THE PACIFIC

 

With the success of “Band of Brothers”, HBO turned to the Pacific Theater for a new WWII miniseries.  Instead of following one unit, like BoB, this series concentrates on three Marines.  Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello), and John Basilone (Jon Seda).  They served in the 1^st, 5^th, and 7^th Marine Regiments in the 1^st Marine Division.  The screenplay was partly based on Leckie’s “Helmet for My Pillow” and Sledge’s “With the Old Breed:  At Peleliu and Okinawa”.  The miniseries covers the Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, and Okinawa campaigns.  It was budgeted at $100 million, but ended up costing more than $200 million, making it the most expensive miniseries up to then.  It was filmed in Australia.  The series was critically  acclaimed and won the Emmy for Best Miniseries and seven others.  

EPISODE 1  (Guadalcanal/Leckie) -  The series opens with narration by Tom Hanks outlining the situation in December, 1941.  Pearl Harbor had been attacked and the Japanese were building a strategically threatening air field on Guadalcanal.  We are introduced to the three main characters.  Robert Leckie is a middle-class intellectual who goes to war because it’s the thing to do.  John Basilone is a career Marine.  Eugene Sledge desperately wants to get into the fight, but a heart murmur prevents his enlistment.  The episode quickly has Leckie and his buddies landing on Guadalcanal.  There is no immediate contact, in fact the first death is friendly fire on a pissing Marine.  The opening battle is a night banzai charge which sets the stage for the visceral combat common in the series.  The aftermath of the battle also establishes the theme of racism and the dehumanization created by war.  The series gets the camaraderie and soldier talk right.  At the end of the episode, Basilone arrives on the island with “Chesty” Puller. 

Grade = A

EPISODE 2 (Basilone)  -  This episode continues on Guadalcanal with Leckie and Basilone.  An intense naval bombardment is featured.  The episode is dominated by the incident where Basilone earns his Medal of Honor, but loses one of his best friends.  It is part of an amazing night battle that is among the best combat scenes ever shot.  Admirably, the film does not copy the “Saving Private Ryan” style but has its own look and feel.  Themes include the mental and physical exhaustion of battle.  The episode ends with the conclusion of the battle.   

Grade = A+

EPISODE 3 (Melbourne)   -  The series moves to Australia as both Leckie’s and Basilone’s units recuperating and then retraining.  There is lots of fraternization and drinking.  Leckie hooks up with a beautiful lass and becomes part of her family.  The relationship develops rapidly because this being HBO there has to be a sex scene.  The girl is all in until she shocks Leckie with a jilting that hits him hard.  Meanwhile, Basilone is awarded his Medal of Honor and told he will be going stateside for a bond tour.  Themes include the temporariness of wartime romances and the disconnect between the frontlines and the rear areas.  Combat junkies can skip this episode.  It should keep females viewing. 

  Grade = C    

EPISODE 4 (Gloucester/Pavuvu/Banika)  -  This episode concentrates on Leckie.  He is off to Cape Gloucester on New Britain.  The campaign is extremely hard on morale mainly due to the almost constant rain.  There is one awesome night engagement which is in a different style than the Guadalcanal combat.  Mostly quick cuts.  Leckie gets in trouble with his commanding officer when the Lt. steals a chest from “Lucky”.  To make matters worse, Leckie develops a urination problem which causes him to wet his bed.  He is transferred to a hospital which is mostly for PTSD patients.  It’s not a fun place, but he’s released back to his unit after a couple of weeks.  Themes in this one are the effects of weather on soldiers and the results of combat stress.  Grade = B

 

EPISODE 5  (Peleliu Landing)  -  We get a brief look at Basilone as he begins his bond tour accompanied by a celebrity blond.  Sledge arrives as a green mortarman and is greeted with disdain by his new mates.  One of the mortar crewmen is destined to play the role of company jerk (nicknamed “Snafu”).  Leckie returns and implausibly meets Sledge.  It’s the naïve, intellectual meeting his future cynical self.  The big set piece is the invasion of Peleliu.  It is a tour de force that is one of the best combat scenes ever.  We follow Leckie in on his amphtrac and then inland.  The scene is obviously influenced by “Saving Private Ryan”, but differs in that it focuses on one individual (Sledge) and uses a lot of hand-held and closeups.  Kudos to the cameramen who went into “combat” with the actors.  Leckie arrives a little later and the scene shifts back and forth between them.  This scene tops any of the combat scenes in “Band of Brothers”.  The episode closes with the night of the first day, which unlike Guadalcanal brings relative calm.  

