There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
Stick with it.
BOB and the Pacific now on Netflix
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Last: 2 yr ago by Furlock Bones
BoB was classic good vs evil and is portrayed as such. The Pacific is about the madness of war and specifically, what it does to people. They literally could not be any more different IMO.
Love both. Pacific is my favorite though and not by a terribly slim margin. You finish BoB and feel good about the world. You finish the Pacific and are left wondering if we as humans are going to make it at all. (Name that reference).
Love both. Pacific is my favorite though and not by a terribly slim margin. You finish BoB and feel good about the world. You finish the Pacific and are left wondering if we as humans are going to make it at all. (Name that reference).
Eliminatus said:
You finish the Pacific and are left wondering if we as humans are going to make it at all. (Name that reference).
Well said.
I've watched Pacific at least three times and BOB above 15 times. From the count, BOB is my fave. My Dad and I would do a full watch every Christmas.
Just discovered this thread.
We started watching The Pacific a few nights ago and are now through episode 5. It is brutal, but I'm so glad to finally be watching it.
My dad fought in Leyte, Luzon and I think Okinawa. He told us that he was a gunner on an amphibious tractor, and in one of the episodes we got a good feel for what that must have been like.
Does anyone know if the gunners stayed on the tractor or if they got off to attack the beach as the other soldiers did? My dad never talked much about actual combat, and I always wanted to know if he had to endure the land fighting as well.
We started watching The Pacific a few nights ago and are now through episode 5. It is brutal, but I'm so glad to finally be watching it.
My dad fought in Leyte, Luzon and I think Okinawa. He told us that he was a gunner on an amphibious tractor, and in one of the episodes we got a good feel for what that must have been like.
Does anyone know if the gunners stayed on the tractor or if they got off to attack the beach as the other soldiers did? My dad never talked much about actual combat, and I always wanted to know if he had to endure the land fighting as well.
Aggies76 said:
Just discovered this thread.
We started watching The Pacific a few nights ago and are now through episode 5. It is brutal, but I'm so glad to finally be watching it.
My dad fought in Leyte, Luzon and I think Okinawa. He told us that he was a gunner on an amphibious tractor, and in one of the episodes we got a good feel for what that must have been like.
Does anyone know if the gunners stayed on the tractor or if they got off to attack the beach as the other soldiers did? My dad never talked much about actual combat, and I always wanted to know if he had to endure the land fighting as well.
Ask this same question over on the Texags history board. There are a couple of guys over there that can probably give you a pretty decent idea about who was doing what on the landing beaches most of the time.
Don't you mean it's about "man's inhumanity toward man"Eliminatus said:
BoB was classic good vs evil and is portrayed as such. The Pacific is about the madness of war and specifically, what it does to people. They literally could not be any more different IMO.
Love both. Pacific is my favorite though and not by a terribly slim margin. You finish BoB and feel good about the world. You finish the Pacific and are left wondering if we as humans are going to make it at all. (Name that reference).
Did I mention how much the thin red line sucked.
Stive said:
Ask this same question over on the Texags history board. There are a couple of guys over there that can probably give you a pretty decent idea about who was doing what on the landing beaches most of the time.
Will do. Thanks!
What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
I'm pretty sure they went back and got more troops.Aggies76 said:
Just discovered this thread.
We started watching The Pacific a few nights ago and are now through episode 5. It is brutal, but I'm so glad to finally be watching it.
My dad fought in Leyte, Luzon and I think Okinawa. He told us that he was a gunner on an amphibious tractor, and in one of the episodes we got a good feel for what that must have been like.
Does anyone know if the gunners stayed on the tractor or if they got off to attack the beach as the other soldiers did? My dad never talked much about actual combat, and I always wanted to know if he had to endure the land fighting as well.
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aTmAg said:I'm pretty sure they went back and got more troops.Aggies76 said:
Just discovered this thread.
We started watching The Pacific a few nights ago and are now through episode 5. It is brutal, but I'm so glad to finally be watching it.
My dad fought in Leyte, Luzon and I think Okinawa. He told us that he was a gunner on an amphibious tractor, and in one of the episodes we got a good feel for what that must have been like.
Does anyone know if the gunners stayed on the tractor or if they got off to attack the beach as the other soldiers did? My dad never talked much about actual combat, and I always wanted to know if he had to endure the land fighting as well.
