The Pacific

****Spoiler Alert***** This program follows 3 Marine heroes, their comrades and their sacrifice against a fearless enemy. You will feel every emotion as you watch this epic series. There are several scenes that will never leave your mind. This is an accurate depiction of combat in the Pacific theatre. Its very inhumane at times and not always easy to watch. Having said that-its something everyone should see, regardless of your interest in World War 2. The level of detail and battle sequences are amazing. The amphibious landings and the hell thats thrown at these guys is unthinkable. The fact that the Pacific war isn't covered enough, makes this educational for some and intriguing to everyone. Thanks to Clint Eastwoods great movies(Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags Of Our Fathers) and Speilberg/Hanks -The Pacific, we are starting to get some great coverage in this area. Of more importance, the men who gave so much are getting the recognition they deserve. I have read some of the other reviews here and I can't understand the anti- reviews. This is not Band Of Brothers Part 2, its not trying to be that series. This series is much more personal. We get to see how bad the fighting was and how it changes these men. This series focuses on 3 marines, instead of a platoon of guys and their leaders. Band Of Brothers is awesome, everyone knows that. BOB was also 8 years ago and its had its day in the sun. We all have it on dvd and will enjoy it the rest of our lives. I think some people have let the past 8 years of BOB marinate in their minds. Instead of coming into this series with an open mind, people were ready to pick it apart, because they love BOB so much. I think once this set comes out on blu ray and you can spend a weekend enjoying what a great series it is, you will see that it stands on its own. I heard one guy after the first episode say " its slow, I hope it will pick up" . The first episode of BOB was boot camp and getting ready for D-day- that was a slow episode, but very enjoyable- just like this episode one. But in this series the marines are already on Guadalcanal and the action has begun in earnest.Makes no sense. One of many aspects I enjoy about The Pacific is the time the soldiers spend away from the battlefield. I think they do a great job showing whats on these guys minds, what they have to fight for and how their fate on the battlefield effects so many. Theres an episode where they are stationed in Australia and you can see how some Aussies can't wait for them to leave. While others fall in love with the soldiers or welcome them into their lives. Its a dynamic of war that is easier to cover in a series this long. The Marines weren't just fighting a fearless, well trained enemy- they were fighting the jungle as well. Which is also well covered in the series. I can't imagine living in these conditions, let alone fighting the Japanese. The diseases and lack of proper supplies killed thousands of soldiers(on both sides), who didn't have the chance to decide their fate on the field. The acting is well done by the 3 main performers portraying Basilone, Leckie and Sledge. The chemistry between Jon Seda(Basilone) and Annie Parrise(Lena) is hard to find. I thought the episode where they meet, fall in love , marry and seperate because of Basilone's Iwo Jima mission was one of the best in the series. It seemed like every episode was better than the previous. It kept getting better. There are many episodes and moments that make this great. The 3 episodes that encompass the Pelieu battle are intense, brutal and realistic for battle. I feel like the brutality and ruthless battle of the Pacific war is captured very well here. This warfare is much different from the European theatre. The Japanese won't surrender when the odds look grim like the Germans did countless times. It gives the viewer an idea of how savage the fighting in the Pacific would have been. There is a scene where the Marines are trying to cross an airfield- but the Japanese are waiting and ready. The following moments are above what we have seen in Saving Private Ryan for graphic war violence. For a good while its unrelenting. Another moment that will stay with you is when Sledge is on Okinawa- the last battle. He enters a small shelter to find a crying baby. When he looks around he finds a woman close to death. She wants him to kill her to end her pain, even putting his gun to her head. But he is done killing. Its a powerful moment. There are good hearted moments to find too. The episode where the Marines are in Australia is great. And the final episode finds the soldiers trying to make a life for themselves in post war America. Several find love and begin fresh. Leckie(James Dale)who earler in Australia lost love, finds love with the woman he had been writing too throughout the war. Although he never sends the letters- figuring he wouldn't survive the war! The people who made the Island sets should be given praise too. The battlefields are very realistic. The special features are definatley worth your time. The first section covers several marines with profiles lasting around 10 minutes per marine. Some of the interviews are from several years ago, when they were still alive. Its priceless archival footage of our countries heroes. There is a making of "The Pacific" feature that covers all the research that went into making th sets and recreating the battles. Extremely impressive! This is top shelf film making here. The final section covers the reasons for the savagery of both sides in this war. As well as helping some to understand the conflicts of cultures. I would recommend this series to anyone who has an interest in World War 2, film making, great story telling and those who like to feel the spectrum of emotions when watching something this good.

