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HBO's THE PACIFIC - Page 2

post #51 of 159
3/17/10 at 2:05pm
Quote:
HBO is readying a 15 June Blu-ray Disc release of The Pacific. This epic miniseries - now airing on the network - will arrive with 1080p transfers, DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio sound mixes, and an unconfirmed set of bonuses. SRP is also TBD.


http://www.dvdfile.com/news/articles...ws-update-0316
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post #52 of 159
3/17/10 at 3:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Shaver View Post
I guess I'm buying a blu-ray before then. The audio alone will be worth it.
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post #53 of 159
3/17/10 at 4:02pm
Damn, this thing will be on DVD almost right after the show is done airing.
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post #54 of 159
3/20/10 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blvd View Post
Damn, this thing will be on DVD almost right after the show is done airing.
June 15th is the Tuesday before Father's Day. HBO knows what they're doing.
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post #55 of 159
3/21/10 at 12:13am
The battles in the pacific will make the battle in Europe look like Sunday picnics. Next week is the Battle of Edson's Ridget. Where not only John Basilone, but Mitchell Paige won the Medal of Honor. Paige came to my high school, and told the tell. It was an incredible battle according to Paige who was the sole survive in his platoon, or was it company. Paige said, that the bullets were so thick, that it was like watching a swam of insects coming right at you, and he never knew why he survived.

I love Chesty Puller quits.


"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now.
We've finally found him. We're surrounded.
That simplifies our problem of getting to these people and killing them."



"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right,
they're in front of us, they're behind us.
They can't get away this time.
Great. Now we can shoot at those bastards from every direction."


"Where the Hell do you put the bayonet?"
- Chesty Puller, on first seeing a flamethrower

You don't hurt 'em if you don't hit 'em."

"Alright you bastards, try and shoot me!"
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post #56 of 159
3/21/10 at 11:01pm
Outstanding.
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post #57 of 159
3/21/10 at 11:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Closer View Post
Outstanding.
Yeah. Some really remarkable stuff, especially since virtually everything happened in the dark. This is one I want to watch again almost immediately.

Next week looks like decent character stuff, but I have to admit that very seldom do the "back home" segments of these things engage me as much as they could.
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post #58 of 159
3/22/10 at 12:11am
Indeed. That whole close combat, pistol to various Japanese heads scene was intense.
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post #59 of 159
3/22/10 at 1:19am
Oh my God, Seda.

Still think it's weird seeing the wacky friend from EUROTRIP in this.
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post #60 of 159
3/22/10 at 11:49am
I was expect great, but still; FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.
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post #61 of 159
3/22/10 at 2:33pm
Fucking guy grabbed the scorching hot barrel of his machine gun and got third degree burns to mow down hundreds of Japanese soliders. Respect.

I keep having trouble figuring out which of the scrawny blond guys is Eugene's friend from Episode One. Was he the one that got shot in the fox hole at the beginning?
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post #62 of 159
3/22/10 at 2:38pm
Sgt. Basilone laying down the fucking law.

Reading about the stuff actual real life people did during the war never fails to amaze me.
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post #63 of 159
3/22/10 at 4:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post
Fucking guy grabbed the scorching hot barrel of his machine gun and got third degree burns to mow down hundreds of Japanese soliders. Respect.

