Even though I'm a little late to the party, I just saw The Pacific and was bedazzled by it's beauty, terror and, somehow, simplicity. A miniseries that pushes the boundaries of television, grabs reality and turns it into an event you can not miss. A story about a war, nobody was prepared for.
It's hard to bring something to the table when it comes to WWII. Band Of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan pretty much said it all, letting Inglourious Basterds even come in and reshape that very history. But The Pacific doesn't aim at what happened in Europe, not even what happened in Pearl Harbor. We go back to December, 1941, right after Hawaii was attacked and young soldiers across the nation were encouraged to fight for their country, without really knowing what that means. We follow several marines as they are being shipped out to a little island called Guadalcanal, and what they find there changes everything they ever knew. In one of the most expensive shows ever made, produced by blockbuster vets Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, this is the kind of television happening High Definition was made for.
The most gripping about the stories that are told in 'Part I' is that they feel real, and grounded. We see how families say goodbye in their own way, how men are rejected or encouraged, how their boats leave the ships and head for land and the terrible wait that comes with it. It shows us what we've seen before, but in such a matter that it still confronts you. Anyone can get out of it what they feel like. The pride of fighting for the free world we live in today. The cruelty and meaningless battles. The frighting fact of watching your fleet in a sea battle and all you can think of is the fourth of July.
There is absolutely nothing meaningful about war, but as we follow these man and see how they change in the very first hour, is astonishing. The depth of the characters, the emptiness that follows, the change that you have to go through, it all feels real. It makes The Pacific an extraordinary look at a part of the war History classes fail to mention. Not liking war-movies is not a reason to skip this miniseries, because this is the way it was back then. You couldn't escape it, you couldn't say "no". These things happened, and never before was it filmed so beautifully and breathtaking.
Certainly, a can't miss event.
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