Thanks aTmAg. That makes sense.
interesting take thereEliminatus said:
BoB was classic good vs evil and is portrayed as such. The Pacific is about the madness of war and specifically, what it does to people. They literally could not be any more different IMO.
Love both. Pacific is my favorite though and not by a terribly slim margin. You finish BoB and feel good about the world. You finish the Pacific and are left wondering if we as humans are going to make it at all. (Name that reference).
I would think after Episode 9 of BOB
seeing the death camps and Nazi war crimes that one can pretty much chalk it up as humans as a group are not going to make it at all.
For me, the payoff was not watching Sledge sit under a tree but in keeping with the show's overall theme of the brutality of war, and the Pacific conflict in particular, how that impacted his life postwar. The depiction of what we now call PTSD, the nightmares, and then his breakdown while hunting with his dad.aTmAg said:What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
Don't forget that you're responding to atmag, the same guy who, in this thread, said he wished Snafu (Merriell Shelton, an actual Marine who fought in those battles) would have gotten shot.
I was just going to reply to Cinco telling him that I think he's fighting a losing battle here. It's clear that aTm can't (but most likely won't) see beyond anything that doesn't contain a bunch of pew-pews.
Cinco Ranch Aggie said:
I have posted my thoughts on both of these series on these boards several times, but I will boil it down to liking The Pacific more. The characters may have shared very little interaction but that did not lessen them in any way. They were so very well portrayed. I connected with each of their stories in a way that I did not with the characters of Easy Company. That is not to say that they were not portrayed well, but that they did not do as deep of a dive into who these men were simply because they had far more characters, and that would have exploded the show into several more episodes. I had more of a sense of the entirety of the lives of Sledge and Leckie than I did of any of the BoB characters. It was all on screen rather than interviews with the actual men.
I am an avid reader of WWII history for much of my life. I have always preferred reading more about the Pacific over Europe (although in recent years I have taken more of an interest in Europe). Both have their interesting points, but in comparing the 2, the Pacific is simply more visceral, more inhumane, darker. Yes, the Nazis were not misunderstood angels, but the Japs were on a far different level.
Compare what soldiers in Europe were collecting off dead Nazis - guns, knives, flags. In the Pacific, as depicted in the show, they were collecting teeth.
Regarding the Pacific intro, that music was by Hans Zimmer. I have this score in my regular rotation.
Love both these shows, just prefer The Pacific. And so looking forward to Masters of the Air.
it's because The Pacific was actually based on the books by Leckie and Sledge.
rather than a third person Ambrose book.
I guess to me, they made this series more about PTSD than about the actual war in the Pacific. So much so, that the show would have been more aptly named "PTSD" instead. I get it that many of them suffered from that. But by focusing so much of the show on that detracted from the big picture.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:For me, the payoff was not watching Sledge sit under a tree but in keeping with the show's overall theme of the brutality of war, and the Pacific conflict in particular, how that impacted his life postwar. The depiction of what we now call PTSD, the nightmares, and then his breakdown while hunting with his dad.aTmAg said:What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
The primary thing The Pacific lacks is the brotherhood aspect of war. I have never fought in a war, but I understand that no bond is closer than between soldiers fighting together in war. Band of Brothers got that across to viewers in spades. Not only were they close to each other, but they made us viewers close to them as well. No show/movie I can think of gives the same nostalgia feeling as the final scene of BoB. However, The Pacific fails miserably on this front. I couldn't care less if Snafu died for example. Or even Leckie and Sledge. Except for Ack-Ack, I didn't care about any of them. Yet you know damn well that the real life soldiers did care a LOT. The show runners failed translating that to film.
You think that by me saying that I wish the Snafu character in this show got shot, means that I wish the real life Marine got shot? Really? You are either a liar or a fool.Belton Ag said:
Don't forget that you're responding to atmag, the same guy who, in this thread, said he wished Snafu (Merriell Shelton, an actual Marine who fought in those battles) would have gotten shot.
I'm the guy that got angry in the original thread that this show defamed the real life Merriell Shelton. That they showed him doing degrading stuff that he didn't actually do. That if they really wanted to portray a soldier doing that stuff, then either be honest and show the actual soldier doing what that soldier really did, OR make up a new character to portray that stuff.
