When a miniseries sustains its integrity and scope across several episodes, I’m inclined to think of it as an epic-length film, the equal of Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace, Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, Abel Gance’s Napoléon, and von Stroheim’s lost masterpiece Greed. Last year John Adams met that criteria for me. Eight years ago, HBO made what stands, for me, as the greatest war movie of all time — Band of Brothers, clocking in at 11 hours and 45 minutes.
The same team reunites to tell the story unfolding on the other side of the globe, in The Pacific, based on first-person accounts by two Marines who were there — “With the Old Breed” by Eugene Sledge and “Helmet for My Pillow” by Robert Leckie.
The miniseries tracks the intertwined odysseys of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, John Basilone and Eugene Sledge – across the vast canvas of the Pacific. The extraordinary experiences of these men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal, through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa, to the triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day.
Filmed mostly in Australia, with a budget being reported between $200-250 million, the 10-part epic will premiere sometime next year (March, 2010?) If that’s too long to wait, you might want to revisit Terrance Malick’s The Thin Red Line (trailer after the cut).
6 Responses for "Spielberg, Hanks, WWII, HBO: The Pacific"
haven’t seen Band of Brothers, and it’s mostly ’cause I totally, fully, rejected Saving Private Ryan. Will do same, boycott, to this one.
I understand there are reasons to resist the sentimentalizing of Saving Private Ryan, Jesus, but Band of Brothers is altogether flintier, and more brutally honest, historically accurate, with real-life testimonials from men who were there giving the project credence SPR lacked.
[If you give Band of Brothers a shot someday, please don't judge it by the first episode, which was relatively weak compared to the 10 hours that followed.]
Bullshit. Saving Priavate Ryan may have done a lot for war films but it didn’t “sentimentalize” them. And without Ryan, Ryan, there would be no Band of Brothers.
And way to castrate the word “boycott” there, JA.
I like the brilliant set pieces in Saving Private Ryan, but I don’t think I’m alone in thinking the framing device and choked-up ending were emotionally manipulative and weepy. For me, the movie fluctuated between Bill Mauldin and just plain maudlin.
My heart skipped a beat… I can’t wait. Guess I’ll need to get HBO.
Can hardly wait. If it is a good as Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. I like the special effects. better than movies in the past.
But I’m with {PROMAN} how Ryan move in to Brothers. But I was disappointed that the union between the two was not shown. The point could have been done at the glider scene. Hope that they follow the same style and not change, didn’t care to much for some recent ww2 pacific movies
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