Movie Theater The Pacific Airs Tonight

Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I would probably like to see it, but am unable to support, with my viewership another product by Tom Hanks, an asshole who has made millions of dollars making movies about people he apparently thinks of as racists:

Tom Hanks, Mar 6 2010, Time Magazine

"From the outset, we wanted to make people wonder how our troops can re-enter society in the first place," Hanks says. "How could they just pick up their lives and get on with the rest of us? Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. <span style="font-weight: bold">Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?</span>"
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I thought it was pretty good. Sort of slow, with a lot of character development in the first 1/2 of the movie, but it picked up when they got to Guadalcanal.

The actor they had playing Chesty Puller was fat though.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

For those of you with Time Warner Cable, you can order The Pacific with the On Demand channels. That's what I'm planning on doing. Not a huge fan of TWC myself, but at least I don't have to buy HBO to see this series.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Mr. Mildot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I would probably like to see it, but am unable to support, with my viewership another product by Tom Hanks, an asshole who has made millions of dollars making movies about people he apparently thinks of as racists:

Tom Hanks, Mar 6 2010, Time Magazine

"From the outset, we wanted to make people wonder how our troops can re-enter society in the first place," Hanks says. "How could they just pick up their lives and get on with the rest of us? Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. <span style="font-weight: bold">Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?</span>"
</div></div>

Yeah. I've seen some of the same comments. Seems he thinks playing the race card is good hype for the film. What Mr. Hanks is conveniently overlooking is PEARL HARBOR! With respect to today's combat arenas, what he's conveniently overlooking is 9/11!

I don't know what history text he has, but Pearl Harbor and 9/11 seem just mildly relevant to understanding what went on in the Pacific and what's going on in the near east.

Frankly, I tune him out. I can't take a word he says seriously when his analysis fails to pick up on the point that we're not at war with people because they are "different"; we're at war with them because they are sucker-punchers.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: former0302</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I thought it was pretty good. Sort of slow, with a lot of character development in the first 1/2 of the movie</div></div>

I'll agree with that statement. Hopefully things will develop a bit more in the next chapter.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

Originally Posted By: Mr. Mildot
I would probably like to see it, but am unable to support, with my viewership another product by Tom Hanks, an asshole who has made millions of dollars making movies about people he apparently thinks of as racists:

Tom Hanks, Mar 6 2010, Time Magazine

"From the outset, we wanted to make people wonder how our troops can re-enter society in the first place," Hanks says. "How could they just pick up their lives and get on with the rest of us? Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"


Sorry Guys,

I just don't see how this referenced quote makes Hanks "an asshole". I think with the movie and this statement he is trying to show people (who have never had to do it) what it is like to return from a war and re-enter society. Of course we, as a nation, hated the bastards. They attacked us, they fought "dirty", they abused our POW's they were "godless yellow bastard's". But how does this truth make Hanks an asshole?

bshaw
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I watched and enjoyed-Even though it just starting out, I felt it got a good jump on portraying the brutality of the Pacific theater.

As far as Tom Hanks's comment: All I know is that my father-in-law would swear at every Toyota and other Japanese products he saw advertised on TV. He hated the country, their people, their race, until the day he died. No sense of forgiveness or let bygones be bygones from him. Served 3 years in the Pacific in the New Guinea area on little known island campaigns.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

Just watched episode 1. I thought it was definitely slower than Band of Bros, but this series also seems more thoughtful. I am looking forward to watch it unfold.

The quotation attributed to Hanks is taken a bit out of context. That statement to me is one of wonderment about how people who fight and see the carnage of war are somehow expected to live normal lives after they come home. As a veteran, it's a very relevant question to me at least.

When you watch Hanks' films about WWII, there's a reverence for that generation that overshadows the warfare itself. That's why I think his stuff is so popular: it gets away from the bullshit "glory in battle" themes and tells stories that are archetypes for that generation of soldiers and Marines. I know it's popular to villainize Hollywood, but I think that Hanks has brought WWII to life more than anything other person in Hollywood, academia, or anywhere else you can look.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I have yet to see it, but hope to soon.

Back to the Hanks thing: Tom Hanks' comments are not limited to the one quoted above. Here's another:

"By and large, the European war in World War II was the last war of its kind. In Europe, an enemy soldier could throw up his hands; his war would be over. The war in the Pacific was more like the wars we've seen ever since - a war of racism and terror, a war of absolute horrors, both on the battlefield and in the regular living conditions."

