THE PACIFIC miniseries Episodes 4-6

 

EPISODE 4 (Gloucester/Pavuvu/Banika)  -  This episode concentrates on Leckie.  It highlights the excellent performance of James Badge Dale.  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.  The episode continues to develop the racist attitude of the two sides.  When one of Leckies friends says “They must be either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid”, Leckie responds:  “Or they really hate us.”  Ironically, the episode shows Marines killing wounded Japanese, so the hatred goes both ways.  Leckie gets in trouble with his commanding officer when the Lt. steals a chest from “Lucky”.  Rank has its privileges.  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.  At the hospital, he encounters a buddy named Gibson who is there because he cracked.  It’s not a fun place, but he’s released back to his unit after a couple of weeks because he insists on returning to his unit.  Bros before hos, burgers, cokes, and clean sheets.  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.  In  a funny scene, some guys ask for Basilone’s autograph, ignoring the beautiful movie star.  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.  They discuss God with Sledge being a believer and Leckie wondering why God is such a sadist.  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 Sledge 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.  Since this is Sledge’s first time in combat, we get the perspective of what it would be like for us to be in combat for the first time.  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”. Snafu gets the honor of being the Marine that collects gold teeth from Japanese corpses. The episode closes with the night of the first day.  It’s a night full of fireworks.  The set with light from the fires is very impressive.   

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 Snafu 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.  The episode includes a scene where one of Sledge’s mates shares his half-full canteen.  Although the men are desperate for water, they each only take one gulp, despite their bodies begging for more.  The lack of water was a serious issue on Peleliu in the early days of the battle. Exhaustion was also a problem.  In one scene, the men are offered dexadrine (a type of amphetamine) to keep them artificially alert.  Speaking of sleep, the series often shows Marines using their helmets as pillows.  Leckie entitled his book “Helmet for a Pillow”. The episode is excellent in showing that hardship, but stays micro in its coverage of the battle.  It is nice that this forgotten battle gets its due in “The Pacific”, but the screenwriters decided to leave the audience unaware of what a fiasco the invasion was.  As you watch the carnage on your tv, you do not get the added heartbreak of being told the invasion of the island was not necessary and thus the deaths of all those Marines were a waste.  

 Grade = A