I got this a while back on Amazon and just got around to viewing it. I got it because I loved Band of Brothers and expected this would be just as good. It didn't disappoint. The production values are amazing, the actors are great and the suffering of war is tangible. There are scenes that remind me of Band of Brothers, even some of the dialogue is the same, and I actually liked the familiarity. I appreciated the fear and the suffering and the savagery of war. Spielberg and Hanks are very good at picking writers and directors and the ones on The Pacific really come through with a fine story. There is some political correctness which some viewers might not appreciate. The Japanese are not seen that often, but there is one scene where a Marine medal of honor winner praises them as determined warriors, etc. In truth, they were not. One only needs to watch a documentary on the Bataan Death March to know what kind of warriors they were, not to mention the cowardly sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. But that stuff aside, it really is a good miniseries. Compared to Band of Brothers, it doesn't hold up as well. Band of Brothers takes the viewer from training to D-Day to the German surrender (amazing scenes there) and on to VE-Day, and what happens to everybody afterwards. The Pacific doesn't do that. So that was the only thing that disappointed me. I was hoping for the same kind of set-up. I did learn a tremendous amount about what the war was like in the Pacific, thanks to the Spielberg/Hanks meticulous attention to detail. One other important point: You have a choice on viewing options. You can choose to play each episode with "historical background." Choose that option. You will be glad you did because before the segment starts, you will hear from actual Marines who were there, just like in Band of Brothers where you heard from Dick Winters and the others. This is the best part of the series. Hearing directly from the actual Marines is humbling and enlightening. It makes you grateful to the men and women who made it possible to continue the way of life we all enjoy. One other thing, on disc 6 there are interviews some of the Marines depicted in the episodes. Wow, what a wonderful collection of interviews with these men, and in the case of the men who'd already died, their families. This is well-worth the price of the set. I highly recommend this. Bottom line, this is another great series from Spielberg/Hanks.

Great series of WW 2 movies on the Pacific theatre.

After reading the negative and positive reviews of the The Pacific and finally viewing the DVD set, I have to say that the series is just astounding. First of all, comparisons to Band of Brothers (BoB) is inevitable but unnecessary given that the battles in the European and the Pacific theatres were fundamentally different as any professional and avid historian will tell you. The documentary included in the DVD states this quite poignantly. As a result, the format and the presentation of the Pacific departs from BoB in that it focuses on 3 Marines (and not an entire combat unit as in BoB), and is much darker and cynical given that the Japanese and the Pacific War in general were far more brutal and savage to the American soldier. If you can understand these differences, the Pacific truly shines as it powerfully conveys how the 3 Marines change from gung-ho idealism to men emotionally and physically tempered by unrestrained combat, a relentless enemy, a brutal environment, and survivor's guilt. And who are these Marines ? John Basilone, a true-believer of the Marine Corp, who wins the Medal of Honor in Guadacanal, but perishes in Iwo Jima. Throughout the story, you get the sense that he is on borrowed time, but nevertheless lives his life to the fullest knowing well and good that death awaits him. Bob Leckie, a Marine who enters the Pacific war not completely understanding what he has gotten into, and as a result finds himself on the brink of insanity as he struggles to make sense of the violence around him. And Eugene Sledge, a Marine who at moments of vicious fighting in Okinawa, finds and loses his humanity, and is left to question why he enlisted, the necessity of the war itself, and why he survived when others did not. In this vein, the Pacific is vastly more psychological than physical which is truly where the conflict lies in each man. Not to say that the violent battles depicted in the series are cheap and gratuitous. Quite the contrary. They are brutally realistic and assault the very core of these Marines, who are left to comprehend and survive a vicious world turned upside down. For the reasons cited above, the Pacific is worth owning as it serves to better understand the WWII experience. You won't be disappointed !!