Ironic that you use me as a "don't forget..." when you made the most ridiculous statement on this thread. In reality, other posters shouldn't forget that you make incredibly stupid statements.
Don't know why y'all continue to engage with this blowhard.
Oh, I disagree with somebody. That means he must be a "blowhard". Maybe you should look in the mirror.double aught said:
Don't know why y'all continue to engage with this blowhard.
Yep, I've read both books. Excellent reading.LMCane said:Cinco Ranch Aggie said:
I have posted my thoughts on both of these series on these boards several times, but I will boil it down to liking The Pacific more. The characters may have shared very little interaction but that did not lessen them in any way. They were so very well portrayed. I connected with each of their stories in a way that I did not with the characters of Easy Company. That is not to say that they were not portrayed well, but that they did not do as deep of a dive into who these men were simply because they had far more characters, and that would have exploded the show into several more episodes. I had more of a sense of the entirety of the lives of Sledge and Leckie than I did of any of the BoB characters. It was all on screen rather than interviews with the actual men.
I am an avid reader of WWII history for much of my life. I have always preferred reading more about the Pacific over Europe (although in recent years I have taken more of an interest in Europe). Both have their interesting points, but in comparing the 2, the Pacific is simply more visceral, more inhumane, darker. Yes, the Nazis were not misunderstood angels, but the Japs were on a far different level.
Compare what soldiers in Europe were collecting off dead Nazis - guns, knives, flags. In the Pacific, as depicted in the show, they were collecting teeth.
Regarding the Pacific intro, that music was by Hans Zimmer. I have this score in my regular rotation.
Love both these shows, just prefer The Pacific. And so looking forward to Masters of the Air.
it's because The Pacific was actually based on the books by Leckie and Sledge.
rather than a third person Ambrose book.
I find it amazing that you blow past Ack-Ack's death when talking about the camaraderie aspect of the show. Did you watch the episode when he died?aTmAg said:I guess to me, they made this series more about PTSD than about the actual war in the Pacific. So much so, that the show would have been more aptly named "PTSD" instead. I get it that many of them suffered from that. But by focusing so much of the show on that detracted from the big picture.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:For me, the payoff was not watching Sledge sit under a tree but in keeping with the show's overall theme of the brutality of war, and the Pacific conflict in particular, how that impacted his life postwar. The depiction of what we now call PTSD, the nightmares, and then his breakdown while hunting with his dad.aTmAg said:What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
The primary thing The Pacific lacks is the brotherhood aspect of war. I have never fought in a war, but I understand that no bond is closer than between soldiers fighting together in war. Band of Brothers got that across to viewers in spades. Not only were they close to each other, but they made us viewers close to them as well. No show/movie I can think of gives the same nostalgia feeling as the final scene of BoB. However, The Pacific fails miserably on this front. I couldn't care less if Snafu died for example. Or even Leckie and Sledge. Except for Ack-Ack, I didn't care about any of them. Yet you know damn well that the real life soldiers did care a LOT. The show runners failed translating that to film.
It's really good and as a stand-alone there would be no question about it's greatness. Unfortunately, it's tied to BoB. I prefer BoB but I won't argue with anyone that likes the Pacific more and don't see a reason to.
Don't try so hard.
If you say you hate the state of politics in this nation and you don't get involved in it, you obviously don't hate the state of politics in this nation.
You're comparing one show with a cohesive unit to another following separate characters who are largely never connected in any way, shape, or form (they did throw in a scene with Leckie and Sledge but I have my doubts that interaction actually happened). Europe being a single land mass, it makes sense that you'd have a solitary unit that stays together as depicted in BoB. I believe The Pacific also had a sense of that brotherhood you're talking about, but it wasn't the focus (heck, that focus is even in the title, Band of Brothers).aTmAg said:I guess to me, they made this series more about PTSD than about the actual war in the Pacific. So much so, that the show would have been more aptly named "PTSD" instead. I get it that many of them suffered from that. But by focusing so much of the show on that detracted from the big picture.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:For me, the payoff was not watching Sledge sit under a tree but in keeping with the show's overall theme of the brutality of war, and the Pacific conflict in particular, how that impacted his life postwar. The depiction of what we now call PTSD, the nightmares, and then his breakdown while hunting with his dad.aTmAg said:What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
The primary thing The Pacific lacks is the brotherhood aspect of war. I have never fought in a war, but I understand that no bond is closer than between soldiers fighting together in war. Band of Brothers got that across to viewers in spades. Not only were they close to each other, but they made us viewers close to them as well. No show/movie I can think of gives the same nostalgia feeling as the final scene of BoB. However, The Pacific fails miserably on this front. I couldn't care less if Snafu died for example. Or even Leckie and Sledge. Except for Ack-Ack, I didn't care about any of them. Yet you know damn well that the real life soldiers did care a LOT. The show runners failed translating that to film.
