Heroes Over The Pacific

[Reginald Hanfy]

Sothat's* what was happening to Basilone during all of that darkness on my TV screen! That's a whole lot of heroism, and I could barely tell what was going on.

On the plus side, I'm starting to put names with faces, and I did enjoy the army/navy antagonism, as well as Sadler's performance (I know he's been around for a while, but I know him only from Roswell). I didn't mind the cut back to Eugene so much. At least it was at the end of the episode.

I am puzzled by the comment from your Army correspondent. It is a fact beyond question that as the 'bastard stepchild' of the Navy, the Marine Corps was last in line for modern equipment. This was particularly true in 1942, when the Pacific theater was second in priority to defeating Germany. Note, for example, that the Marines on Guadalcanal are armed with WW1-era bolt action rifles (the Army had self-loading Garands) and Chteau-Thierry-style water-cooled machine guns.

I'd imagine your correspondent knows this, so I wonder what he's referring to.

I very much enjoyed the episode, but have one complaint. It was difficult to tell which units were being featured. Basilone and his men were far away from Leickie and his unit, but sometimes I got the impression they were fighting together.

I understand that's because we're seeing marines in filthy uniforms fighting in a jungle, but more should have been done to show that these were different units fighting at different battle fronts.

As to the complaint that the marines were better equipped. Not so true. What that army soldier might have seen was army equipment borrowed by the marines for the duration.

After watching Part Two, my fiance and I are in total agreement that HBO should have aired Parts One and Two together as they did with BoB. Basilone's moment of heroism and the brief Sledge scene would built nicely from Part One have made for a better rounded viewing experience. Ah well.

Part Two was still stunning on its own, though.

i wasn't paying as much attention to part one as i thought, because I didn't really catch Basilone in part one and had no idea who he was. i recognised Leckie and some of the faces are familiar.

I'm enjoying the series, but honestly have no idea who these guys are

Tsk tsk people! The young (mostly) ladies (mostly) over on LiveJournal's Pacific discussion community not only have figured out who is who, but have chosen favorites, made avatars, passed out nicknames, begun writing fanfiction, and produced macros, GIFs and lolcats. Keep up with teh digital fandom. :)

After reading up on Basilone's courageous leadership that earned him the medal, this was 1 of 2 episodes I anticipated most. I was a little disappointed with how it was shot. It failed to convey the overwhelming superiority the Japanese had, and the duration of the battle. I also felt the Sledge cutaway was ill-timed. Those 48 hours on GuadalCanal were sheer Hell. I couldn't relate to Sledge like I could to Basilone and Leckie after watching that battle. The episode flew by as I kept waiting for that climactic shot that captured the essence of Basilone's feats. It never came. Lastly, I did appreciate the indignity of having the Marines climb the ropes on evacuation. No easy ride. More random thoughts when I watch it again.

To anyone who thinks it is difficult to identify and/or distinguish the characters, please re-watch parts 1 and 2 over again. It will be much easier to identify characters on the second viewing. My wife and I re-watched part one on Saturday night, and I had no problem identifying characters last night.

I must say that I got a lot more out of the episode only after reading your review, Alan. I don't really know the back-story to the actual events that were portrayed here, but watching the ep, I didn't get the same sense of heroism and nuance as you described it. Which is why it seemed odd to me that they would be considered such big heroes towards the end of the ep. For me, this installment wasn't especially effective in getting across the message that was intended, though it was still enjoyable to watch.

We would have felt more for Manny's death if we knew him a little better, or cared more. This series basically jumps into the battle scenes without the buildup and character development so many classic war movies use more effectively ("Battleground," for instance). The direction also haphazardly left too much up to the viewer to sort out about what was happening in that battle - I agree, it was confusing.

And why not show the heated machine gun barrel searing Basilone's flesh when it's happening, rather than see the burns after the fact? It takes away from the drama and heroism of the moment. I'm nit picking a fantastic and nobel effort, but there is such a rich template of how to present compelling war narrative where the drama serves the facts and not vice versa, I can't help but have high expectations.

