World War II Cinema Part 2: The Pacific Miniseries

[00:00:12] Hello everyone, welcome back to the Film Buds podcast. This is our 25th bonus show and my name is Henry. Just me this time around once again but hey hope that's alright with you. This time I'm gonna be talking about The Pacific, the HBO

[00:00:32] miniseries which is the follow-up to Band of Brothers which I just did on the last bonus show so make sure to check that out if you have not already. Thank you very much for downloading. If you downloaded it through our Bandcamp page

[00:00:44] thank you for those donations and if you or if you got it through the main feed once it came out thank you very much and we hope you subscribe, rate, tell your friends, follow us on Letterboxd, all that stuff. Like Band of Brothers this is

[00:00:56] one that I've been wanting to talk about for a long time. I've loved it for you know over a decade now. Band of Brothers for about one and a half decades so yeah well The Pacific you know this one follows as where Band of Brothers was

[00:01:09] the European sector of World War II. This one is as the title suggests is the Pacific theater also produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. One interesting thing is this series cost about 200 million to produce which at the time

[00:01:26] which was 2010 was the highest most expensive TV series ever produced to that date so which I thought was pretty interesting I didn't know that. So little background so Band of Brothers I had seen Band of Brothers long before this

[00:01:40] one and I think I had heard about it maybe I was a little skeptical about it but then I got to maybe 2011, 2012 something like that and still really really enjoyed it. As I said on the Band of Brothers show I love World War II

[00:01:55] history both all fronts all sectors of it I just I'm fascinated by it and The Pacific theater is no different I mean it was just a unbelievable time and as she says every part of the war was but the you know Pacific was a pretty

[00:02:10] pretty violent pretty brutal unforgiving part of the war and even looking at you know that the European front so it is a very interesting setting for a series like this and considering who was involved couldn't really be better and

[00:02:25] HBO was definitely the right pick to do it once again. Yeah well let's get into it so as I said it came out in 2010 the synopsis is The Pacific theater of World War II as seen through the eyes of several young Marines. This one stars

[00:02:39] James Badgedale, Joseph Mazzello, John Ceda, Ashton Holmes, Josh Hellman, Rami Malek, Keith Knobs, John Bernthal, William Sadler, Colin O'Farrill and some others as well but this one like Band of Brothers was a 10 episode series and I

[00:02:59] do want to talk about my top three favorites and my least favorite as well so overall I think the series is a very definitely a landmark show. The storytelling, the story itself, the direction, the characters, the writing

[00:03:14] everything is so top tier. I do think now it's a high bar I do think it is inferior to Band of Brothers which you know I would give five out of five this one is spoiler four and a half out of five for me there are I think

[00:03:30] whenever it's actually dealing with the combat part of the war itself it's amazing not necessarily just because of the action but I think just the stories within that world are incredible and very you know impactful and memorable

[00:03:44] whereas I feel like when it dips into when it takes breaks from the warfront for whatever reason it's just not as interesting to me as it was in Band of Brothers and I don't know if that's because of pacing, the script, I'm not

[00:03:59] sure. Not a huge deal but I do think it is slightly inferior to Band of Brothers. The characters and the performances, the score, cinematography, the action all that is incredible and it hasn't really been matched all

[00:04:11] that well since I don't think. Same thing with Band of Brothers you know there aren't many movies that come close to these shows I think so yeah Band of Brothers I'll give five out of five heavy five out of five six out of five.

[00:04:24] So talking about you know favorite episodes so this one starts follows you know Eugene Sledge which is based off you know his book he's back in stateside and he's wanting to enlist in the Marines but he has this heart murmur that

[00:04:38] is preventing him but he's anxious to go because everyone else he knows is going his best friends are going and enlisting eventually he gets his chance and he's shipped off to the Pacific and that's you know that's really where it gets

[00:04:50] into the the island hopping as they called it you know Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Peleliu all those ones that they just go from one to another to another to another and that's something that is different from Band of Brothers

[00:05:03] where but one thing I will say I think this is the case for this series and Band of Brothers even though documentaries are important I feel like you could show this to you know a high school class college class and like

[00:05:15] people would understand like so much about the war the environment the atmosphere the violence all you know the impact all that I think people would understand it by watching this series and not like in a cheap way I feel like

[00:05:27] yeah you should supplement this with a documentary you know hey dates you know people all this stuff but I feel like watching the Pacific you understand the Pacific was hell same thing with Band of Brothers on the European front like you

[00:05:39] understand those conditions as well as as best you could for being a dramatization you know so I think that is something that Spielberg does very well in in movies but also you know in being a producer behind the series so top

[00:05:56] three episodes so I think this the first one Guadalcanal where it's starting out where you see everyone either enlisting already in the Marines waiting to ship out or with you know Eugene Sledge desperately trying to enlist because of

[00:06:10] his medical condition I think that's all a great start and I think it might be better than Band of Brothers is first episode I think this one is a little bit better and a little bit quicker to get into things then also it ends with them

[00:06:22] getting to Guadalcanal and just how horrible Guadalcanal was as opposed I mean all the all of them were horrible but each island having its specific challenges the night ambush is great so intense so chilling and harrowing fantastic into the episode episode one you know Guadalcanal

