anselmdaniel
This review contains spoilers.The Pacific is a mini-series that follows three perspectives of marines that enter the Pacific theater in different roles. The series is a departure from Band of Brothers and it has a more finer focus on its three characters. The series follows the characters before boot-camp and after the end of the war.Like the series before it, Band of Brothers, the mini-series has high production values and has real characters that are the focus on each episode. The series has much of its action and characterization scarred across each episode with the bulk of the action being in the middle and end chapters. The beginning is meant to give the viewer a grand scope and to see how the United States began mobilization. These men were not all volunteers and the series makes it clear with the characters. Some of the soldiers had been drafted and are awaiting their service to expire.The actors and actresses all do a great job here with the highlight being Rami Malek. This television series really launched Rami Malek's career with his fantastic performance as on of Sledge's compatriots.The Pacific is different from Band of Brothers as the combat scenes are more gory and visceral. The series also plays more to the themes of post-traumatic stress disorder than in Band of Brothers. The two series are fine on their own and one should not compare the two. Each series talks about separate themes even though they utilize the same tropes.The Pacific is highly recommended. This series is a high budget mini-series with its own direction.
follis12
The war in the Pacific was a hell of a lot different than the war in Europe. Of course both where terrible - full of death, sacrifice, and heroism. However, it seems the soldier's stories from the European theater have gotten a lot more press.The US Marines in the Pacific lived like animals in the most horrible environments imaginable. On top of fighting an enemy committed to kill them at all cost and never surrender, they battled the mud, heat, malaria, near starvation, and isolation for months on end.Basically, it was a total nightmare, and the heroism of all the US Marines in the Pacific theater is nothing short of awe inspiring. The Pacific tells this story well. It is a must see on the topic of WW2.
Ian
(Flash Review)While changing tact a little, The Pacific is impossible not to compare to Band of Brothers as it focuses more on the psychology of war rather than a deep immersion of characters. That change of tact made it hard for me to get as emotionally invested in the series. The characters were also flawed and occasionally unlikable, thus it took a while to emotionally connect with them if at all. The battles in the first few episodes occasionally felt repetitive and generic. Only toward the second half did character story lines develop as well as the amount of blood and gore; to the point of being unnecessary...and I've seen a large swath of war films. Aside from the stellar production quality, the most intriguing part were for the soldiers that survive long enough allow you to see their mental transitions through many battles. Fear to shock to horror to acceptance to recalibrating their own life's morality levels of humanity. A Thin Red Line is a similar comparison as it also focused on the mental aspects of being in war. Overall, this was very good and intense but lacked character emotional depth. Oh and I wish they gave specific titles to reach episode.
Mayank Agarwal
I was really excited to watch the series knowing this was a Companion piece to Band of Brothers (BOB) covering the Pacific Theater of Operations during WW-2, the series covers 1st Marine Division's battles on islands such as Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, and Okinawa. As a standalone series Pacific is excellent, but BOB being there a comparison had to be made and when done I felt Pacific to be a notch lower in almost every department. It's a different series than BOB in covering more on depressing side of the war than the heroic side.The series visualizes the war from the view point of three individuals of 1st Marine from very different backgrounds, getting into their private life. Its show how normal citizens become hero, some are heroes by action during battles, some by just surviving the war and not turning into monster. A lot of time is spend away from action, an episode covers a year spent in Australia, one recovering from battle trauma, another on finding love & getting married. The series focuses more on individual emotions & bonds, frankly the time spend away from action is not entertaining as mostly it covers the gloomy side of war, the damaged soldiers & there condition. The sad part is the time spend on war also gets repetitive after a time with most of the islands being similar in nature, the jungles with its malaria, rains, heat & the unrelenting japs. The action shown in the series is more gory then heroic, the series probably sets out portray wars as grim thing and not grand stuff and is successful at it.
AD
