If you liked Band of Brothers...

[soonerinabilene]

Here is a preview of The Pacific.

e99B80crU3E

[SoonerProphet]

Looks damn good. Just finished Chesty's biography brushing up on my Pacific history.

[iwannabelikesam]

I have high expectations for this. But, even if this ends up being only half as good as Band of Brothers it still will be incredibly amazing.

[picasso]

I have high expectations for this. But, even if this ends up being only half as good as Band of Brothers it still will be incredibly amazing.

Agreed! Especially if the casting is anywhere nearly as good.

What story line are they following? I'll have to look.

[BOOMERBRADLEY]

I have high expectations for this. But, even if this ends up being only half as good as Band of Brothers it still will be incredibly amazing.

Word

[SoonerProphet]

Agreed! Especially if the casting is anywhere nearly as good.

What story line are they following? I'll have to look.

Read and heard on wiki that it will follow the Old Breed with roots in Sledge Hammer's book, John Basilone, and Robert Leckie.

Have read With the Old Breed and it was phenomenal. Have not read the other two books.

[picasso]

Read and heard on wiki that it will follow the Old Breed with roots in Sledge Hammer's book, John Basilone, and Robert Leckie.

Have read With the Old Breed and it was phenomenal. Have not read the other two books.

My pops was a Marine in Korea and we have The Old Breed at the house.

This is good stuff.

[JohnnyMack]

Bumpitty.

Tomorrow nizight!

[Okla-homey]

Agreed! Especially if the casting is anywhere nearly as good.

What story line are they following? I'll have to look.

First Marine Division. 1943-1945.

[olevetonahill]

What channel ?

[Okla-homey]

What channel ?

HBO.

[olevetonahill]

Guess I wont see it then cause I dont get HBO

[King Crimson]

Guess I wont see it then cause I dont get HBO

try tvduck.com or 15$ a month for graboid.

[olevetonahill]

I aint spendin any more money on TeeVee than I have to, Shat aint worth it to me .

[GKeeper316]

cant wait for this...

i loved band of brothers, but this one's all about my beloved corps.

oorah

[Okla-homey]

I aint spendin any more money on TeeVee than I have to, Shat aint worth it to me .

I bet it'll be available on DVD this summer. BoB was.

[GKeeper316]

they will more than likely put the full episodes up on hbo.com

[soonerinabilene]

i cant think of a tv show that ive been looking more forward to than this.

[picasso]

First Marine Division. 1943-1945.

Dad was in the 7th.

I'm gonna watch tonight at my neighbor's. He's a Marine and fought in the 'Nam.

[GKeeper316]

Dad was in the 7th.

I'm gonna watch tonight at my neighbor's. He's a Marine and fought in the 'Nam.

there is no marine 7th division, nor has there ever been.

he was probably in a 7th regiment in one of the 4 marine divisions.

ya im a nitpicky bastard.

division
regiment
battalion
company
platoon

[Okla-homey]

there is no marine 7th division, nor has there ever been.

he was probably in a 7th regiment in one of the 4 marine divisions.

ya im a nitpicky bastard.

division
regiment
battalion
company*
platoon*

or,

if Marine artillery

*battery instead of company
*section, instead of platoon:D

[fadada1]

watched it. very interesting. maybe a bit more "introspective" - more like "the thin red line" than "saving private ryan".

definitely a different war than the european theater.

music isn't as good as "band of brothers".

[picasso]

there is no marine 7th division, nor has there ever been.

he was probably in a 7th regiment in one of the 4 marine divisions.

ya im a nitpicky bastard.

division
regiment
battalion
company
platoon

I never said division.

http://www.i-mef.usmc.mil/div/7mar/

[picasso]

And my neighbor says that isn't exactly the way the ambush went down but we liked it.
Neighbor has already educated me on John Basilone and Eugene Sledge.

Should be good.

[picasso]

OK, after some more reading my neighbor had mistaken Basilone for Robert Leckie so the ambush he's talking about has yet to take place.

Also found this rendering of Basilone:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Sergeant_John_Basilone_by_C._C._Beall.png

[picasso]

Heh, I take that part back too! Neighbor says he knew the guy wasn't Basilone so I don't know what the hell he was talking about in the first ambush scene.:D

[GKeeper316]

I never said division.

http://www.i-mef.usmc.mil/div/7mar/

well when you quote a post stating the series was about the 1st division and then say your dad was in the 7th, its easy to infer you were speaking about divisions.

[picasso]

well when you quote a post stating the series was about the 1st division and then say your dad was in the 7th, its easy to infer you were speaking about divisions.

