"THE PACIFIC" from HBO

[BOOM]

Just a Heads Up for the HBO viewers that the WWII PTO mini series from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg "Band of Brothers" producers airs tomorrow night in USA 9pm, If it's anything as good as Their former ETO series it should be Spectacular!!
http://www.hbo.com/the-pacific?cmpid=s4#/the-pacific

[Panther_99FS]

Dangit,
Have I missed the 1st episode :ques:

[Bomber_12th]

Nope, it's on today (Sunday). Wish I knew someone with HBO nearby, or I had it myself, as I have long been impressed with Band of Brothers, and this will likely be a step further, given the time since Band of Brothers was written and produced. Will have to wait till it hits DVD or regular cable, unfortunately.

[BOOM]

Yeah,It starts tonight 9pm ET,It's a 10 part series,It maybe worth your while to get HBO for a few months.I've been watching the previews and it looks very,very good!

[Snuffy]

Make sure you spring ahead too ... (don't be like me and forget until after you got up ... missed church! )

[BOOM]

Well did anyone watch? I thought it was fantastic!! very gripping,dramatic firefight on Guadacanal@ night with 50 caliper MG's had me riveted to my chair!! pretty darn intense!!

[jim]

Those were water cooled m1917 .30 cal machine guns. US Infantry do not carry around .50 cal machine guns. They weigh about 100 lbs, not including ammunition. Usually they are vehicle mounted, but oohhhh wat a ounch they pack.

[Snuffy]

I was gonna say ... looked like .30s to me ... In fact even when they were handin out ammo the guy said, "here's some more .30 cal."

But yeah, I watched it. If its standard HBO what will happen is they'll play it once (for each episode,) then they will re-air it about 2 hours after the first one. Last night's first episode was on at 9:00 and 11:00 est. I suspect all the other episodes will do like wise.

I thought it started a little slow, but hey, that's just me and mho.

[Panther_99FS]

I liked it!
On a side note, has there been anything somewhat similar documenting Korea :ques:

[Snuffy]

I liked it!
On a side note, has there been anything somewhat similar documenting Korea :ques:

Oh I liked it too ...

Umm you mean M.A.S.H. doesn't count? LOL!!

No, I don't think there ever has been. I know the History Channel has done one or two documentarys but nothing with "story-lines" like Band of Brothers, or The Pacific.

[BOOM]

Hey guy's,Thanks very much for the correction on the MG caliper,Cheers!!:salute:

[rayrey10]

There are still 9 more episodes so I'll reserve my judgment.

I liked towards the end when Chesty Puller was marching with his Marines and he is asked "Colonel Puller, where you heading?" And Puller replies "Tokyo. Care to joins us?"

Awesome!

Good night Chesty Puller, where ever you are!!!!! :salute:

[MyassisDragon]

Saw the first episode. My first reaction was a little disappointment. It seemed a little disjointed compared to the way Band Of Brothers followed the men in the company from training to the end of the war. This is only an initial impression. No doubt it will get better.

[crashaz]

Really liked the first episode...did it right!

Of course being a student of Pacific War history... I did recognize Alligator Creek... and especially the sandbar as they were setting up positions... I saw that and said.... oh oh.... that's where it is coming from.

I am being cautious now of watching carefully after Mr. Hanks comments on MSNBC (Morning Joe) describing the war in the Pacific as I quote "a war of racism and terror."

Really hurt by those comments by him... was one of my favorite actors and the closest thing to a Jimmy Stewart of my generation.

Sadly looks like I was wrong.

[TARPSBird]

I am being cautious now of watching carefully after Mr. Hanks comments on MSNBC (Morning Joe) describing the war in the Pacific as I quote "a war of racism and terror."

While I appreciate Tom Hanks' interest in WWII history and his sincere respect for the veterans, he's a typical Hollywood Liberal - they always have to throw in a few standard liberal/lefty buzzwords. Racism and terror are always popular. If he could have found some context for using "green", "carbon footprint", or "neo-con" he probably would've included them too.

[stiz]

Saw the first episode. My first reaction was a little disappointment. It seemed a little disjointed compared to the way Band Of Brothers followed the men in the company from training to the end of the war. This is only an initial impression. No doubt it will get better.

glad i'm not the only one who tought that, o well it was only the first episode. No dount it'll fit together better once a few episodes have passed.

