What made Band of Brothers work so well was that you were with the company of soldiers throughout the entire series. You saw them go through training, you saw them wait and wait for their number to be called for the war and then you saw them in the war. You felt everything they did and you followed closely in their footsteps, so close that you understood how everyone felt by the end of the series during their baseball game together. You were put in this contained world with this soldiers and you basically traveled with them for the entire time.
The Pacific works the opposite side of that coin. In The Pacific you don’t get the full treatment of following the men from privates to officers. Instead of focusing on a group of soldiers, the series mainly focuses on three men (Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone) fighting in different combat actions. While these men are the focus, the main focus is the action and what’s going through their minds as they progress forward in some of the most brutal battles recorded in World War II. They grow and change as the war progresses in the pacific, which is powerful when you see how they started and how they ended up (some endings are harsher than others).
What I particularly like about this series is that it spans out and tells a bit more about the war. Unlike Band of Brothers, which focuses really more on the men and less on the progression of battle (and there isn’t anything wrong with that), you get a bit more of both worlds with The Pacific. For me that was something lacking in Band of Brothers, though not by much. Seeing the war in the Pacific Theater Operations (PTO) was definitely a different situation, which might have contributed to kind of the different feel to the overall storyline. Seeing men sit around and wait for the war on a beach, to Marines storming rocky islands in search for Japanese soldiers is a different world than the fight in Europe against the Germans. It’s a lot more raw and tougher in a since (not to take anything away from the European battle). What’s great about this focus is that many people who aren’t war buffs simply aren’t aware of what went on in the pacific. I know that I had never seen a film (outside of Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima in 2006) that had detailed stories of the war in the pacific and just how positively brutal it was on the Marines.
What also makes The Pacific so interesting, and deadly, is that the Japanese way of fighting is closer to an ‘honorable’ terrorist (if there is such a thing). How they executed fighting, battles and such was so incredibly different than the Germans. From the first couple of episodes you fully understand that the Japanese don’t fight the conventional way that you saw in Band of Brothers. For example, you see an American soldier helping a wounded (not armed) Japanese soldier from a pile of bodies, only to see him blow up himself and the soldier helping him. You know immediately that the Japanese would rather die than to be captured or dishonored, which is quite frightening. This type of stuff will simply put you on the edge of your seats the entire series.
I have to commend Spielberg, Hanks, writer Bruce McKenna (especially McKenna) and crew for not only finding the memoirs (With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene Sledge and Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie) to base The Pacific off of, but also producing a different formula from their hit Band of Brothers. It’s easy to simply reproduce the same harsh (but effective) formula of following another band of soldiers together through what many consider the greatest war in history. If they had done the exact same thing with The Pacific as they did with Band of Brothers it certainly would have worked out fine, but they chose a different route and it paid off. The pay off of the series is that you can watch both (Band of Brothers and The Pacific) and still walk away with two completely different feelings. The Pacific made me feel relieved that I got through it, as if I was experiencing the same fate as these men. Band of Brothers made me feel relieved that a good portion of the company survived the war.
At the end of it all, The Pacific is certainly worth the experience and the dose of reality in war. It tells a beautiful, haunting side of the war in the pacific that most people simply have no clue about. It does it in a way that you want to turn away, but you want to experience at the same time. It’s truly something to behold and it’s worthy of the same praise that Band of Brothers received when it was first shown.
Another tough war and another great story on film. People going into this expecting another Band of Brothers should prepare themselves for an entirely new, in a good way, experience and take on the war in the pacific.
Now, much like Band of Brothers, you will want to watch The Pacific on Blu-ray. Like everything that HBO brings to Blu-ray (including our upcoming Deadwood: The Complete Series review) it’s of the highest possible quality. The Pacific has a gorgeous 1080p set of visuals with no grainy moments included. You will see everything in gorgeous (sometimes gross) HD. For example, when you see the first scene of our guys making their way to the first beach to find Japanese soldiers you will simply be in awe of how gorgeous the water looks, how gray the skies are and how scared everyone looks in the boat. Details simply shine through in this Blu-ray and even ones you don’t want to see. Another example is when soldiers come up on a Japanese post and there is a dead Japanese soldier sitting upright with the top part of his head missing (including the brains). One of the Marines sits above the man and begins to drop rocks into the bloody pool where his brain use to be. The rock dropping and the splashing of the liquid is positively one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen in a war show. It’s accurate, disturbing and extremely detailed. You may not appreciate the HD right away, but you’ll understand the high quality it brings and what it does to you as a viewer seeing such a disgusting scene in high definition.
Ugh, still makes my stomach turn, but I appreciate the detail.
Anyway, you get some fantastic quality from this show on Blu-ray. It provides a more powerful, immersive experience that will leave you a bit uncomfortable, but that’s why you want to watch this show. You are looking to get close, gritty details on a war you may not know much about. The Pacific on Blu-ray will provide such an experience.
Rivaling the visuals, if not surpassing them, is the audio. Coming to you in DTS-HD 5.1 you will hear all the explosions, the movements and uncertainty that you can handle via audio. Explosions and grotesque sounds aside, you also get a beautiful musical composition from Blake Neely, Geoff Zanelli and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer especially adds his own bit of flavor and drama through the soundtrack and helps push through some of the most terrifying and emotional portions of the film. You’ll especially appreciate it when you see PFC Robert Leckie’s (played by James Badge Dale) love affair in Australia and how well the music draws you into it (it’s simply stunning).
Finally, you get a nice set of special features. The Pacific Field Guide feature is positively one of the most fascinating features I’ve seen on a Blu-ray. You basically get a nice interactive field guide on the major events that occurred during the war in the pacific. It’s backed up by interviews and actual footage of the events. It’s quite intriguing and powerful to see and hear some of the real events featured in the series. Also featured is a ‘making of’ feature that gives you a lot more insight to how the production was put together (positively interesting) and a nice picture-in-picture enhanced viewing option.
Seriously, you get one of the most detailed, most well thought out set of features to perfectly compliment a war based series like The Pacific. It’s absolutely incredible to see in action and you’ll be happy with what you get.