I keep having trouble figuring out which of the scrawny blond guys is Eugene's friend from Episode One. Was he the one that got shot in the fox hole at the beginning?
Looked like him, but wasn't him. The friend showed up about half-way in. Alive.
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post #64 of 159
3/22/10 at 5:13pm
Not much new here. So many cliched shots of dirty faced soldiers staring at corpses and America-Fuck-Yeah battle scenes complete with screaming japs throwing their hands up in the air when they're shot dead.
The only new angle I see is the sense of isolation. From the boat arrival right up to the last shot of last night's episode (You guys are heroes back home), it feels like nobody has any real idea of what will happen next or what's at stake. So that works.
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post #65 of 159
3/22/10 at 5:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug View Post
Not much new here. So many cliched shots of dirty faced soldiers staring at corpses and America-Fuck-Yeah battle scenes complete with screaming japs throwing their hands up in the air when they're shot dead.
Pretty much how I'm feeling at this point. It's not bad (though watching last night's after Breaking Bad didn't do The Pacific any favors) but it's the same WW2 stuff we've been seeing since SPR. Just sunnier.
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post #66 of 159
3/22/10 at 5:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug View Post
Not much new here. So many cliched shots of dirty faced soldiers staring at corpses and America-Fuck-Yeah battle scenes complete with screaming japs throwing their hands up in the air when they're shot dead.
The only new angle I see is the sense of isolation. From the boat arrival right up to the last shot of last night's episode (You guys are heroes back home), it feels like nobody has any real idea of what will happen next or what's at stake. So that works.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
Pretty much how I'm feeling at this point. It's not bad (though watching last night's after Breaking Bad didn't do The Pacific any favors) but it's the same WW2 stuff we've been seeing since SPR. Just sunnier.
Count me in with these two. I was hoping it was about to get better but so far it's been less than enthralling.

ETA: I disagree with the "same old, same old" argument. I just think there's absolutely no substance yet to this series. It's a series of vignettes that have very little character work. It's like reading a screenwriter's outline of a very good series. We're hitting all the beats but there's no heart to it so far.
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post #67 of 159
3/23/10 at 7:54am
It's not ground breaking but I'm enjoying it. Although so far I'm not really involved with the characters as much as I was in BAND OF BROTHERS. Maybe that's because they were in a training camp for the first couple of episodes, whereas here they have been shoved into battle at the start and it's sometimes difficult to tell them apart.

Still, I can't fault the acting or battle scenes.
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post #68 of 159
3/23/10 at 10:36am
What a great series. It is even better than...Band Of Brothers.
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post #69 of 159
3/23/10 at 12:19pm
I thought it was funny to go from watching Sadler as Death in Bogus Journey to playing Chesty in this in back to back nights.
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post #70 of 159
3/23/10 at 12:25pm
maybe its just my TV but I cant see shit when they are battling at night. So far I am very underwhelmed.

I do hear that it gets better next week.
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post #71 of 159
3/23/10 at 7:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Moonrocket View Post
I thought it was funny to go from watching Sadler as Death in Bogus Journey to playing Chesty in this in back to back nights.
I do have this problem with Sadler a lot, where any time he comes on screen, in my head I hear him say "You haaave sank my battleshiiip" instead of whatever dialogue he's supposed to be saying.
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post #72 of 159
3/28/10 at 11:10pm
Maybe Im a big softie, but I thought this was the best episode so far. Of course, it probably has to do with the fact that coming into it I was thinking about how it sucked that I didnt really care about any of the characters up until this point.

Next week's episode looks tits.
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post #73 of 159
3/29/10 at 12:05am
Another great episode, despite the fact that there is no fighting, in yet another great WW 2 mini series for HBO.
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post #74 of 159
3/29/10 at 1:19am
This was the best episode so far, though it is unclear to me if it's just a function of knowing the characters better. Still, I am liking it.
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post #75 of 159
3/29/10 at 4:47pm
it's a character development episode that comes third instead of first, which makes more sense with how the pacific theater went.
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post #76 of 159
3/29/10 at 5:05pm
Total snoozer.
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post #77 of 159
3/29/10 at 9:41pm
Luckies' story just sucked in a good way.

The scene between Basilone and Puller was really good.


Love the Articles of War

there was a lot of good little things in this story, like that feel so good.
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post #78 of 159
3/29/10 at 9:48pm
I just hate that the blond girl didn't get naked and the brunette did.
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post #79 of 159
3/30/10 at 12:36am
Stella was heartbreakingly cute.

Great episode. I'll join the chorus calling this one the best yet.

Gotta say, the guy taking the knife to Leckie's foot blister is the squirmiest bit of gore on the show so far. Jesus.
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post #80 of 159
3/30/10 at 12:49am
By the way, I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread yet that the bit about the series being released before Father's Day was misinformation, according to the update at this link anyway.
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post #81 of 159
3/30/10 at 1:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post
Stella was heartbreakingly cute.

Great episode. I'll join the chorus calling this one the best yet.

