With The Pacific, they turn their attention once again to WWII, this time the Pacific Theatre, taking us to battles like Guadalcanal to complete what has been an amazing run of insanely good storytelling.
The 10-part mini-series, spread across six discs, centers on the real-life experiences of three U.S. Marines: Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Jurassic Park's Joe Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda). We follow Leckie as he stares down all the hell the Japanese throw at him and his men at Guadalcanal, including a very tense and tragic scene where an enemy solider, crazed from the war, comes out into the open only to be teased with (and later killed by) American weapons fire. Sledge is, at first, deemed too slight and "ill" to enlist, back in a time when not being able to enlist and fight for your country was seen as worse than dying. Basilone emerges as a cocky but earnest hero, and all three soldiers soon find their lives on the frontlines and those they left back in the states the subject of some of the best TV in recent memory.
Even though we have seen conflicts like Iwo Jima depicted before (on the big screen), it is a testament to both the historical event and the creatives charged with shining new light on it that we are still drawn to watching what happened there. Hanks and Spielberg's traditional Executive Producer roles allow them to oversee an impressive writing and directing staff, some of which are as good as it gets in the TV sphere. Director David Nutter, writer-director Graham Yost and writer-director Tim Van Patten (of Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire) find a compelling, if at times uneven, mix of all the factors that try a soldier at war, even when that war is won.
The Pacific may not have moved the needle for HBO the way Brothers did, but it is no less a crowning achievement for the network than its first WWII venture. In a filmmaking climate where brands and procedurals dictate what we watch, where mini-series are relics, The Pacific reminds us how great television can be when it returns to its roots and delivers quality content over by-committee product.
As a boxset, this SD collection boasts strong visual and audio presentations. The color pallet here is less desaturated then what we expect from WWII stories made in post-Saving Private Ryan Hollywood, but there are a few gritty stylistic choices. Color levels are near-perfect, with the mud on soldiers' uniforms and the blood on their faces showing up with great detail. Black levels are spot on, and a few minor digital artifacting issues are present but not distracting. Paired with this image quality is an incredible 5.1 DTS track, mixed with the attention to atmospheric effects fans expect. Dialogue is sharp and every gunshot or mortar shell heard are quite effective without being overpowering.
Also of note here are the collection extras. While the Blu-ray has the most bells and whistles, the DVD set includes in-depth profiles into the lives of the characters' real-life counterparts - you're basically watching living history talk to you about an event we read about, but they experienced. Love this feature, but wish the making-of doc was made out of more than standard EPK fare. (The features can be found on the sixth disc.)
Bottom Line: The Pacific is not afraid to look at the last great war and ask some hard-hitting questions about why we fought and how those fights effected us. While epic and sprawling, the miniseries grounds all of its stories with character we care about, ones that history will never forget.