The Pacific Theater interests me more than the European, probably because my Dad was a WW2 Marine and because I heard stories about it from other Pacific veterans. I suppose it is almost a matter of worship for me, because the Dads on my block were almost all Marine and Navy veterans of WW2. I have also read extensively on the subject. That being said, this is a very well told video rendition of the Pacific War. The gear is authentic. The acting is very good. The battle scenes are so vivid and violent that I wanted them to end. However, I think that the Marines are portrayed as being less likable in this series than were the soldiers in "Band of Brothers." They are often brutal, but the brutality of the Japanese, which engendered the Marines' response, is not adequately explored. There are three main characters Leckie, Sledge, and Basilone. In the case of Sledge, the Marines in his unit are depicted as being quite different than the people described by Sledge in his memoir, "With The Old Breed." Indeed, it is hard to find a hero in either Sledge's or Leckie's units. There were many scenes in the series which were recognizable interpretations of incidents in Sledge's memoir, but in almost every case, the Marines were depicted as being more brutal than depicted by Sledge, and/or the justification of the Marines' violent reaction was omitted. For instance, in one scene of the video, Sledge and his buddy accost a Japanese POW on a muddy trail and are only prevented from harming him by officers. In Sledge's book, the POW initiated the confrontation by stepping into the path of the Marines, taking an aggressive stance, and refusing to budge. I haven't re-read Leckie's book, "Helmet For My Pillow" since I watched the video, so I can't speak how close the video followed Leckie's story, but Leckie does not come across as a particularly admirable person in the series. Of the three main characters only John Basilone comes across as a true hero. Yes, at first he drinks and womanizes when off duty, but he never falters in performing his duty. The baseball game scene at the end of "Band Of Brothers" was a masterful way to complete the series, and "The Pacific" ends with individual wrap-ups of the lives of the surviving characters and/or their relatives. It was not as touching, but the format of the series made it necessary. "Band of Brothers" did not attempt to take the viewer through the war from the first US ground campaign to its end the way "The Pacific" did. I think that "The Pacific" should have been told the way "Band of Brothers" was - as one unit's struggle through the war from that unit's first campaign to its last. The musical score is definitely not memorable, either. So to summarize, this was the greatest video/series/movie ever made about the Pacific War, but it could have been better.

The negative: This was a gift, but I didn't have the opportunity to watch it until early August 2013. Disk number Five is defective. I placed it into two different DVD players, and it caused both players to become "hung up" after the first introductory picture. No sound either. Other DVDs are playing very well, and the first four DVDs in the series played without incident. Since Disk Five holds the last two episodes of the series, this was a huge disappointment! What is even more disappointing is that Amazon's policy for returns does not cover this expensive boxed set. The set was purchased in February 2013, but Amazon will not honor the return now. And I am a current PRIME customer as well; however, I was not at the time this was purchased. So, I'm uncertain what to do...but I cannot afford to buy another boxed set of the series...and I don't think that it is possible to find only Disk Five for sale. The positive: The first four DVDs were excellent. Fantastic picture and high quality sound. The movie effects are first rate, and Tom Hanks did a wonderful job of directing. The drama is so realistic that you can sometimes believe that you are actually in the midst of the scenes. Character development was slow compared to "Band of Brothers". After the first hour of that series, you knew the characters names and could easily identify them from there on. In "The Pacific", it took almost three episodes, before I could even recognize the main characters. However, about time I was really getting into the later episodes, the Disk Number Five issue arose. My father was a Marine in WWII and he passed on in the early nineties. He seldom would talk about the war, but I know that he trained men in the Second Marine Division for the war in the Pacific. He did tell me about Chesty Puller, and also about some of his buddies. I was really looking forward to seeing "The Pacific" as a way of remembering him. I guess that won't happen now. At least I got to see Guadalcanal and Peleliu. It helped me to understand my father a lot better. Loved the story, but.....