You do have a point on the big picture that is lacking somewhat in The Pacific. I'd say that now, as even during the war, many people had never heard of these islands. One island looks like another island, certainly, and this does not allow for an obvious track of history such as following the guys from France into Germany, where architecture and landscapes that are ingrained into our memories make it clear the passage of history. Maybe for me, just knowing that this group was on Guadalcanal, and later some other group is on Peleliu, then here is Basilone at Iwo Jima and later Sledge is at Okinawa, where we see the B-29s fly overhead against that ominous music, lets me know the progression of the historical story.
I have no issue with discussing this or anything else with atmAg, or anyone.double aught said:
Don't know why y'all continue to engage with this blowhard.
We don't have to agree on these shows, but these shows are obviously good for discussion.
Ack-Acks death is different than what I am talking about. Making an emotional character death has been done a thousand times. Besides, I can still name a bunch of character deaths in other shows that was more emotional than Ack-Acks.Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:I find it amazing that you blow past Ack-Ack's death when talking about the camaraderie aspect of the show. Did you watch the episode when he died?aTmAg said:I guess to me, they made this series more about PTSD than about the actual war in the Pacific. So much so, that the show would have been more aptly named "PTSD" instead. I get it that many of them suffered from that. But by focusing so much of the show on that detracted from the big picture.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:For me, the payoff was not watching Sledge sit under a tree but in keeping with the show's overall theme of the brutality of war, and the Pacific conflict in particular, how that impacted his life postwar. The depiction of what we now call PTSD, the nightmares, and then his breakdown while hunting with his dad.aTmAg said:What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
The primary thing The Pacific lacks is the brotherhood aspect of war. I have never fought in a war, but I understand that no bond is closer than between soldiers fighting together in war. Band of Brothers got that across to viewers in spades. Not only were they close to each other, but they made us viewers close to them as well. No show/movie I can think of gives the same nostalgia feeling as the final scene of BoB. However, The Pacific fails miserably on this front. I couldn't care less if Snafu died for example. Or even Leckie and Sledge. Except for Ack-Ack, I didn't care about any of them. Yet you know damn well that the real life soldiers did care a LOT. The show runners failed translating that to film.
It's really good and as a stand-alone there would be no question about it's greatness. Unfortunately, it's tied to BoB. I prefer BoB but I won't argue with anyone that likes the Pacific more and don't see a reason to.
Don't try so hard.
What I'm talking about is the group comradery aspect. That is done better in BoB than any show I can think of, and barely done at all in The Pacific. I re-watched The Pacific a week or two ago, and I still can't even remember what company they were a part of. Yet somebody who has watched BoB once many year ago can tell you it was about Easy Company of the 101st.
I think it would have been better if they completely blew off Leckie's story line and followed Sledge the entire series. Leckie was boring anyway (especially the leave and nuthouse episodes). Maybe start with Sledge's group before he showed up and then focus on Sledge from then on. They could have started with Ack Ack as their own Dick Winter's like character who get's killed. Now that would have been shocking.
