The specifics of The Pacific

The new HBO miniseries entitled The Pacific, captures the confusing, complicated and exhausting campaign that the Americans waged against the Japanese during World War II. The series tracks John Basilone, Bob Lecke and Eugene Seldge of the 1st Marine Division from their first landing on Guadalcanal to the battle of Iwo Jima.

Producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg do not disappoint as their $100 million project stomps through the jungles and the characters slowly gain some humanity only to have it torn apart by post-traumatic stress disorder. Four episodes of ten have aired and the Marines are not even halfway through the war.

Those familiar with the Band of Brothers miniseries also produced by Hanks and Spielberg might expect a similar glorified account of the war. Set mostly in France, Holland and Belgium, Band of Brothers follows the steps of Easy Company as they take part in some of the most famous battles in history. Based on the book by Stephen A. Ambrose, the miniseries focuses on the relationships between the soldiers and how the men carried each other through the harsh times, forming a bond of brotherhood.

If you are looking for the same sort of comradery, The Pacific does not even give you the chance. The names and faces of Marines drift by in a blur of attacks and jungle rot and the viewer rarely has a chance to get to know any other marines besides Basilone, Lecke and Seldge. Other characters are developed briefly, but in telling the story of three separate men the writers focus on individual narratives. Their stories only intertwine in setting as the division is shipped around the Pacific, placing them in similar circumstances, but each follows his own trajectory.

Private First Class Bob Lecke (James Badge Dale) is introduced as the hopeless romantic and old soul that many of us would aspire to be. He is often writing letters to a girl he barely knows and crafting poetry underneath his rain soaked tent and has received the most early character development. Lecke also commits the most personal killing of the first episode. After a harrowing night battle on Guadalcanal, the Marines awake to a vast killing field of dead Japanese soldiers. In one last vain attempt to maintain his honor, a wounded Japanese soldier stumbles from the carnage and into knee deep water in front of the American line, begging to be shot. The Americans taunt and take pock shots at the man until Lecke, in an act of mercy, grants him his wish with a hand gun. The scene captures Lecke in his transition from a thoughtful and sensitive civilian to a battle-hardened and emotionally drained U.S. Marine.

Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone (Jon Seda) and Corporal Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazello) receive slightly less attention in the first four episodes. Basilone, a machine gunner, decimates almost an entire Japanese division singlehandedly in a feat for which he receives the Medal of Honor. He is subsequently shipped home to sell war bonds. Eugene Sledge spends the majority of the first four episodes stateside suffering from a heart murmur.

As a companion piece to Band of Brothers – which was filmed to be dark and gritty, with grey overtones and pale lighting to depict the drab of northern Europe – The Pacific is vibrant and beautiful as sunlight pours through the canopy of tropical jungles. Many of the scenes are devastatingly beautiful (cliché but appropriate), which helps to contextualize the human cost and carnage of war against a peaceful and serene natural world. The jungle is alive with flora and fauna, which is masterfully construed not be relaxing and comforting, but terrifying as the dense leaves may reveal a Japanese patrol at any moment.

World War II is a period of history that has been glorified and retold through pop culture, books, movies, songs and old-timer yarns since it ended 65 years ago. We all have a mental image and emotional attachment to the stories of men like Lecke and Basilone who we attribute as being sincere and true Americans like we imagine our grandfathers being.

The Pacific brings us a slightly new and more confusing understanding of that history which may be more fitting of the actual events as well as useful for today’s debates. World War II is often used as a frame for other more complicated and nuanced conflicts because of its clear good versus evil narrative. The stories told in The Pacific add another layer of confusion and moral hardship as well as physical hardship that Band of Brothers and other period pieces have ignored in the past.