Well you inferred wrong but thanks for the lesson.

[JohnnyMack]

I thought the first episode was OK. It was almost like they made a conscious decision not to have it emulate episode I of BoB (Currahee) at all. They went from a brief, almost obligatory glimpse at family and straight into combat. And I agree with fadada that it'll likely have more of a Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags of our Fathers feel to it. I'm still not convinced it's going to be better than Band of Brothers.

[Harry Beanbag]

well when you quote a post stating the series was about the 1st division and then say your dad was in the 7th, its easy to infer you were speaking about divisions.


Not really. That would be like a thread about somebody traveling to Wyoming and I tell them to give me a call because I live in Phoenix.

It should have been easy to infer that his dad was in the 7th Regiment since it is part of the 1st Division, no?

[picasso]

Hey it's no biggie. I guess I'm anal that way when it comes to art, Native American history and big boobs.:D

[Harry Beanbag]

I love boobs.

[picasso]

Anywho, I'm guessing the next episode will feature Basilone's effort in the machine gun pit that won him the CGM.
I read a few reviews around the web and noticed some folks liked how they portrayed the Japanese as humane and real people too. I agree with the concept but I've read The Rape of Nanking so I"ll pass on this one.

[Harry Beanbag]

I read a few reviews around the web and noticed some folks liked how they portrayed the Japanese as humane and real people too. I agree with the concept but I've read The Rape of Nanking so I"ll pass on this one.


Yeah, I've read plenty of first hand accounts and none of them mentioned the Japanese soldiers as being humane or anything remotely approaching that concept.

[PDXsooner]

i watched it. still waiting for the characters to develop, i thought it was a little slow. i'm sure it'll get better and better though.

[Wishboned]

they will more than likely put the full episodes up on hbo.com

They only put the first episode online to entice people to subscribe to HBO for the remaining 9.

A pay channel isn't going to put one of their premier series online for free.

[85Sooner]

They did have the first episode on channel 101 on directv on monday night for free. we will see about episode two. I will not pay anymore tho. First episode I give a B. Should have been a two hour show to get you into it.

[SoonerProphet]

i liked it. thought it felt kinda chaotic, maybe the artists are trying to render that in the story. seven months or so after ph, prolly was a bit chaotic. the old breed was the tip of the spear in the pacific. poor dudes going out with springfields and water jacket cooled 30 cals. amazing what kinda firepower a marine unit can put out with that old klanky stuff.

went back and read some of the Chesty bio the last few weeks. anxious to see how they do the combat scenes with 1/7. those boys killed a lot of japs...a lot!!!

[picasso]

i liked it. thought it felt kinda chaotic, maybe the artists are trying to render that in the story. seven months or so after ph, prolly was a bit chaotic. the old breed was the tip of the spear in the pacific. poor dudes going out with springfields and water jacket cooled 30 cals. amazing what kinda firepower a marine unit can put out with that old klanky stuff.

went back and read some of the Chesty bio the last few weeks. anxious to see how they do the combat scenes with 1/7. those boys killed a lot of japs...a lot!!!

Well said! And as my Dad told me, the battle out in the bay they watched is possibly the one that JFK was in and eventually had to swim out of there.

[Harry Beanbag]

Well said! And as my Dad told me, the battle out in the bay they watched is possibly the one that JFK was in and eventually had to swim out of there.

I believe that was the Battle of Savo Island, JFK's famous incident was a year later.

[JohnnyMack]

OK so we're half way through this series and I gotta say that I think this thing is a mess. It has no flow at all. I thought episodes 3 and 4 were laborious to watch.

[Harry Beanbag]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. Still gonna watch it though.

[SicEmBaylor]

I'm really really disappointed in The Pacific.

[GKeeper316]

episode 3 was good with all the hot horny aussie chicks, but yeah... band of brothers was about 100 times better.

[ouleaf]

I too have been drawn into the Pacific, mostly because HBO programming has been pretty strong the past few years. With Tom Hanks also on board as a producer, that also had me intrigued. Overall I'd have to say I've been a little unimpressed so far. The battle scenes are terrific, but they don't really do a lot to inform you an awful lot about who the individual soldiers are other than "Leckie" sp?

We are what 4 or 5 episodes in now and I'm not really sure who a lot of other soldiers are. Faces are starting to become more recognizable though. At this point I'd almost wish they had more Tom Hanks narration about what island they are on or which skirmish they are in. That to me is rather enjoyable, along with the short commentary by the Veterans.

