|
The Pacific (HBO Miniseries) | 
| Directors: Carl Franklin, David Nutter
Actors: Isabel Lucas, William Sadler, Joseph Mazzello
Studio: HBO Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $79.99
Buy New: $51.99
as of 9/8/2010 12:44 MDT details
You Save: $28.00 (35%)
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  78 reviews
Sales Rank: 117
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Discs: 6
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Running Time: 400 Minutes
UPC: 883929080397
EAN: 0883929080397
ASIN: B001IBIHQ4
Release Date: November 2, 2010 (In 55 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet released
Tell A Friend
Add to Wishlist
Add to Wedding Registry
Add to Baby Registry
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The Pacific DVD is an epic 10-part miniseries that delivers a realistic portrait of WWII's Pacific Theatre as seen through the intertwined odysseys of three U.S. Marines - Robert Leckie John Basilone and Eugene Sledge. The extraordinary experiences of these men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima through the killing fields of Okinawa to the triumphant yet uneasy return home after V-J Day. The viewer will be immersed in combat through the intimate perspective of this diverse relatable group of men pushed to the limit in battle both physically and psychologically against a relentless enemy unlike any encountered before.Actors: James Badge Dale Jon Seda Joseph Mazzello
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 78
 It's no band of brothers September 7, 2010
Alexander G. Hoffman (Toronto)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's clear that war is a brutal and horrible thing. I am just not sure that it's a good use of my entertainment time to watch soldier after soldier stare off into the distance and see how he's clearly dehumanized as a result of war, emotionally scarred and likely to do something reflective as such on screen.
br /
br /Not to mention that the pacing is really strange (Melbourne ep, Lecky recuperating etc...), I actually found myself fast forwarding (PVR) on multiple occasions to get to something interesting.
br /
br /I loved Band of Brothers but this is a shadow of that effort.
 a response... September 6, 2010
cptpeter (Denver, CO)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This review is a response to the several alarming reviews that claim this series is inaccurate and that the violence of American marines towards the Japanese has been exaggerated or flat out made up. Anyone who is making these claims has not studied the Pacific theater of World War II. It was extremely violent and racism played a huge part in motivating that violence on both sides. Any veteran of this war will tell you this. E.B. Sledge says as much in his book "With the Old Breed", one of the books this series is based on. Entire books are based on the racial aspect of this part of the war: "War Without Mercy" to name one. To try and sanitize the Pacific war and turn it into a clear-cut black-and-white good vs. evil interpretation is an insult to everyone who fought there. Some also claim that Japanese atrocities are covered up by this series. Not true. In the very first episode we see American bodies disrespectfully mutilated by the Japanese. On Okinawa we see the Japanese use civilians as shields or suicide bombers in their attacks. The goal of the makers of this series was to explore what war can make good people do, and the price they pay for fighting it. The series is excellent in that respect.
much better than band of brothers September 5, 2010
Clifford R. Nimrod (Long Beach, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Pacific is a much more artistic and fuller told story than Band of Brothers. The acting, writing, photography and direction of The Pacific are all superior. The difference is in the details. For example, the view of GySgt John Basilone lying dead on Iwo Jima slowly pans back to show the many other Marines also lying dead or wounded there. When another scene shows one of the main characters getting off a train, it also shows another Marine with his right arm missing walking close behind him. Perhaps the acting is better partly because the story focuses on only a few Marines during and after the war whereas you never really get to know any of the characters in depth in Band of Brothers. Everything really comes together in the tenth and last episode showing how various Marines adapted differently to civilian life after they return home. One refuses to ever wear his uniform again while another wears his to impress (and later marry) the girl across the street. The creators of The Pacific take their time to finish their story in this last episode and accordingly they leave a fine lasting impression of this masterpiece.