Gotta say, the guy taking the knife to Leckie's foot blister is the squirmiest bit of gore on the show so far. Jesus.
What the sure part the pop or the fact he enjoyed it?
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post #82 of 159
3/30/10 at 8:08am
Damn, I really liked this episode. Especially because in the scene where Stella's mother described how she left Smerna she absolutely reminded me of my grandma. How she would describe what happened to us and this resigned sadness she had when she was talking about it. Pelecanos was definitely writing this scene from personal experience. Plus they spoke proper Greek albeit with horrible accents.
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post #83 of 159
3/30/10 at 3:12pm
some people gripe that they spent a whole episode on Melbourne but i think that was unavoidable. they spent a YEAR there and made it look like a week or two.
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post #84 of 159
3/30/10 at 3:14pm
Yeah, i thought it was a couple of weeks at the most. A year? That's incredible. How many children were born from that time? How many orphans left there.
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post #85 of 159
3/30/10 at 3:58pm
I'm not on board with "best of the series to date".

Not because of the fact that it was a non-combat/character building episode. That stuff is necessary. But, in the end, I don't think we learned all that much about Basilone and Phillips. Sledge was completely absent. And while we learned about Leckie, Leckie's girlfriend and her family were a complete fabrication. And too idealized for my taste.
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post #86 of 159
3/30/10 at 4:37pm
Seriously not good. I am so disappointed with this series. It's like a Cliff Notes version of the Pacific Theatre of War.

I'll give it a go again when it's all out on DVD but I just can't find it in me to sit through another episode.
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post #87 of 159
3/30/10 at 4:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan S~ View Post
It's like a Cliff Notes version of the Pacific Theatre of War.
were you expecting something different?
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post #88 of 159
3/30/10 at 5:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deanburger View Post
were you expecting something different?
Character work, maybe?
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post #89 of 159
3/30/10 at 5:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan S~ View Post
Character work, maybe?
if anything that episode had too much character work. whether you like the characters or not is a different story.
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post #90 of 159
3/30/10 at 7:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deanburger View Post
if anything that episode had too much character work. whether you like the characters or not is a different story.
I don't know, what did we really learn about Basilone or Phillips this episode? Not to mention Sledge.

Sure, we learned something about Leckie, much of it historically dubious.

I don't really have a problem with dramatic license, combining characters, etc. But Leckie's story that makes up the episode is pretty much a complete fabrication, while most of the rest of the series has at least stuck to the broad outline of what happened. And, I'm sorry, I don't buy Stella and her family as real people. Not in the idealized light they were presented in. From Here to Eternity presented it's fictional people as flawed members of humanity, while The Pacific comes up short, IMO.

I liked the episode. I'm glad they did something different than Band of Brothers. But, I also think they could have done something just as interesting without making up an idealized girlfriend (and family) for Leckie to pine over.
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post #91 of 159
3/30/10 at 8:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deanburger View Post
if anything that episode had too much character work. whether you like the characters or not is a different story.
You call that TOO much character work? We learned that Basilone likes to get drunk and is easily talked out of doing something he knows is wrong. We know Leckie likes imaginary Greek women. And even then he reveals practically nothing about himself to them. Sledge and Phillips are still ciphers. We learned absolutely zip about them.

If I didn't know who these guys were before the series started I'd have no clue who they are after three episodes.

I know the old adage in screenwriting is "show don't tell" but occasionally we need some things told to us. The episodes so far have been relying way too heavily on looks and visuals that aren't successfully conveying anything.