 Grade = A+

EPISODE 6 (Peleliu Airfield)  -  Picks up where Ep 5 left off with both Sledge and Leckie on the perimeter of the air field.  The next day the Marines launch a typical frontal assault to take the field and its main Japanese-infested building.  The cinematography carries over from Ep 6, but is even more graphic with several dismemberments.  Most females will have only fond memories of Leckie’s romance at this point.  There is lots of artillery fire.  The men run a gauntlet of fire and steel.  Leckie has to run the gauntlet back to seek a medic and is wounded in the process.  He ends up on a hospital ship.  Sledge rescues the jerk and begins to get some cred (and the new nickname “Sledgehammer”).  After capturing the air field, Sledge’s unit moves on to the next obstacle – a heavily fortified ridge-line.  Themes include the randomness of death and the pressures that make men crack in combat.   

Grade = A

EPISODE 7 (Peleliu Hills)  -  Still on Peliliu, Sledge gets deeper into the Hell of the miserable island.  The Japanese are holed up in caves in a Hellish environment.  Flamethrowers make their first appearance.  Days pass in a montage using Sledge’s journal to mark the passing weeks.  Turns out being on a mortar crew is not that safe, especially when you “volunteer” for stretcher duty.  The big set piece is the taking of a bunker.  The use of a flamethrower results in the line “let the bastards burn” (where have I heard that before?).  The men are developing  a tight bond with and adulation of their leader (the “Skipper”).  Premonition alert.  We get the famous “pebbles in the Jap skull” incident from Sledge’s book.  Themes include the dehumanization of civilized men by combat and the strong bonds that develop in war.  

 Grade = B

EPISODE 8 (Iwo Jima)  -  Sledge’s unit is taken out of combat.  This episode will be Basilone-centric.  He is chafing on his bond tour and itching to get back into combat.  The Marines reluctantly grant his request and he begins to train a new machine gun crew.  In the meantime he falls in love with a feisty, hard-to-get nurse.  They are married and deserve to live happily ever after.  Suddenly we are in the thick of the landing on Iwo Jima.  Basilone is doing his Rambo imitation in cinematography reminiscent of “Band of Brother”’ this time.  The action frenetic, violent, and graphic.  Themes include even the greatest warriors sometimes run up against the odds and warriors will be warriors.  Not to mention that true love can be ephemeral.   

Grade =  B

EPISODE 9 (Okinawa)  -  Sledge is sent to Okinawa with his unit replacing an Army unit.  This episode concentrates on the difference between replacements and veterans.  Sledge and Snafu have to deal with a naïve private named Hamm who gradually earns their respect by trying to do what’s right and standing up to their hazing.  On the other hand, the green new captain is incompetent and in over his head.  This episode also focuses a lot on the effect of war on civilians.  The combat has a no man’s land feel to it with the Japanese civilians caught in the middle.  Some of the grittiest battle scenes occur in this episode plus the added affronts to humanity.  Sledge goes to the edge of barbarism, but pulls back from the brink.   

Grade = A

EPISODE 10 (Home)  -  The war is over and Leckie is convalescing in a hospital.  Sledge is still on Okinawa, but has been out of combat for weeks.  He and Snafu celebrate the wars end.  Leckie returns home and starts dating the girl next door and renews his career as a journalist.  Lena visits Basilone’s family and they have some bitter sweet moments.  Sledge returns to his caring parents, but is suffering from PTSD and has trouble adjusting to civilian life.  This episode is a lackluster post script to the series.  

 Grade = C

             

THE 100 BEST WAR MOVIES: #97. Tangerines (2013)

 

                        “Tangerines” was an Estonian-Georgian production that was written, directed, and produced by Zara Urushadze.  It was filmed in Georgia (the European one).  It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and won numerous awards at film festivals.  The movie is set in the War in Abkhazia (1992-3).  This extremely nasty and complicated civil war was the Georgian government versus Abkhaz separatists who were supported by Russians and militants from the North Caucasus.  The conflict was marred by numerous human rights violations and atrocities.  Urushadze dedicated his film to Levan Abashidze – a famous Georgian actor who was killed in the war.  The movie is a small story set in that giant mess.