High production value but weak characters September 3, 2010
Genghis Khan (Bay Area, CA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Band of Brothers was one of the greatest shows on TV so naturally, when HBO announced the Pacific (the other theater of operation), I was looking forward to it.
br /
br /Here it is in a nutshell. BOB: 5 stars. Pacific 3.5 stars. The biggest difference in the two series was that with BOB, the focus did not waver from Easy Company. That allowed me to build a connection with the characters in BOB. With the Pacific, the actual war was a scattered island-to-island, frog on a lillypad operation. Combined that with three different protagonists, I found the storyline and the characters too scattered. I wanted to like the Pacific a lot but the magic of BOB wasn't there for this series.
br /
br /On its own merit, it is a very good series and a must watch for any history/war movie buffs.
br /
br /By the way, I don't get the negative reviews from others who apparently see the Pacific as a liberal/leftist attack on American military honor. I have no idea why you would see it that way. War is hell. Atrocities are committed on both sides. It just so happened that the Japanese perspective was not represented. There is one memorable scene where one of the "less compassionate" US marine is tossing debris into a pool of blood that accumulated in a Japanese soldier's half destroyed cranium. Having watched that scene, I certainly did not think that "boy, those US marines were savages". What I sensed from that scene was how the chaos and the destruction of war also destroy one's humanity (not just Americans or Japanese).
br /
br /Apparently tea party activism is rearing its head in Amazon reviews now.
br /
 The Pacific falls short of what could-have-been September 3, 2010
KDR (London, Canada)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
While there is definitely much to admire when it comes to The Pacific -- great battle sequences, solid acting, great special effects, etc. -- it suffers from an acute lack of CONTEXT. In all the episodes, we never really get a sense of what the men are fighting for, why they are there, etc. While I guess that's true-to-form for the soldier in the ground, it doesn't help us, the viewer, understand what is for many a lesser known theatre of the Second World War.
br /
br /For instance, why were they on Peliliu? A quick Wikipedia search discovers the island was needed for an airfield.Did you know John Basilone won the Navy Cross for his actions on Iwo Jima -- dramatically illustrated in Episode 8. How exciting it would have been were a post-script included to explain this fact, rather than requiring us to rely on Wikipedia.
br /
br /This isn't helped by a very poor view of the Japanese as combat adversaries -- when the reality was quite different. My understanding of the Pacific war as formed by research during the Second World War is that American troops were often demoralized fighting the Japanese because they never gave themselves up and often planted booby traps and hid themselves to attack American units from behind. This is touched on during The Pacific, but there's never a sense of foreboding, of dread that around each turn or every corner, there lurked a potential enemy waiting to ambush them. In many ways, the Japanese are presented as pop-up villains, similar to that found in a video game. They pop up, get killed and action moves on to the next group. Perhaps this was the case, but the U.S. suffered 10,000 casualties on Peliliu (did you know that?) so I somehow doubt that was the case. Indeed, it was only after watching the series that research revealed Peliliu was one of the bloodiest and most controversial battles for the Marine Corps in WWII. Did you?
br /
br /Both my points are illustrated during one sequence in Episode 7, when Eugene's mortar company sets up near a bunker which is thought to be abandoned. They discover that it is not, in fact, empty when Japanese begin firing. However, the way the episode is filmed and action proceeds, there's no tension. Considering the presentation by the Japanese prerviously, did you really believe he was in any danger whatsoever when charged by a katana-wielding soldier? If so, your suspension of disbelief is greater than mine.
br /
br /While many have commented that it's unfair to compare Band of Brothers with The Pacific, I think it's a fair subject considering that many of the same producers and directors were involved in both efforts. Band of Brothers, however, is a far-superior series because it does try to establish context, there's narrative and we feel we can really come to know and care about the characters. And there is very real tension, even if you know the outcome. Watch the series and tell me you don't feel tense during the bombardments near Bastogne? Or that you don't feel the war weariness of Capt. Winters after he shoots the young German soldier?
br /
br /True, The Pacific attempts to reach this level of empathy -- Eugene's confrontation with a Japanese samurai, for instance. But soon after, he announces he hopes the Japanese don't surrender so he can kill all of them (???). Was anybody looking over the script here?
br /
br /Overall, I did enjoy The Pacific but was extremely disappointed that such a hyped-up and interesting project fell so short of what it could have been. While I feel like I learned something about American soldiers during the Second World War in Europe, my understanding of the conflict in the Pacific is still short of reality. And this series does nothing to remedy that.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 78
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