[redriver6]

Saw the first episode. My first reaction was a little disappointment. It seemed a little disjointed compared to the way Band Of Brothers followed the men in the company from training to the end of the war. This is only an initial impression. No doubt it will get better.

i initially wanted to think the same thing..until i realized the Marines on Guadalcanal went into combat almost two years before the 101st. in fact the 101st wasn't even in existence when the Marines waded ashore on DDay Guadalcanal. i think this was a deliberate attempt to show that these guys were literally at home for Christmas in '41 and in combat halfway around the world before the next Christmas.

[crashaz]

While I appreciate Tom Hanks' interest in WWII history and his sincere respect for the veterans, he's a typical Hollywood Liberal - they always have to throw in a few standard liberal/lefty buzzwords. Racism and terror are always popular. If he could have found some context for using "green", "carbon footprint", or "neo-con" he probably would've included them too.

Let me give it a try....how about....

"The Marines fought in dense jungles in the Pacific... which reminds me... the jungles were green and dense back then... yet nowdays the jungles are dying off because of our carbon imprints and all the bad things that the American people do. Don't be a neo-con and write to your Congressperson to vote for cap and trade."

Maybe I can become a speech writer?Need a good paying job in this economy.

yes I am being facecious and not angry. :d

[Snuffy]

Actually, even with the first episode, I noticed something that Hanks said and it was pretty evident to me.

During an interview that was linked not too long ago, Hanks said the Pacific war was a racist war.

In the first episode, I noticed at least 8 or more times when the Japanese were referred to something other than "your enemy", or "the Japs," or the "the Japanese". Terminology that can not be repeated here.

[crashaz]

Actually, even with the first episode, I noticed something that Hanks said and it was pretty evident to me.

During an interview that was linked not too long ago, Hanks said the Pacific war was a racist war.

In the first episode, I noticed at least 8 or more times when the Japanese were referred to something other than "your enemy", or "the Japs," or the "the Japanese". Terminology that can not be repeated here.

I agree and it WAS that way. I would say xenophobia definitely was there.... but maybe Tom should have watched the part in the first episode about the Japanese soldier playing dead and then when picked up dropped the grenade killing two Marines... his comments sounded like he was judging... no man should judge unless put in that position... I know what I would have done.

[Ken Stallings]

While I appreciate Tom Hanks' interest in WWII history and his sincere respect for the veterans, he's a typical Hollywood Liberal - they always have to throw in a few standard liberal/lefty buzzwords. Racism and terror are always popular. If he could have found some context for using "green", "carbon footprint", or "neo-con" he probably would've included them too.

That's sums it up very accurately.

Ken

[Bomber_12th]

I managed to see the first episode, thanks to Comcast showing it through their website. The feeling I got, from how little character development there was (at least yet), and how abrupt things happen, is that the film makers wanted to resonate just how un-imaginable the circumstances presented themselves, so suddenly, to these Marines, fresh from being used to life with not much worry or any real idea of what combat would present itself to be - jumping instantly from saying simple, melancholy good-byes, to difficult, intense combat. When they are suddenly going ashore, us having not seen their training, it is out of sight/out of mind, so it makes you even more uneasy about what the guys are getting themselves into, so fresh from life in the states.

Accuracy seems to be paramount, with folks on another board discussing little details like the use of a glove to pick up the hot .30-cal machine gun, and the correct cantines! Things that other productions would certainly have not gotten right, or included. The CGI is amazing as well - if you weren't told beforehand, you wouldn't know that it was, I suspect.

I hope I can catch further episodes. Already in this first one, you get a glimpse at just how hellish things were, and of course it will only get worse. Even though it is still 'hollywood', you get a very real sense of what it must have been like, which made me think right away about a great uncle of mine, who was a radio-man in the Pacific. Participating in several island-hopping invasions, it had such a traumatic effect on him, he became an alcoholic after the war, and was never the same.

While Tom Hanks put it in simple terms, and it is only one facet of many driving forces I suspect behind the motivation to fight the enemy, you cannot argue that racism was not present in the Pacific theater, on both sides, where two very different cultures clashed, at a time that neither properly understood each other. The terminology used by the commander, on board ship, before the invasion for instance, was I felt realistic to the time and the event, given the commander's need to ready the men for invasion - in an effort to dehumanize the then enemy in the minds of the men fighting.