That interaction between Sledge and Leckie did not happen. I looked it up last week when I rewatched.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:You're comparing one show with a cohesive unit to another following separate characters who are largely never connected in any way, shape, or form (they did throw in a scene with Leckie and Sledge but I have my doubts that interaction actually happened). Europe being a single land mass, it makes sense that you'd have a solitary unit that stays together as depicted in BoB. I believe The Pacific also had a sense of that brotherhood you're talking about, but it wasn't the focus (heck, that focus is even in the title, Band of Brothers).aTmAg said:I guess to me, they made this series more about PTSD than about the actual war in the Pacific. So much so, that the show would have been more aptly named "PTSD" instead. I get it that many of them suffered from that. But by focusing so much of the show on that detracted from the big picture.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:For me, the payoff was not watching Sledge sit under a tree but in keeping with the show's overall theme of the brutality of war, and the Pacific conflict in particular, how that impacted his life postwar. The depiction of what we now call PTSD, the nightmares, and then his breakdown while hunting with his dad.aTmAg said:What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
The primary thing The Pacific lacks is the brotherhood aspect of war. I have never fought in a war, but I understand that no bond is closer than between soldiers fighting together in war. Band of Brothers got that across to viewers in spades. Not only were they close to each other, but they made us viewers close to them as well. No show/movie I can think of gives the same nostalgia feeling as the final scene of BoB. However, The Pacific fails miserably on this front. I couldn't care less if Snafu died for example. Or even Leckie and Sledge. Except for Ack-Ack, I didn't care about any of them. Yet you know damn well that the real life soldiers did care a LOT. The show runners failed translating that to film.
You do have a point on the big picture that is lacking somewhat in The Pacific. I'd say that now, as even during the war, many people had never heard of these islands. One island looks like another island, certainly, and this does not allow for an obvious track of history such as following the guys from France into Germany, where architecture and landscapes that are ingrained into our memories make it clear the passage of history. Maybe for me, just knowing that this group was on Guadalcanal, and later some other group is on Peleliu, then here is Basilone at Iwo Jima and later Sledge is at Okinawa, where we see the B-29s fly overhead against that ominous music, lets me know the progression of the historical story.
I agree 100% on having to follow separate characters and groups. They were hamstrung by that. But I think they hamstrung themselves. They should have just picked one (I think Sledge story was more interesting). See my previous post about that.
my paternal grandfather was shot down in a B-24 over Yugoslaviajbanda said:
I read the book a while back. Excellent read and I'm very much looking forward to the show, but it's going to be heartbreaking. If you've read anything at all about the 8th Air Force, that's not a spoiler.
that has to be truly terrifying in every aspect.
and my answer is Band of Brothers is better
maybe because I like armor and the issues of command in BOB was far superior to really just watching mass carnage in the Pacific.
also I hate the Nazis more than the Imperial Japanese (although they deserved to get the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
maybe because I like armor and the issues of command in BOB was far superior to really just watching mass carnage in the Pacific.
also I hate the Nazis more than the Imperial Japanese (although they deserved to get the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
Your post brought up one complaint I had with Pacific. I felt like it wasn't that easy to get a grasp of the passage of time. It never really sucked me in so maybe I missed some clues that would have helped or places where they showed the passage of time. One example of this was towards the end after the Okinawa battle when they talk about dropping the bomb on Japan which in reality was like 2 months after the fighting ended there.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:You're comparing one show with a cohesive unit to another following separate characters who are largely never connected in any way, shape, or form (they did throw in a scene with Leckie and Sledge but I have my doubts that interaction actually happened). Europe being a single land mass, it makes sense that you'd have a solitary unit that stays together as depicted in BoB. I believe The Pacific also had a sense of that brotherhood you're talking about, but it wasn't the focus (heck, that focus is even in the title, Band of Brothers).aTmAg said:I guess to me, they made this series more about PTSD than about the actual war in the Pacific. So much so, that the show would have been more aptly named "PTSD" instead. I get it that many of them suffered from that. But by focusing so much of the show on that detracted from the big picture.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:For me, the payoff was not watching Sledge sit under a tree but in keeping with the show's overall theme of the brutality of war, and the Pacific conflict in particular, how that impacted his life postwar. The depiction of what we now call PTSD, the nightmares, and then his breakdown while hunting with his dad.aTmAg said:What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
The primary thing The Pacific lacks is the brotherhood aspect of war. I have never fought in a war, but I understand that no bond is closer than between soldiers fighting together in war. Band of Brothers got that across to viewers in spades. Not only were they close to each other, but they made us viewers close to them as well. No show/movie I can think of gives the same nostalgia feeling as the final scene of BoB. However, The Pacific fails miserably on this front. I couldn't care less if Snafu died for example. Or even Leckie and Sledge. Except for Ack-Ack, I didn't care about any of them. Yet you know damn well that the real life soldiers did care a LOT. The show runners failed translating that to film.