My experience with jungle combat was brief (Panama), but I can assure you that it is as confusing for the participant as it is for the viewer. Only it smells a whole lot worse.

Another note: every one heading into combat says some version of "when it happens, it happens" at some point, but almost nobody believes it. The one thing that has bugged me about war movies for 20 years is the casual fatalism of soldiers, sailers, marines and airmen. Most of us are more scared than you can ever possibly imagine. And I think that it much more remarkable than casual heroism.

They should have named this episode "Badass," because that's how I'll always think of John Basilone after watching this. I think my mouth was as wide-open as his fellow Marines' when he was performing a clinic with that MG.

The tension/ensuing struggle after he literally bumped into the enemy soldiers in the woods reminded me of the same kind of tension I felt when Bull Randleman battled a German soldier to the death in a Belgian farmhouse during BoB.

Fantastic episode.

The one disappointment I had was that, even though I realize it's not the focus of the series, the episode last night COMPLETELY ommitted the efforts of the Cactus Air Force, who was the only thing holding back the Japanese Navy and Air Force after the US naval presence was forced to withdraw following the Battles of Savo Island, Santa Cruz and the Eastern Solomons.

The episode made it sound like the Marines on the ground were wholly at the mercy of the Japanese Navy and Air Force, which was NOT the case because of the couple dozen Marine, Army and Navy pilots holding the line against the same overwhelming odds, outdated equipment, and lack of supplies as the infantry (at times, the CAF was pumping gas by hand out of wrecked planes to keep the rest in the air). They should have at LEAST given these men their due in Tom's voice-over introduction, as they did with Savo Island.

While combining parts 1 & 2 may make sense for character introduction and story continuity, it is a great deal of information and combat to initially digest and may have been confusing to those not as familiar with WWII in the Pacific as many of us. Great series so far and I anticipate it will only get better.

This was a much, much better episode. There are still flaws as others have noted, e.g., the lack of character development, confusion over unit assignment and location, and the failure to convey just overwhelming the odds against Basilone were. But I found myself engaged by this episode much more than by the first.

I still think it's too bad the producers didn't spend a bit more time with Leckie before combat. He was a troublemaker from the time he joined the Marines, and some of his antics during training would have developed his character much more and been funny as hell. That said, if we're going where I believe we're going next, there will be a chance to develop the characters more fully.

So far I have been really impressed with this series and I can't wait for more! Those that are making the mistake of comparing it to BoB are forgetting that we love 10 episodes as a whole of BoB, (I watched it at work, the entire series back to back) since we are being given this story an hour at a time, don't compare it to a finished masterpiece, you will miss all that has been great about the two hours we've be given! Character development, I guess, was taken from the books this series is based upon, and we can get to know just as much, if not MORE, about the characters from their battlefield experience than we can by getting a shot of who he was before the war. Let's remember that there are MANY different ways to tell a story, and that this one is STILL being told!

Basilone, Leckie, and Sledge are not THAT hard to keep track of but I agree that the units and where they are defending the line is a tad confusing, but all I really need to know is this, Americans on one side, Japs on the other, and the Americans can't let them through. These scenes really reminded me of scenes from Bastogne, with the artillery and confusion fighting, the tension of knowing the enemy was just there, but not knowing when they were coming... As for there not being a "Hero Shot" of the things Basilone and company were doing through out the night and so forth, I don't think he ever got the sense that he was this ultimate hero, I think they got the sense of being surrounded by a great and out numbering force and that they not only had to survive, but defend as well, so we get the action as it was recalled, and know that they did things no normal person could have.

I think not knowing you are a hero makes you a more likely candidate.

Both of my grandfathers were in the Pacific theater and it has been a joy just to see what their experience MIGHT have been. My living grandfather was a cook/SEABEE and he recalls being put on the line, (though he can't quite recall which island, he does tell me of a time that McArthur gave his SEABEE company a tongue lashing at building one of the finest bases and in the least amount of time, but next time to not cut down the trees, cause all they did was give the japs a beautiful target) so hearing that bit of dialogue last night about the cooks being put on the line really brought to bear what he truly faced over there.

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