ETA: It's not about liking the characters. There's nothing presented that even gives us a hint as to who these guys are let alone enough to like or dislike them.
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post #92 of 159
3/30/10 at 8:11pm
I don't really care how much of it is fabricated... since, ultimately, all of it is anyway. In terms of establishing a situation where these type of quickly moving and intense relationships would flourish, I think the episode did a good job. Half the young men are gone, the ones who come to shore have just been through hell, everybody lets loose, and shit like this happens. Leckie's story wasn't incredible drama, but it was pretty moving. I don't know that the family was idealized as much as both were filling in something missing from the other's life. And it was so fleeting that of course it was going to feel romanticized. Besides, even BoB had a bit of the amber shadings of historical drama. Despite the ability to put us into the muck of combat, neither series has the tone of a Bloody Sunday, for example.
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post #93 of 159
3/30/10 at 8:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey View Post
I don't really care how much of it is fabricated... since, ultimately, all of it is anyway. In terms of establishing a situation where these type of quickly moving and intense relationships would flourish, I think the episode did a good job. Half the young men are gone, the ones who come to shore have just been through hell, everybody lets loose, and shit like this happens. Leckie's story wasn't incredible drama, but it was pretty moving. I don't know that the family was idealized as much as both were filling in something missing from the other's life. And it was so fleeting that of course it was going to feel romanticized. Besides, even BoB had a bit of the amber shadings of historical drama. Despite the ability to put us into the muck of combat, neither series has the tone of a Bloody Sunday, for example.
I don't much care if it's all fabricated but give me something, anything that tells me who these people are. At this point, other than Chesty, they are all pretty interchangeable.
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post #94 of 159
3/30/10 at 8:35pm
I don't totally disagree. I'm not over the moon about the thing. But I think they were using this episode as a showcase for Leckie, how he was sort of the perfect candidate to get swept up in one of these relationships. Not just with a girl, but with her family. And I did feel like I got a sense of who he was. And that he was sort of telling the story for all of the guys who had similar experiences.
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post #95 of 159
3/30/10 at 9:32pm
make no mistake people, the miniseries may be based around actual events, but it's still a dramatic interpretation. i think of it like Llywelyn's 1916, where the events surrounding the drama are real, but the character interactions are fabricated. the problem with the approach here is that their protagonists DID actually exist, so it's understandable if you weren't on board with Leckie's storyline here.

for fanwank purposes, Leckie spent a year in Melbourne surrounded by beautiful single women. chances are he shacked up with one of them at some point. no one seemed to have a problem with the Nazi officer killing scene at the end of Band of Brothers, which very well may have happened, but is also completely fabricated. there's probably enough material to mine from the year in Melbourne to justify it's own 10 part miniseries, but this is about the entire Pacific theater. I thought Leckie's story did a good job of outlining the soldier's plight at this time of the war.

the greek accents were terrible though, i'll give you that
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post #96 of 159
3/30/10 at 11:16pm
My basic thought on Leckie is that we really didn't learn much about him that we didn't know already. His father's awkward farewell at the railroad station told you that they weren't a close family. It's pretty obvious at this point that the Marines are his true family.

None of which this episode really added to. Yeah, I think it's a good idea to try to give us a sense of what it was like for many soldiers, but ultimately I never bought Stella and her family as more than an idealized figment of a writer's imagination.

I'm still on board with the series, but if this was the character building episode, I think there just wasn't enough there. Basilone, Phillips, and Sledge still are more ciphers than characters. Leckie has been fleshed out some, but I can't help feeling that it's way behind Band of Brothers at this stage.
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post #97 of 159
3/31/10 at 4:04am
Why are people freaking out about stuff being made up? Do they think that this didn't happen in Band Of Brothers? Which, while it indeed was a better series than The Pacific has been so far, also benefited from the fact that it was the first series made on that level.
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post #98 of 159
3/31/10 at 9:25am
Well that as a great episode. Overall it's not as good as BoB, but it's still great.
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post #99 of 159
3/31/10 at 11:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelios View Post
Why are people freaking out about stuff being made up? Do they think that this didn't happen in Band Of Brothers? Which, while it indeed was a better series than The Pacific has been so far, also benefited from the fact that it was the first series made on that level.
I think if what was made up was really good or at least interesting no one would care. That's the difference. The stuff that was exaggerated, left out or made up out of whole cloth (still not sure how much of Bull's night during Market Garden was accurate) in BoB developed the characters more or added to the sense of camaraderie that Easy shared. Leckie's relationship added almost nothing to his character and nothing new to the themes. It felt like filler.
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post #100 of 159
4/5/10 at 1:59pm
Last night's episode confirms what I've believed for some time: in terms of terrain and weather, those folks fighting the Nazis had it easy!

That one guy slowly choking the Japanese soldier to death was all kinds of grim.
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