The Pacific Episode 1 Full Length Reaction
Added 2024-02-13 23:53:28 +0000 UTCSo different from both BoB and MotA! Some familiar faces though...
Comments
Two more of the important aspects of World War II were the experiences of the sailors of the Merchant Marine on the cargo ships in the Atlantic convoys, and those of the submariners. Tom Hanks made his film Greyhound (2020), in which he plays the captain of a Navy destroyer escorting one of those convoys. I hope Spielberg and Hanks also film a miniseries about the submarine sailors. They, along with the bomber crews shown in MOTA, the Marine infantry in the Pacific, and the Army infantry and tankers in Europe (for the tank crew experience, see Fury (2014), one of the best performances ever by Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Jon Bernthal, Shia LaBeouf, and Michael Pena), suffered the worst casualty rates of the war. World War II was my grandfather's and stepfather's war, one neither expected to survive. As a veteran of a more modern era, I am humbled by that generation.
Jim Finley
2024-03-17 21:46:34 +0000 UTCAs a Marine veteran and someone who spent allot of time studying the history of combat, this is probably the most accurate portrayal of WW2 combat in that area of theater ever put on screen, I always get excited when people get introduced to this series
Victor
2024-03-15 17:12:12 +0000 UTCThank you! I've had a few people mention it and send me links for the interviews so that I don't miss them. I'll make sure to include them in all the future episodes, even if they have to be a separate "clip." 😊
Movie Night
2024-02-26 21:55:10 +0000 UTCOriginally on HBO the Pacific did have intros with Veterens So there are two versions of the series one without the intro and one with them.
Jason Darbe
2024-02-26 12:03:21 +0000 UTCThank you for explaining! I'm a little nervous for this series, but still looking forward to it. It's really helpful to have context, particularly having just come off of BoB.
Movie Night
2024-02-20 21:25:44 +0000 UTCYou will never hear a veteran of the Pacific Theater say they could have been friends with a Japanese soldier. The hatred quickly grew for everything Japanese since our men had no understanding of the Japanese culture or mindset. Also the Japanese were extremely brutal and cruel in all the areas they occupied. In Korea they forced 10's of thousands of women into comfort battalions to provide sex for their men near the front lines. In China where the bulk of Japanese forces were fighting China lost 4 million soldiers and 20 million civilians to Japanese forces. 500,000 Chinese civilians died in medical experiments conducted by Unit 731. India also suffered heavily losing almost 2,5 million civilians and 90,000 soldiers while fighting Japan. Great reaction keep in mind this is a much more brutal war than Easy company faced in Europe. There is no Geneva Convention and surrendered men were considered as less than human by the Japanese and so deserving of whatever atrocities you cared to heep on them.
Stephen Knueppel
2024-02-20 18:45:52 +0000 UTCI had completely forgotten about that scene in SPR! I'm not sure I ever knew the specifics of them speaking Czech, but that's a great tie over to The Pacific. I feel like I'm dusting off the cobwebs of everything I ever learned about WWII with this whole BoB/MotA/TP experience! 😅 I recall the fanaticism of the Japanese, but I never knew many of the details. I was definitely more familiar with the European half of WWII--a few months ago, I actually went down a very shallow Google rabbit hole of "why did Japan attack?" because for the life of me, I couldn't remember. It was a cursory read, but it's fascinating now to be able to go more in depth.
Movie Night
2024-02-15 19:59:18 +0000 UTCGlad you enjoyed it, and thank you for joining me 😊 It's going to be a roller coaster, I think!
Movie Night
2024-02-15 19:54:19 +0000 UTCCouple of random factoids in regards to the Japanese, specifically the man Leckie shoots. One of the things that made the pacific theater so different from the European theater, and is the thing people still struggle to understand to this day, is how wildly different Imperial Japanese culture was to Western culture. In general, the Japanese soldiers had a borderline fanatical dedication to the Emperor, and even if individuals didn’t want to be fighting, the fear of the shame that would come with not fighting to the death was almost worse than their fear of death. On top of that, the Japanese propaganda put a special kind of fear into every citizen of the empire, that the Americans were brutal, bloodthirsty monsters who would torture them, and everyone they cared about. After the actual battle, corpsmen (marine medics) searched for survivors to render aid, and a few casualties were taken from wounded Japanese who attacked the Corpsmen with bayonets and grenades to avoid being taken prisoner. In fact, the Japanese commander ended up committing suicide the next morning, as the marines had surrounded his command post, and he refused to be taken alive. Most of the men under his command either fought to the death, or attempted to escape to rejoin the rest of the Japanese forces to bring word back. All of this is shown through the lens of the wounded man on the beach, and the final survivor. Right before Leckie shoots him, he says “I’m tired” then starts yelling “shoot me!” Bonus fact: Spielberg’s presence in the show is demonstrated in the refusal to put subtitles over the Japanese man, as there is a very similar scene is Saving Private Ryan right after the beach landing. In the scene, two Germans are attempting to surrender, and are executed by two Americans who then insult them. What most people miss, is the fact that the two men are actually speaking Czech, and trying to explain that they aren’t Germans, that they were forced to fight, and they didn’t kill anyone… which is easily one of the best details I’ve ever seen in a historical movie, that the filmmaker chose to leave unnoticed, rather than calling attention to it.
Ph03nix
2024-02-15 07:42:24 +0000 UTCI absolutely loved this reaction. I love this series a lot, the second half gets so heavy it's insane. Be ready again for ep 7 and 9. Can't wait to get through this journey with you, thank you Jacqui :)
E
2024-02-15 00:12:25 +0000 UTC