On a side note, did anyone else who is a fan of the show Fringe, notice Anna Torv in this past episode of the Pacific? She played the US film star girl that hooked up with guy portraying Basilone.

[Fugue]

I was hoping this would be a hit but they had such a high mark to reach based on BoB.

[Okla-homey]

I never miss it, but to be sure, it ain't as good as BoB. Too much irrelevant sub-plot and as to guys acquiring nervous disorders making them constantly wet themselves, while it no doubt happened, I don't think it adds anything to the story.

[Turd_Ferguson]

Hasn't even been a pimple on the *** of Band of Brother's.

[Harry Beanbag]

Continuity either sucks or is nonexistent. As much as I hate to say it, Basilone maybe should have been left out of it altogether.

I haven't read Leckie's book yet, but they could have done the whole thing based on Sledge's and it would have been better, IMO. Would have easily filled up the apparent 10 hour time slot.

[SicEmBaylor]

One thing about the series that has really struck me is the guy walking around the constantly water saturated jungle.

My grandfather fought in the Pacific and had jungle rot on his feet for the rest of his life. He said at times it was just absolutely impossible to keep dry.

[soonerboomer93]

I think the problem is they took material from several books. BoB was taken from 1 book.

[achiro]

I'm with you guys on the lack of flow of this series. Hard to get to know the characters. Also, not enough about why things were as they were. Like the scene with the Marines stealing the Army supplies. Why didn't the Marines have supplies or new guns? That's just one example though, there are lots more.
It seems to be focusing a lot more on the "war is hell" aspect and the psychological damage that resulted. I get showing things like the American taking the gold but if you are gonna show the stuff the US guys did you need to show the horrendous stuff that the Japs did to them to make them that way in the first place.
Overall a big disappointment so far.

[GKeeper316]

Why didn't the Marines have supplies or new guns?

you must have missed the part where the dumb *** navy went and got themselves sunk, along with all the marines supplies and ammo.

[achiro]

you must have missed the part where the dumb *** navy went and got themselves sunk, along with all the marines supplies and ammo.

No I got that but that cut them off from supplies for a while, then the Army shows up. If you can get a group of Army dudes and all their supplies in, why can't you get supplies in for the Marines?

[ouleaf]

Welp, the last episode was on Sunday night....finally got around to watching it last night.

Overall the whole series was pretty average. Some good battle scenes and I thought the on-camera interviews with the actual Veterans were pretty interesting. I think it just kind of took too long to really figure out who the different soldiers were and what their story was.

[sooneron]

I'd give it a B- overall. It seemed like they were going for the heart strings more than BoB. The storyline had little consistency to it. Plus, I think they spent too much on Peleliu.
I liked the psychological account of the men. It's glossed over way too much in war films. These guys were from a different age where they weren't supposed to be in touch with what they were going through. If they were, they were considered sissies. Too much was spent on Bassilone when he was stateside. His story is compelling, though.
The battle scenes were excellent, they really seemed to show the brutality of war.

[Okla-homey]

I'd give it a B- overall. It seemed like they were going for the heart strings more than BoB. The storyline had little consistency to it. Plus, I think they spent too much on Peleliu.
I liked the psychological account of the men. It's glossed over way too much in war films. These guys were from a different age where they weren't supposed to be in touch with what they were going through. If they were, they were considered sissies. Too much was spent on Bassilone when he was stateside. His story is compelling, though.
The battle scenes were excellent, they really seemed to show the brutality of war.

I egnerally agree with all of the above, but I'm glad they spent a lot of time on Peleliu. Because Peleliu was absolutely horrible and most people nowadays don't know about it. Or the fact it ended up being real estate we didn't need or use afterwards.

[sooneron]

I egnerally agree with all of the above, but I'm glad they spent a lot of time on Peleliu. Because Peleliu was absolutely horrible and most people nowadays don't know about it. Or the fact it ended up being real estate we didn't need or use afterwards.

I don't have a problem with it being covered, I think the bulk of three episodes was a bit much, is all. I was more excited about The Pacific than I was when BoB was announced. I was always more of a fan of that Theater of WWII.

[Harry Beanbag]

So the wife and kid are out of town for a few days. Yesterday, I was supremely lazy and watched the entire series again. It was much better the second time. I still maintain that they probably should have left Basilone out of it entirely, but it grew on me quite a bit during the second viewing. If anyone else still has the whole thing on DVR, I highly recommend watching it again.

[picasso]

I think the problem is they took material from several books. BoB was taken from 1 book.

Nope. It was also based on David Kenyon Webster's writings. He was the guy who attended Harvard.