[00:06:43] fantastic start to the show then part four which is Pavuvu which is where Eugene Sledge finally gets approval for his heart murmur and he's able to enlist you know because the first episode starts with him dealing with that and

[00:06:57] then it kind of diverts away from him for a while then when his story happens you know he's he is able to enlist and he's shipped off to the Pacific and you know one thing with the Pacific was the as opposed to like the cold of the

[00:07:10] European front during the winter the extreme heat the constant rains just you know the swamp swamp like conditions which is awful conditions heat everything was pretty horrific and that's all portrayed very very well and you feel

[00:07:26] that grime and that how gross it was and how just unforgiving that climate was for those soldiers to be in at the time as well as having to fight you know stay strong and stay healthy fantastic episode and I think Eugene Sledge is my

[00:07:41] probably the most interesting character to me he is obviously the author which makes sense but I think his story from being this very innocent young kid to being this very hard and marine feels a very genuine and it doesn't feel put on

[00:07:56] or fake it feels like you could see why he would feel that way by the end of the war or by the by the end of his time there a great character arc and it's the

[00:08:05] same thing with band of brothers it's both are incredibly well done and I think for this series honestly I'm gonna pick four because they kind of run together a little bit for me then the next one is the Peleliu airfield would

[00:08:15] be which is episode 6 and this is you know Peleliu was it's hell to get on intense fighting just getting on to the island and then the main objective as the title suggests is taking this airfield there's issues with clean water

[00:08:30] Japanese getting more and more desperate you know with the booby traps and all this really cruel stuff that would maim and kill the Marines again you feel those conditions and you feel how scary that would actually be as best

[00:08:45] you could you know just being a viewer so all that is great and you know Eugene really gets a pretty crazy start to his war you know just being immediately being fired upon and being in this one of the worst battles of the war as most

[00:08:58] of these islands were so it's mostly a an action episode but that's you know still works really well fantastic episode and yeah I think I will go and pick one more because I feel like that they are pretty different and my other

[00:09:12] favorite one would be Okinawa which is episode 9 and this is where you know Eugene sledge has really become hardened he's become unforgiving he's tired of war he's he doesn't have as much sympathy but you know Okinawa had some

[00:09:25] of the worst climate conditions of the war and this is where was really one of the final islands so the Japanese were like at their breaking point so they're doing anything possible to stop the Marines and also that this island deals

[00:09:38] with civilians on the island committing suicide and all these horrible things because of what the Japanese told them and the civilians getting caught in the crossfire and then just having to move on really not being able to help them

[00:09:50] all that stuff is very so heartbreaking and tragic and you just see how anyone would be turned into a complete stone-faced killer in that kind of environment and how much of a toll it will take on you afterwards but yeah

[00:10:04] this is where you know they Eugene sledges stops caring about the Japanese suffering and he just wants to get through it he's lost too many friends is ready to be done with this war and out of it and is losing his mind really so

[00:10:18] it's a fantastic episode as sad as it is it's very grueling to get through you understand you know the horror of that kind of war of that conflict then talking about my least favorite as I was mentioning earlier I think episode 3

[00:10:32] called Melbourne which is where the series kind of takes a break from the war itself I think it's the weakest episode I feel like it almost didn't even really need to be there because it just feels like the series is going very

[00:10:44] at a constant pace and then it drops off a lot to stop and deal with this romance and all this stuff that just doesn't really do that much for me and I feel like it could have been trimmed down or just cut entirely maybe I don't want to

[00:10:57] cut someone's story out but I feel like it was done a little maybe a little too long and I feel like every time I get to that episode I kind of want to skip it deep down still an alright episode has some good moments has a little action

[00:11:08] towards the end still not definitely though I would say the weakest one for me because I feel like after that is where it's probably at its strongest as once that episode is over it feels pretty streamlined towards the end yeah I mean

[00:11:20] again it's a show that like band of brothers it is very deserving of its status of its praise a very essential important story that really everyone should watch even if you're watching episode or two it's very important and

[00:11:35] you really get an understanding of the war and the people who fought that war whether you're a war buff or history buff or not you should still watch it I think even if you don't watch the whole thing I have heard that Steven

[00:11:45] Spielberg is hoping to do a Masters of the Air adaptation about you know fly boys during World War two I'm really hoping that happens I heard about that years ago and I haven't heard anything since but I'm hoping that is still in

[00:11:58] development because I would love to see another series done by this group as I said towards the beginning it'd be a four and a half out of five for me very solid still not as good a band of brothers but that's a pretty high bar to

[00:12:10] try and overtake so band of brothers still reign supreme to me please let me know your thoughts either follow me on letterboxd follow us on social media comment on those posts or on letterboxd send us an email let me know your

[00:12:23] episodes least favorite episodes what you think of the two in comparison to each other all that good stuff make sure to follow us there subscribe rate the show all that stuff and thank you to the people who have donated to get the show

[00:12:33] and shows in the past we hope you'll keep doing that because it just helps to keep the show going and if you have any suggestions for other mini I'm trying to focus more like miniseries limited series for television but if you have

[00:12:44] any suggestions no matter what it is let us know I'll be doing some in the next you know month or two as well so keep an eye out for that what shows she's she's been watching yeah well as always I really hope you enjoyed it half

[00:12:58] as much as I did and I'll see you next time