[beana51]

While I appreciate Tom Hanks' interest in WWII history and his sincere respect for the veterans, he's a typical Hollywood Liberal - they always have to throw in a few standard liberal/lefty buzzwords. Racism and terror are always popular. If he could have found some context for using "green", "carbon footprint", or "neo-con" he probably would've included them too.

Yes I seen it that way too...A definite liberal flavor!..Hanks is on the tubes lately claiming there was Racism during WW2 against the JAPS!!....I'm Shocked.shocked ,to find out that was going on then!!


Tom never grew up in the 40s...he harbors this "hey why can We Not Just Get Along thing!...our lives then was absolute HATRED towards NAZIS,JAPS,and FASHISTS!....Let ya in on a seceret..the SPIRIT OF THE BAYONET is to kill...and it makes it a lot easier to HATE WHO YA STICK!....The Weenies today can never capture that!! those Brave Kids today fight with lawyers over their shoulders,and one hand behind their back!!
Imagine if we use Flame throwers on Al Quida today...HEAVEN FORFEIND!!...Thanx My Opinion!!

[Ken Stallings]

It was a minor influence.

Right up until Pearl Harbor, the US policy was to negotiate with Japan for an end of their hostilities in China and Manchuria. If race was a principle factor, Americans would not have cared what happened in China and Manchuria.

Pearl Harbor was the prime influence. It was considered an act of wonton treachery and that angered the American people. To have two senior diplomats sitting in Cordelle Hull's office making like peace was possible while Pearl Harbor was in smoking ruins having been attacked on a Sunday yielded as much visceral anger as is possible in the American soul.

Germans and Italians were put in detention facilities in the US. It was just as a percentage it was a low number. But, if you were considered a political agitater for Nazism or Italian Fascism, you were put on an FBI watch list and if your conduct was slightly suspect, you got hauled off.

Doesn't get reported a lot, but it certainly happened. So, Hank's statements are regrettably simplistic.

The underlying cause for the Japanese-American internments was fear, not racism. This is an undeniable truth. Certainly a strong case can be made that the fear taken to this level was irrational, neverthless, on Hawaii General Walter Short considered sabatoge a greater threat to his aircraft than Japanese air attack. This wasn't a racism consideration, but a sober but mistaken military assessment.

During the war, both sides sought to dehumanize the enemy. There is no doubt about that, but the American people were already filled with wrath and malice -- pure anger. But make zero mistake, when American soldiers encountered Japanese civilians on Okinawa and other outlying islands, they showed a far greater degree of compassion than the Japanese themselves expected, and sometimes more than the Japanese troops themselves showed same!

Ken

[Eoraptor1]

I saw it!!! I'll withhold judgement until more of the story unfolds.

Those of you who've followed my postings already know that I'm very hostile to the way the terms "liberal" and "conservative" are currently used in media. I'm an unapologetic skeptic. Back when I was still an adult, I would periodically be drawn (only as an interested observer) into political events on a national level, and got to meet some of the people you see on C-SPAN, which led me to the conclusion that much of our current political vocabulary is a triumph of the marketing and public relations industries. IMO, it's actual informative content is an incident, not an end. I really can't say more while obeying forum rules, and only mention it in the first place to show that my hostility doesn't have its origins in my own rectum. All that being said, I don't see how the Pacific War couldn't have it's component of racism. These people were trying to kill each other. My two remaining uncles were both deployed to the PTO. The oldest was in the Southwest Pacific, and the younger in the Central Pacific. He was trained in a small town in Mississippi that in his telling had a billboard reading "N*gg*r, read and RUN!!!" in giant letters. In the 1940s, we had apartheid right here in America, and I'm not inclined to pretend we didn't out of "respect" for anyone's ancestors. This is our history, and I believe in taking the bitter with the sweet. To my mind, this does not detract from our accomplishment in defeating fascism; fascism needed to go. IMO, Imperial Japanese expansionism was rife with brutally racist assumptions. The propaganda was that of eliminating Euro-racism, but in practice I would submit they were only replacing European exploitation with Japanese exploitation. The Rape of Nanking at the time even scared the Nazis, and while we're on the subject, I DARE people to tell me Adolph Hitler wasn't racist.

Now you know how I feel.

JAMES