From his body of statements, it appears that Hanks feels that all wars after WWII in Europe (that one against other caucasians) are wars of "racism and terror". The comments about what it's like to come home are not the point of criticism, but rather the suggestion that we fight wars because we're racists.

Clearly, this is a reductionist view of his comments and I'm sure he'd be able to offer some insight into his ideas. That said, there's really no misconstruing the idea that he believes we fought the Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Iraqis, Taliban and a host of lesser aggressors, at least in part, because they aren't white.

If it's a poor choice of words, then I certainly am willing to listen. If he was simply implying that every opponent we've faced are racists, and that we fight them because we don't like racism, then I think he's off on a limb there too. If, as it sounds, he believes US war policy is driven by a desire to kill people of color, however, then it just might qualify him as an a-hole.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I think there's a division between why wars are fought and the effects of what those conflicts have on the men who fight them. In Korea I rarely went a day without someone telling me how horrible the Japanese are and how they passionately hate them. War changes the way you view the enemy, guaranteed.

Maybe it's just convenient, but it seems to me that Hanks is probably speaking more of about racism being the effect of war, than the cause. It's all about the nuance and context anyway, so unless we invite him out for a beer and hear it from him, this is all just speculation.

Either way, Saving Private Ryan is a classic. Band of Brothers is phenomenal. And so far, I'm a fan of The Pacific.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ZLBubba</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Maybe it's just convenient, but it seems to me that Hanks is probably speaking more of about racism being the effect of war, than the cause. It's all about the nuance and context anyway, so unless we invite him out for a beer and hear it from him, this is all just speculation.</div></div>

Wisdom. Thanks for posting.

Finally saw it. I am a fan as well. I expected great production value; what's more valuable is their commitment to explore the emotion and impact of events, not just the events themselves.

The river fight scene told me much about what conflict on that island must have looked and felt like. Harrowing and horrible. I thank God I've never had to wake up one morning to a beach full of bodies created by my own work.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

Did anyone see it on sattelite (DIRECTV) last night? Channel 101 where I live. I was surprised to find it on. Thought HBO had the first-dibbs monopoly on it. I liked it. Very good attention to detail, even down to the yellow frags which were early-war. Also loved seeing that M1917 spit out the lead.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

Some of the names are common even to my youngest. Drop off HWY 5 onto Basilone. Expect the bus to drop you off at Liversedge, or Goettage. It's SOP and normalcy for Marines and their households.

Interesting to read the new love...

Seek out a Viet Nam Veteran too, and thank them.

Or, being that this is the internet, watch every episode and then discuss memories of your time on Tarawa as a master sniper.

Your lifelong sore buttcheek, and the lip fungus from the deer jerky Lifesavers you were addicted to in study hall, not to mention the sweet job you had as a paper wadder upper for your law firm gave you every right not to serve. Every right.

right is an interesting word.

people are born with it.

OJ was.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

LOL. Go Wildcats. Go Duke. March Madness.

These battles were harsh. Men deployed and came home when the war was over. There was a fight to get signed up. The first episode demonstrated the sense of abandonment and the birth of the MAGTF idea. The other guy that mans this desk will be mad that I posted but it was.

<span style="font-style: italic">Oh, a storm is threat'ning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away </span>

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MVor2Xm8qg0"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MVor2Xm8qg0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

THINK ABOUT THIS. The Germans killed six million Jews and 20 million Russians [i.e. Soviet citizens]; the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million Filipinos, Malays, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians and Burmese,and at least 23 million of them ethnic Chinese. Both nations looted the countries they conquered on a monumental scale, though Japan plundered more, over a longer period, than the Nazis. Both conquerors enslaved millions and exploited them as forced labourers—and, in the case of the Japanese, as [forced] prostitutes for front-line troops. If you were a Nazi prisoner of war from Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand or Canada (but not Russia) you faced a 4% chance of not surviving the war; [by comparison] the death rate for Allied POWs held by the Japanese was nearly 30%.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

Well, I'm going to say this.

While I've missed the name (if they've said it) I was pretty sure that the individual at the beginning of each episode is Audie Murphy. The one with the heart murmur. And, I'm thinking the sub-plot of this series is about his, as well as his team-mates achievements and sacrifices through the war.

But that doesn't really jive either, due to the fact that Mr. Murphy was in Europe.

So yeah, I'm somewhat intrigued as to what "secondary line" is going on, but I have to say that More and Further historically correct information of our past NEEDS to be brought up and re-kindled.

How does the line go? Something like: "those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it."
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

The guy with the heart murmur is Eugene B. Sledge, the author of <span style="font-style: italic">With the Old Breed</span>, one of the books the series was based on. The other is Robert Leckie, author of <span style="font-style: italic">Helmet for my Pillow</span>.

