Comments on: HBO's 'The Pacific': About as Real as Hell on Screen Can Get

By: Henry

Henry — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:45:47 +0000

If you're going to quote the movie at least get the quotes right.

By: eber hart

eber hart — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:02:35 +0000

Nice of Hollywood to come up with yet another ad nauseum, done-to-death PC WWII retread -er' we mean 'tribute' —even as they rake in BILLIONS upon BILLIONS shamelessly catering to the franchise slum
denial needs of history's –MOST– awesomely genocidal regime
—ACROSS the Pacific (70 million exterminated in 'peacetime' long AFTER WWII -unoutted, unanswered for, unmentioned in ANY Hollywood film -EVER!- FACT)).

ESP. galling as millions continue to suffer and die on this, the once again 'mysteriously overlooked' 60th Anniversary of the chillingly
relevant, STILL unfolding —KOREAN WAR…

-AMEN-

By: juan

juan — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:59:04 +0000

What a bunch of whiney critics. This series does a very good job of capturing the essence of the 2 books it was based upon. I've read them both several times and "The Pacific" remains faithful to them.

By: Shelley Heard

Shelley Heard — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:09:37 +0000

My dad set foot on Peleliu shortly after D-day. His letters home were reserved. "Suffice to say that the Marines had ponchos over them and the Japs didn't." It was ugly, and sad, stuff.

I respect Mr. Hanks and his mission to tell the story, but if you have read THE book (With the Old Breed), then you know that poetic license has diminished the story a bit. READ THE BOOK! if you care about this story, READ THE BOOK. Thank you, Eugene Sledge, Sir.

BTW, Snafu did not have that conversation about dental hygiene with Sledge. As big as the budget was, you'd think they'd tell the story as it was written..

By: pg 2010

pg 2010 — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 08:02:36 +0000

Having made BILLIONS upon BILLIONS these past decades
catering to the franchise-slum and denial needs of history's
MOST awesomely genocidal regime —-ACROSS the Pacific
Holllywood continues to run for moral cover behind ad nauseum,
anachronistic, PC WWII retreads —–EVEN ON THIS
-the once again 'mysteriusly overlooked' 60th Anniversary
of the genuinely epic, relevant —indeed STILL unfolding
——–KOREAN WAR!

Guys! —STOP being such set-up soul saps!
In 2010 —-it's DANGEROUS!

By: Kent Schoffstall

Kent Schoffstall — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:46:21 +0000

I am not a veteran of the Pacific war and this story is not my own. But it is my Dad's. He served with the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester. At the battle of the Teneru, the battle shown at the end of the first episode of The Pacific, Dad led a 37 mm antitank crew that fired directly on the massed Japanese assault on Marine positions.

He would never talk about it. I understand that the men who really saw horrible things in combat seldom talked about the war. Perhaps for that reason, my Dad didn't like Sledge's book, a memoir about the 1st Marine Division battles that followed Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester. I think Sledge spoke about things that most Marines kept private and wanted to forget — the absolute horror and brutality of that no-quarter war.

I am emotionally tied to these scenes in The Pacific. As far as I can tell in the first two episodes, they are accurate. And maybe, they tell part of the story that my Dad would never share. Part of what he did share is there — the Japanese shells ("sounding like freight trains coming over you") slamming into the Marine perimeter around Henderson field; the abandonment of the Marines by the American navy at Guadalcanal; eating wormy, captured Japanese rice and raw fish.

And yet, a part of the story is not there. The Marines who spent six months or more on Guadalcanal were young boys and recent civilians. They fought against the cream of theJapanese Army, which had never been defeated. A few Marines, desperately outnumbered and under supplied, and surrounded for months at a time by the Japanese navy, fought their enemy to a standstill and prevailed against him.

The true significance of their battle is hard to get across on screen, I think. But I believe The Pacific is a fitting tribute to my Dad and the thousands of Marines like him. This was their war.

By: ErikB

ErikB — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:20:50 +0000

Crap, pure crap.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:26:41 +0000

Please NOTE: When refering to a a member of the USMC (Marine) , Marine is ALWAYS capitalized !!! Semper Fi… , Thank you…RL…

By: SteveD

SteveD — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:08:57 +0000

This review is long on summary and short on review. Not very useful–except for spoiling the plot.

By: John Beatty

John Beatty — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:36:48 +0000

It's OK, but it's Hollywood, and that means it does a lot of compromising.

For instance, tracers were removed from MG belts fairly early, but it's a lot less spectacular. Grenades are more like artillery in the movies, and nothing's different here.

The Marines are much too well fed, not yellow enough, and morale remains high, all things we know from the record are inaccurate.

No matter. It's HOLLYWOOD!