You do have a point on the big picture that is lacking somewhat in The Pacific. I'd say that now, as even during the war, many people had never heard of these islands. One island looks like another island, certainly, and this does not allow for an obvious track of history such as following the guys from France into Germany, where architecture and landscapes that are ingrained into our memories make it clear the passage of history. Maybe for me, just knowing that this group was on Guadalcanal, and later some other group is on Peleliu, then here is Basilone at Iwo Jima and later Sledge is at Okinawa, where we see the B-29s fly overhead against that ominous music, lets me know the progression of the historical story.
I think BoB is far better, but I think the Japanese were far worse and more deserving of the ass kicking they received. It annoys me how they are given a near free pass in the history books compared to the Germans. One Nazi, John Rabe, became the Oskar Schindler for the Chinese being slaughtered by the Japanese. It's damn bad when you are so twisted that the even the Nazis are disgusted by you.LMCane said:
and my answer is Band of Brothers is better
maybe because I like armor and the issues of command in BOB was far superior to really just watching mass carnage in the Pacific.
also I hate the Nazis more than the Imperial Japanese (although they deserved to get the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
aTmAg said:That interaction between Sledge and Leckie did not happen. I looked it up last week when I rewatched.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:You're comparing one show with a cohesive unit to another following separate characters who are largely never connected in any way, shape, or form (they did throw in a scene with Leckie and Sledge but I have my doubts that interaction actually happened). Europe being a single land mass, it makes sense that you'd have a solitary unit that stays together as depicted in BoB. I believe The Pacific also had a sense of that brotherhood you're talking about, but it wasn't the focus (heck, that focus is even in the title, Band of Brothers).aTmAg said:I guess to me, they made this series more about PTSD than about the actual war in the Pacific. So much so, that the show would have been more aptly named "PTSD" instead. I get it that many of them suffered from that. But by focusing so much of the show on that detracted from the big picture.Cinco Ranch Aggie said:For me, the payoff was not watching Sledge sit under a tree but in keeping with the show's overall theme of the brutality of war, and the Pacific conflict in particular, how that impacted his life postwar. The depiction of what we now call PTSD, the nightmares, and then his breakdown while hunting with his dad.aTmAg said:What payoff? They just come home and stuff. Watching sledge sit around under a tree and Leckie try to pick up a girl is boring.OldArmy71 said:
There is a payoff in the last episode.
Stick with it.
If you are talking about the credits where they show pictures of the actors with the real life guys and describe how they ended up, then that is good. Though I prefer how BoB did it with the baseball game.
The primary thing The Pacific lacks is the brotherhood aspect of war. I have never fought in a war, but I understand that no bond is closer than between soldiers fighting together in war. Band of Brothers got that across to viewers in spades. Not only were they close to each other, but they made us viewers close to them as well. No show/movie I can think of gives the same nostalgia feeling as the final scene of BoB. However, The Pacific fails miserably on this front. I couldn't care less if Snafu died for example. Or even Leckie and Sledge. Except for Ack-Ack, I didn't care about any of them. Yet you know damn well that the real life soldiers did care a LOT. The show runners failed translating that to film.
You do have a point on the big picture that is lacking somewhat in The Pacific. I'd say that now, as even during the war, many people had never heard of these islands. One island looks like another island, certainly, and this does not allow for an obvious track of history such as following the guys from France into Germany, where architecture and landscapes that are ingrained into our memories make it clear the passage of history. Maybe for me, just knowing that this group was on Guadalcanal, and later some other group is on Peleliu, then here is Basilone at Iwo Jima and later Sledge is at Okinawa, where we see the B-29s fly overhead against that ominous music, lets me know the progression of the historical story.
I agree 100% on having to follow separate characters and groups. They were hamstrung by that. But I think they hamstrung themselves. They should have just picked one (I think Sledge story was more interesting). See my previous post about that.
I am actually glad they took multiple perspectives. The Pacific is about the all encompassing topic of brutal warfare and what it does to men and why. It's not a single human interest story and was never meant to be. You get the man who was basically an auxiliary and his story, the regular grunt that everyone can identify with and then the war hero and his thoughts and emotions. Watching each of them go through what they did gave a great account of the whole equation which was the Pacific campaign and the effect it had.
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