If you want to know something of war, <span style="font-style: italic">With the Old Breed</span> might be a good place to start.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

Audie Murphy died in May, 1971. He was also in the European Theater.

The machine gun crewman with the curly hair is portraying Robert Leckie. His book, "Helmet for my Pillow" is a good read and along with "With the Old Breed" forms the basis of the series, like Lindy mentioned above. Have not cracked that one yet, but have it on my list.

AG
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I have been reading about WWII since 1st grade, and Sledge's "With the Old Breed" was a book about war like no other. The pictures and images of war that he creates with his writing are as stark for the mind as photos from the Nazi death camps are for the eyes. The mud, maggotladen bodies next to your head, the insane suicide attacks of the Japanese, created unforgetable visions literally months after reading. His experiences in war make this a must read for anyone who thinks its glamourous to be in combat. Move this book to the top of your list. It is quite unlike any other in this genre. Even of more interest is the story of Mr. Sledge's journey of writing this book and its publishment in 1981.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Hannibal</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Bullet Sponge-

Bit off on your totals? I have never heard your numbers before. Checked all my sources and texts- you seem to be way too high. Total deaths in the Asian/Pacific conflict were between 15 and 20 million including US/Japanese deaths. Still, a tremendous amount of loss and very sad. Be interested in your sources for those very high totals.

Han </div></div> wikipedia was a copy and paste. The totals for the Asian/pacific include all civilians the Japanese killed during occupation.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I couldn't find the 2nd episode On Demand this week. Does anyone know if it's posted on the net to watch, or was the first episode just a teaser to get people interested and subscribe to HBO?
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

The Sergeant of Sledge's mortar platoon is RV Burgin. He wrote a book titled, "Islands of the Damned" just released this month. I'm reading it now... it's good, but no where near Sledge's book. He recounts many of the same stories of service in K/3/5 as Sledge. Sledge's pre-War best friend is Sid Phillips who served with Robert Leckie in H/2/1.

All these guys are in "The Pacific"
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">...but no where near Sledge's book.</div></div>

What is?

Seriously, though, another good memoir of the Pacific War is <span style="font-style: italic">Goodbye, Darkness</span> by the late William Manchester.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I will have to wait a bit longer to get this show over here in Australia but I'm looking foward to it.
the Japanese were a very cruel soldier during that war. My grandfather was a prisoner of the japs for over 3 years and lived with the memories right until the day he died. No opology no nothing from the Japanese to this day.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mic</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I will have to wait a bit longer to get this show over here in Australia but I'm looking foward to it.
the Japanese were a very cruel soldier during that war. My grandfather was a prisoner of the japs for over 3 years and lived with the memories right until the day he died. No opology no nothing from the Japanese to this day. </div></div>

Tom Hanks will apologize to the Japs though...
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I hate to say it, but war is cruel. Goes both ways, different perspectives. People wanting apologies, etc. sounds like a broken record for "reparations" . I had/have family that fought on both sides of the war. Each have their own perspective, both very cruel and honest. I had family in interment camps here that were citizens of the US, and also fought for the US.

shit happened, will continue to happen. Even today, friendlies die. I'm sure in other regions, when friendly fire or errant bombs wipe out family members, you have a whole generation who look upon the US in the same light as we did Japan.

I'm not condoning stuff that happened in WWII or brutal acts in history but expecting an apology from the majority of the people that had nothing to do with the war (i.e. descendants), just ain't gonna happen. Kinda like apologizing for slavery, taking Indian land, etc.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I had high hopes for the Pacific and I also find it very slow.
The characters don't communicate the intensity of the conflict like B.O.B.

I also expected Guadalcanal to be more important in the story, it's shown to be of little importance in the conflict.

On the positive side, I want to learn more about this part of WWII and the books mention above will be my first step.

Thank you for these inputs.
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

This is from an e-mail I received from a good friend of mine...



"The Pacific" Is An Insult

The TV Series "Pacific" is an insult to the Marine Corps, particularly to the Marines that served in World War II. I served in World War II and I feel insulted at the portrayal of the Marines that fought so hard for Guadalcanal. In the first place, the heat was about the worse Marines felt in most of their campaigns. At least forty Marines were hospitalized with heat exhaustion, that's the ones that went to the hospital. How many were treated on line by the Corpsmen?

