Patriot Retort:
About ten years after producing Band of Brothers for HBO, Tom Hanks produced the mini-series The Pacific.
And though it didn’t get as much attention as Band of Brothers, The Pacific is definitely worth watching. In fact, if you can find it to rent (or just buy it!), The Pacific might be a good mini-series to watch this Memorial Day weekend.
I don’t know about you, but every Memorial Day, I take the time to watch something that features our brave soldiers. This weekend, I’m renting They Shall Not Grow Old – Peter Jackson’s documentary film about World War One.
And, if it weren’t for the fact that I just watched The Pacific for the third time last weekend, I’d definitely watch that too. Heck, maybe I’ll watch it anyway. Why not? In fact, if I time it right, I could do a marathon and watch both Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
Band of Brothers follows the 101st Airborne’s Easy Company from their drop into Normandy the night before D-Day to their arrival in liberated Austria after Germany surrendered.
The Pacific follows the US Marines who fought the battles against Japan in, well, the Pacific theater — Guadalcanal, the Solomon Islands, Iwo Jima, Okinawa.
And, like Band of Brothers, The Pacific is based on the real lives of men who served. keep reading
Thanks for the tip. I’m in.
I’m watching the D-day at Pointe-Du-Hoc on my local PBS station right now. We didn’t have Soy Boys back then that’s for damn sure.
Just watched the first episode of the new “Catch-22” read the
book in the early eighties…Lead Guy is a bit of a wanker..and
it’s produced by george coonman clooney…But the flying scenes are
spectacular….And the dude that plays the Doctor is amazing(MJA BARB)
Great suggestion. Very authentic account of the Marine Corps and the war the Marines fought against the Japs in some of the most ferocious battles in WWII.
XM Satellite radio ch.60 Outlaw Country is playing a bunch of war songs from World War 2 and Vietnam right now as a tribute to Memorial Day. Charlie Pride is singing Filipino Baby right now. Great music, I’ve seen the Pacific and read the book but I’m more interested in seeing if I can buy a copy of They Shall Not Grow Old.
Recently rewatched The Pacific. Had to take it in small doses, knowing it was based on the true stories of men who served there and remembering their lives would be reviewed at the end of the last episode.
Geoff, if you like WW2 history, check the books by Don Burgett. He was in the 506 PIR. Any Band of Brothers fan will be very interested in his writings. Has some good talks found on you tube and NRA’s American Rifleman series of videos also.
Both The Pacific and Band of Brothers are on Amazon Prime as well.
I watched the new Catch-22. I liked the acting, but had major issues with changes to the original story. Overall it was good but unsatisfying. Yossarian was pretty good. Arfy was very good in a despicable role. Bomber scenes were good – except that one of the key features of the book was that Yossarian would help the entire squadron escape the flak once the bombs had been dropped by directing his pilot through a crazy sequence, that was completely dropped. And the crucial Snowden scene was left until the very end. I’ll have to reread the book, but I wish this film version was more true to it.
Much of the “The Pacific” is derived from EB Sledge’s book. He was there.
https://www.amazon.com/Old-Breed-At-Peleliu-Okinawa/dp/0891419063/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=eb+sledge&qid=1558838926&s=books&sr=1-1
can anyone explain Tom Hanks’ mind? he creates such good cinema as ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (which I have a hard time watching because of that idiot Matt Damon), ‘Band Of Brothers’ & ‘The Pacific’, but continues to spout the typical Ho-Wood libtardisms
Of equal importance is the NYT articles 1943 – 1945 saying Jarheads killed Japs because America is a white nationalist nation; Japs were brown!
I read many of them from ’57 – ’60. My Dad and 4 uncles were some of the guys doing the killing. They had hard, vulgar, bad words about what their girls/wives sent them, clippings of NYT! Still mad 15 years later. So I went to library and got microfilm and read ‘em. NYT hated America 75 years ago! Still do now!
Amazom Prime has it for no charge to members.
I just finished watching it for 2nd time in
the past several years. Starts off with home
scenes to fill out the mens background and
then gets gritty real fast. Makes you wonder
how they came home from years of that horror
and pushed on. Humbling to think about.
Funny.
The Pacific got kinda short shrift during WWII, too.
Not as bad as CBI, but pretty shitty.
izlamo delenda est …
RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!
The French have just lost their war this week after the Nazis drive their salient from Sedan to Noyelles on the Channel. If the Allies don’t break through the corridor all the British and the cream of the French Army are going to be trapped in Belgium, this week on the WWII channel on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-_mav0kw44.BattleofFrance
They’ve doing some really interesting specials on the Maginot Line the last few weeks that are worth watching. Here’s the latest one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHQdn60DEZE.Maginot
Hacksaw Ridge is another worthy film for this weekend.
It would be nice to see the mini series “Pearl” from 1978 with Robert Wagner, Dennis Weaver and Angie Dickenson….right now it’s only available on DVD…..Beautiful and Heartbreaking at the same time.
I was helping clean out a warehouse last year and I found the whole series unopened on DVD.
I will watch it after this recommendation.