A review of the HBO mini-series, The Pacific, on DVD

It was my intention on Friday evening to watch the first episode of The Pacific on the DVD set I got, and then finish reading Salem's Lot. Never happened. I watched Part One, got hooked, and then watched Parts Two, Three, and Four. I spent all day on Saturday watching the remaining six parts, plus the "Behind-the-Scenes" disc.

For those of you who don't know, The Pacific was produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spieberg for HBO. This is the flip side to their Band of Brothers. I have to tell you that everything about The Pacific was excellent in every sense of the word: the production values, the directing, the writing, the editing, the special effects, and the acting. Most people in my age catagory were truly aware of the war in the pacific from December of 1941 thru August of 1945. As brutal as the fight in the European theater was, the battle in the pacific was ten times worse, or so it seemed to me. The Japanese were fanatical and didn't know the word surrender. It was their belief that to surrender was to bring dishonor to their name, family, and country. They would rather die in a futile suicide charge than to give him. This is what the Marines encountered in the pacific, not to mention the rats, poisonous snakes, and countless deseases found in the jungles. The Marines also didn't receive any kind of real break from the ordeal of battle by being able to return home to the States to see their families like many of he American soldiers did in the European campaign. It was a harsh war for everyone involved in the pacific.

The ten-part mini-series follows the lives of three Marines (Robert Leckie, John Basilone, and Eugene Sledge) from just after Pearl Harbor to the their return home once the war is over. The actors who protrayed these real-life Marines (James Badge Dale as Leckie, Joe Mazello as Sledge, and Jon Seda as Basilone) probably give the best performances of their careers in this series. You care for these men and want to see them survive the war and beat the odds. I only saw a few actors I recognized: William Sadler (Die Hard II, The Shawshank Redemption), Jon Berenthal (The Walking Dead), and Matt Craven (who I just saw in the first episode of Justified). One actor who nearly steals the show in Parts 5,6,7,8,9,and 10 is Rami Malek, who plays "Snafu" Merriel Shelton and in a sense watched over Eugence Sledge, during the 7th Marines' battles. He reminded me a lot of a young Benicio Del Toro, and made me laugh a lot, which eased the tension.

The series covers the major battles at Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa in all of their vividness and ugliness. Thousands upon thousands of men were killed as the Marines fought their way from island to island, gradually drawing closer to Japan. In fact, the closer they got to the land of the rising sun, the more fierce the fighting became. Needless to say, the Japanese officials made the worse mistake of their lives when they decided on the sneak attack against Pearl Harbor. They truly believed they would have their empire completed before the United States could recuperate and fight them. They were so wrong. They forgot how we defeated the British Empire for our freedom in The Revolutionary War and then each other in the War of the Union. Americans may not live a life based on the codes of Bushido, but we're fighters through and through. Just ask any Texan or Southerner. If we're attacked, watch how we quickly pull together and go after the agressor. We will stomp them into the ground, and then help them back up to repair their country.

This series is absolutely magnificent. I can guarantee that you will be thinking about the men who fought in the pacific (those who made it back home and those who didn't) long after you've watched the last episode. Television has gotten so damn good over the last few years that it's a wonder anybody goes to the movies.

I'll also put this out there. Unless you're a female in the service, or the wife of a serviceman, this is probably a mini-series for the male audience. The violence of the battles and the inhumanity that takes place in definitely in your face so that the viewer will understand that war is the worse creation of mankind. Men will understand, but most ladies won't be able to handle the violence. There's nothing beautiful about it. Innocent kids are taught to kill with little thought to the other side. Nothing was done for the Marines when they returned from the war. Many, if not all, had psycological problems, but had to deal with them in privacy and by themselves. Robert Leckie got home and was back at work three days later, but the horror and nightmare of war never left him. He simply kept it to himself.

This is probably a series you'll want to own on DVD. It's worth whatever price you have to pay, but you can find great deals if you look for them. I did. I highly recommend this to any and all men who have been to war or thought about war and what it's really like. This series shows it to you in techicolor with all the blood and gore and sadness and degradation and the lack of hope that many Marines felt. It also shows the courage and brotherhood of the Marines. The Gunny Sargeant in Parts 5, 6, and 7 reminded me a great deal of my Uncle Mack MacCleninthan, who was in Marine Reconn during the Vietnam War. They don't come any toughter than him and the men of Marine Corp.