They didn't portray Medal of Honor Winner John Basilone with much respect. When the battles were over, the Marines didn't sit there and gaze at the havoc they had wrought, The Gunny wouldn't have allowed that, they went to work immediately to rebuild defenses, repair weapons, care for the wounded and dead. War is chaos and the Sergeants and Officers turn chaos into orderly confusion, by rallying their men after each battle, prepare for the next one. They feed their troops, make sure they have the weapons and ammunition to continue.

John Basilone had a machine gun section, he kept the guns firing by rallying his troops, fixing the machine guns when they stopped firing. He went through open fields of fire to go back and bring ammo to the machine gunners. He helped fire the guns when the Marines were killed or wounded until the guns were red hot. How about Platoon sergeant Mitchell Page who held a red hot machine gun in his arms and fired into the attacking enemy until they stopped? He had a blister from shoulder to wrist.

My favorite Marine hero of Guadalcanal didn't get the Medal of Honor, only a Navy Cross, during the battle of Tenaru River. His 1917A1 Water Cooled machine gun nest was hit by a grenade, his loader was wounded and couldn't use his arms, Al Schmidt was blinded. The loader told him to shoot the gun and he would tell him where to shoot. They even made a movie about him starring John Garfield and named; "Pride of the Marines". There were a total of twenty Medal of Honor reipients at Guadalcanal, twelve of those were Marines and Marine Corpsmen.

Before the Series started Tom Hanks went on TV to announce that World War II was a Racist War like the War in Iraq. No one told him about the "Rape of Nanking", the capital of China in 1937, or the brutality that was the worse the world had ever seen. In some instances worse than anything the Nazis did.

No one told him about the 75,000 Thousands of American and Filipino troops captured at Bataan and marched sixty (60) miles without food or drink. Men that tried to get a drink of muddy water alongside the road were bayoneted or decapitated by samari swords. Filipino citizens who tried to give them water and food were summarily shot or bayoneted regardless of whether they were a man, woman or child. Only 54,000 of the marchers survived the march, only to go into a prison camp guarded by sadistic Japanese soldiers.

There were several instances of kind Japanese Soldiers who dared treat the prisoners decent, for if they had been caught they, too, would have been killed. Read this story to see just how badly they have researched.

What I have told about in the first few lines was only the beginning, there were three more years to go of island hopping, of terrible heat and dug in Japanese. When we went into Okinawa the Japanese started their full blown suicide planes, boats, swimmers and human bombers. Ask any Marine, Soldier, Sailor or Airman that went into Japan at the end of the war, even up to the Korean War, you could still see the tunnels that had held Suicide Boats. Hundreds of tunnels. The Japanese has 5,000 planes ready to Hari Kari the American/Allied Fleet when it was preparing to invade Japan. Read about the suicide plane attacks at Okinawa... then multiply that by a few thousand more.

The Military Advisor is a former Marine by the name of Captain Dale Dye who fought in Vietnam. I am assuming he read some books about the battles in the Pacific War but he either allowed the producer to rewrite actual events to please himself.... or he did as he was instructed, gave information of racist Marines, American Soldiers, British, Canadian, ANZAC, and other Allied fighting men to make the Americans and their Allies seem as racist rather than Fighters of Freedom who had been forced into a war the Japanese had been fighting for several years.

You can watch the "Pacific" Series if you want and watch the degradation of the American Fighting Man, I prefer not to allow a Hollywood billionaire to drag my life through the mud he calls movies. I would like to see Captain Dale Dye apologize to all Marines for getting involved in a production that calls Americans "racist" because they fought against the people who bombed Pearl Harbor, who tortured and killed our men and other peoples.

If you are of a mind, read; "The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II". by Iris Chang.

GySgt. F. L. Rousseau,
USMC Retired
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I just finished watching episode 6 and coincidentally, this weekend, just finished the section of Sledge's book on Pelilu.

The episode definiately is just taking the "high points" from the book at least in this episode. The whole of the context is tough to grasp, unless you read the book. But that is typical for teleivsion/movies. The atrocities of the Japanese aren't spoken of, and of course, that's not the filmaker's point of view/interest. Of course that makes any visciousness of the Marines appear over the top.

I wonder about the symbolizm of the opening of the show, with the artist drawing black on white, notice the red on white appear in the background? Wonder if that is a reference to the blood spilled, or the Japanese flag (my conspiresy theory mind, LOL)?
 
Re: The Pacific Airs Tonight

I agree it's alot slower than I anticipated. I also read sledges book, so my hopes were high. I guess I could really do without all the "backstories" taking place in the land of OZ and back in the US... It might be better if I wasn't constantly compairing it to Band of Brothers. eh.. what are ya gonna do?