this Series, the Pacific, is the left hand and BoB is the right hand.  They are a complimentary set, and go hand in hand together. 

[indy007]

I will be viewing the entire series again once it comes out on DVD and I expect it will be even better with subsequent viewings.

I've had great access to the episodes between my DVR & OnDemand services. They do get better with each viewing, like a really good book that needs to be read 2 or 3 times.

[1pLUs44]

+1. For my birthday, I got the book "With The Old Breed" And I'm currently reading it now.

[skribetm]

parts 5, 6, 7. peleliu.
my storyline favorites of the series.


but i'd call the naval night battle of part 1 as striking to me as the air-drop of BoB (part 2.)

[branch37]

I just now got to watch part 9.  I think i need counciling.    

[whipster22]

i don't have HBO

[rpm]

The biggest problem The Pacific faces is one of scale. Band of Brothers followed its characters over about a year and a half. The battles they were involved in were generally short-term affairs of a couple days to weeks at most (even The Battle of the Bulge only lasted about a month). The Pacific is covering a FAR larger timescale (1942-1945) and land battles in the Pacific were of FAR greater duration, with combat lasting for several MONTHS. Of the five battles covered by the series, the shortest was Iwo Jima at about a month. The rest dragged on for from three to SIX. Peleliu was the obvious "set piece" of the series, and rightfully so, but they could have easily made an entire miniseries about just ONE of these battles. I don't think an extra hour for each episode would have really done the trick. They almost needed another 5 or more episodes to REALLY tell the story they wanted to tell.

Well said. They had to compress so much into so little time it's amazing they covered what they did as well as they did.

When you see Tom Hanks name on a patriotic story, you can be assured it will be quality bar none.