                  In 1992, two ethnic Estonians are the sole remaining inhabitants of a village.  The rest of the villagers have fled the war by going back to Estonia.  Ivo (Lembit Ulfsak) is a box maker.  He makes wooden boxes for his neighbor Margus (Elmo Nuhanen) who grows tangerines.  They are trying to save the crop while people are killing each other just down the road.  The friends are living in no man’s land and not taking sides.  One day, Ivo has a firefight in his front yard between Caucasians and Georgians.  There are only two wounded survivors – one from each side.  Ivo takes in Nika (Mikheil Meskhi) and Ahmed (Giorgi Nakashidze).  They want to kill each other, but  agree to a tension-filled truce within Ivo’s house.  This situation continues for weeks as the two recover.  It is definitely awkward.  And it’s going to get more awkward when the war knocks on the door again.

ACTING:   A                        

ACTION:  N/A                     

ACCURACY:  N/A 

PLOT:  A                  

REALISM:  B                      

CINEMATOGRAPHY:  lots of long takes

SCORE:   nothing special, but that works well;  ethnic music punctuates the moodier moments                  

BEST SCENE:  a group of Chechens show up

BEST QUOTE: 

            Ahmed:   I will avenge my friend. This is a holy thing for us old man, you don't understand.

Ivo: Killing a sleeping man, when he is unconscious, is that a sacred thing too? I didn't know.

                  “Tangerines” should not be as good as it is.  The premise is trite and unoriginal and could have been set in many other wars, including the American Civil War.  It is one of those movies that within five minutes you know it is going to be unambiguously anti-war.  It is virtually impossible to make a civil war movie that is not anti-war.  But is important to show that modern civil wars are just as nasty as those in the past.  The most interesting thing about “Tangerines” is it focuses on the contrast between civilians just wanting to live their lives and that of the fighting men who are obsessed with killing their opponents.  As with many civil wars, there is an ethnic factor that increases the inhumanity of the conflict.  The movie is a slice of that.    

                   Given the set-up, you are just wondering who will survive because you know at least half of the quartet ain’t gonna make it.  That turned out to be true, but how we get to the bleak ending is powerfully done.  The movie is thought-provoking.  There are long takes and provocative dialogue.  The cast is great and the characters are finely drawn.  By the way, there are no females in the movie.  There is also no villain.  The four men who are thrown together are all positive characters.  Ivo is a bit of a saint in a movie that has no religion.  But it was important to anchor the movie around a person who has kept his humanity.  It is a great performance by Lembit Ulfsak.

                   The relationship of Nika and Ahmed is predictable and unrealistic for two men on opposite sides of this horrific war.   I think if the movie had come out soon after the war (instead of 25 years later), Georgians would have said:  “yeah, right!”   If you are not familiar with the war (and I wasn’t), the movie does not try to explain it.  It is a very micro view.  However, you will find out that the war was f’ed up.  Fittingly, you will not be able to determine which side was right.  If either.  The war invades Ivo’s life, he does not go seeking it.  This is one of the themes of the movie.  A civil war will find you eventually.  Another theme is that individuals can not overcome war.  It is a monster that devours.

                  I have seen similar movies that point out how civil wars are messy and especially for civilians.  Movies like “No Man's Land”, “Pretty Village, Pretty Flame”, and “Prisoners of the Mountain”.  “Tangerines” is better and if you have not seen any movies about modern European shit-storms, it is a good starter.  You really won’t have to watch any of the others, you’ll get the basics from “Tangerines”.  First, migrate as soon as the conflict begins.  Second, you know that other ethnic group that resides in your country, they are subhuman.  But, if you really got to know an individual in that group, you would learn they are actually human like you.  Lastly, you will find that neither side is right.  So, if you are using movies like “Tangerines” to find out who the good guys were in the war, forget it.  If you want to find out how civil war effects civilians as well as warriors, it will entertain as well as enlighten you.