It’s a must watch. A glimpse of what those guys (my dad) endured. Based on actual people and events.

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, along with a host of excellent directors and actors, have combined to make a mini-series that is sure to be regarded as one of the best-ever. Similar to its predecessor "Band of Brothers", "The Pacific" takes a look at the war in the Pacific through the eyes of the Marines who fought there. Three Marines are featured throughout the series: Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello), Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), and John Basilone (John Seda). Through the different campaigns fought by these men, the viewer gets a true, authentic, and often horrifying idea of what the war in the Pacific was really like. Sledge, plagued by a heart murmur, enlisted later than most of his friends, including his long-time buddy Sid Phillips, but he did see action on Pelelieu and Okinawa. Somewhat introverted and hesitant at first, by the end of the Okinawa campaign, Sledge had turned into an effective killing machine, showing little compassion for the Japanese. later in life, Sledge wrote "With the Old Breed at Pelelieu and Okinawa", largely regarded as one of the best narratives of the Pacific war ever written. Robert Leckie signed up a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. An aspiring writer, Leckie served on Guadalcanal, Cape Glouster, and Pelelieu before being wounded. While on leave in Australia, he fell in love with a woman named Stella, only to be spurned later by her. He wrote letters to his neighbor Vera most frequently, and he ended up marrying her. He also wrote the excellent books "Helmet for my Pillow" and "Strong Men Armed". John Basilone served as a machine gunner on Guadalcanal. One night in October, 1942, Basilone single-handedly killed upwards of twenty Japanese while facing constant enemy fire. He also risked his life by running to the rear for more ammo. For his actions, John was awarded the Medal of Honor. He was then sent home to participate in a war bond tour. But, his heart was still with his fellow Marines. He managed to persuade his superiors to allow him to go back into combat, and he participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima. Quite simply, this is one of the absolute BEST series I've ever seen. The acting is top-notch, the battle scenes were painstakingly re-created to provide the utmost in authenticity, and the "extras" disc provides information on how the series was made, along with mini-biographies of the major participants. I've read many books about the war in the Pacific and I've seen many movies, too, but few of them compare to the job that this fine series does in describing the Pacific war. Highly, highly recommended.

OK. Perfect

The set arrived in good shape and at a fair price. As for the movie, it too is good, very well done, very graphic, but, not nearly as good as Band of Brothers.

I love this show! I watched Band of Brothers about a year ago and enjoyed it a lot. I love war shows/movies, especially WW2. Band of Brothers was missing a bit for me though. It was a little too hollywood in my opinion. But....The Pacific on the other hand....definitely not! They showed all the bad and terrible. They didn't try to make it all seem like a glorious victory. The true side of many awful soldiers and the pain and suffering of others was shown throughout the series. There was a lot more action in this as well. I definitely enjoyed this more than Band of Brothers. It is on my shelf with the rest of my all time favourites now.

Even though I'm not quite done it yet, I find the Pacific extremely heavy--it's not as entertaining as Band of Brothers, the characters are not quite as lovable, and the themes seem considerably darker. Notwithstanding, the acting, cinematography, and budget all seem a step up. Overall, these factors combine to make it feel more realistic and less "hollywood" than BoB. In summary: an excellent series, especially if you want to know more about the American Pacific Assault, but very emotionally intense.

The best WWII war movie and HBO mini series I've ever watched. Truly a five star show. Congratulations to the producers, directors and actors and crews for making this magnificent movie. I highly recommend this show.