THE PACIFIC miniseries - Episode 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.  Leckie is established as one of the few Marines who is not corrupted by the racism.  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