"The Pacific" Mini Series

[Phil Robinson]

If you are in the UK check out your local Asda/Walmart picked this up for £10 in Tamworth today.

[Captain Blood]

A tenner. Blimey.
I bought my boxed set for about forty quid when it first appeared, and i haven't even finished watching it. Got a bit bogged down somewhere between episodes 6 and 8 and never went back to finish it off. Didn't find the characters gripped as much as Band of Brothers. Brilliantly done, of course, but where i found BofB utterly addictive, The Pacific i found, frankly, a bit plodding in comparison.
Still, a veritable bargain at that price.

[Plynkes]

I got bored a few episodes in, too. Didn't grip me really. Haven't finished watching it yet.

I did learn that the MCG was used to house American troops, though, so it wasn't a complete waste. I like learning new cricket facts.

[aecurtis]

For a desert town, we sure have a lot of Marines here (it has the west coast's Marine Corps Logistics Base and a Defense Logistics Agency depot).  The WWII veterans here generally weren't too taken with the series.  Yes, it was dull; but the general impression was that the actual periods between combat were even more tedious, and the actual combat was much more terrifying.

Some of them looked askance at the treatment of battle fatigue; I think that's a typical reaction.   Men of that generation simply didn't want to acknowledge PTSD.

I've often wished I could have asked "Uncle" Martin about "Band of Brothers".  He must be in his eighties now; I'd lost touch with him before my mother passed on a few years back.  Martin and his brother Tom had been committed to Maine's juvenile correctional facility as teenagers.  My grandmother was the school principal there, and in those days, she was able to bring a couple of boys out to the farm in the summer when school was out of session (otherwise, they'd be working on the state farm!)  Martin and Tom turned out to be fine young men, and were practically part of the family.  When WWII came, they volunteered to go Airborne, and were at Bastogne during the Bulge.  Tom became a PTSD casualty, and never left the VA hospital in Togus until he died, except for brief visits with his brother and to see us.  A sweet man, but always in his own separate, safe world.

I never had the chance to ask Martin much about his wartime experiences.  Somehow I think he would have approved of "Band of Brothers, though.

Allen

[joroas]

Got mine in Saisburys for £15 and thought that was a bargain.....................

[Luddite]

Pacific started badly, collapsed in the middle, but does pick up towards the end so its worth sticking it through to the later episodes.

Not a patch on BoB though, or even Generation Kill.

[Nighthawk]

I have to agree with most. I did find The Pacific a tad slow. After watching BoB I don't know how many times. I was expecting more. But was let down. I do enjoy learning about that part of the war. I wish there was more table top action for that part of the war. It seems to be over looked in favour of Europe. 

[NurgleHH]

I think BofB set a high standard and pacific never reached this standard. Maybe my expectations were to big...

[Geudens]

I think BofB set a high standard and pacific never reached this standard. Maybe my expectations were to big...

I second that, but feel high expectations were justified.

[Kane]

I don't know. It was pretty clear to me, even before the production was finished (and we had trailers), that it would be a whole other series than BoB. Why? Because the Pacific concentrated more on 3 individuals and what they did in the war (even when not in battle), whereas BoB focusses much more on the band that exists between men in combat and combat itself. Apart from that, I think that The Pacific also tried to give a deeper perspective into the psychology of war. And that indeed creates a completely different series and viewing experience. Imho it's almost like comparing Saving private Ryan with The Hurt Locker. Both are movies about war, but the first is an epic battle movie where the second is much more psychological. Just my 2 cents.