HBO's "The Pacfic"

[jpellam]

Yes, but since when has ANYTHING made by a major network or cable channel ever been 100% accurate in their story lines? I would just "poof" it off as "window dressing" for the babes in the audience, and wait for the "good parts" to show up on the screen. I point to "Enemy at the Gates" as just one example. Talk about straying far from reality....:bite:

Exactly, and the Pacific is probably the best we PTO types will get for a long long time on TV or the big screen. That means I will be wearing grooves in the Blue Ray discs episodes with the exception of part three.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

I would just "poof" it off as "window dressing" for the babes in the audience,

Right, because everyone knows that the best way to appeal to a female audience is to add explicit sex scenes in between raw images of racism and men being eviscerated.

 

[Rockford]

There were certainly some individual scenes that were well done, but I just don't think it all held together very well. I was very much looking forward to this series, but by the third or fourth week I didn't really care that much about it. Most weeks I was watching it On Demand a few days after the Sunday premier. There were some good moments, but overall I was pretty disappointed.

I was intending to drop HBO six or so months ago, but decided to wait until after The Pacific had aired. Now, I wish I had gone ahead and done it.

 

['Ol Fezziwig]

I would have enjoyed this series a lot more if there was less wasted air time showing false stories and fabrications of Leckie's recreation in Australia. Once you read "Helmet for My Pillow", you learn that Leckie's encounters with the "Greek woman" and her family are fiction. He partied with women but none of the romances were extensive.

Leckie never had a serious relationship with a woman in Australia, never mind a Greek one breaking his heart. Fiction proving a great waste for a TV show trusted for authenticity.

Another point of view, and who's to say which is correct and which is conjecture?

...The boys are going to ship out again, and it's time to say goodbye to girlfriends they may never see again. Before Pfc Leckie says his final farewell he sees great concern on the face of his Greek girlfriend. He asks her this question: "Are you pregnant?"

She doesn't say, so we are left to see a sad goodbye. It's a love story, one of many the war produced in foreign lands, love stories that remained pleasant memories in the hearts of marines, who kept those memories to themselves, never disclosing them to the girls waiting back home, whom they eventually married. Of course, some guys came home to see the girls they once loved were already married, promises forsaken. This, too was part of that war...


More...
And one of the first things I looked for- prompted by many of the queries to this site- was for information about the mysterious "Stella". Bob Leckie's romantic interest in Melbourne.

Well folks, here's the news. There was no Stella.

The episode involving "Stella" was fictionalized but had basis in fact. Bob Leckie had a relationship with two women in Melbourne. On pages 146-152 of Helmet For My Pillow Leckie talks about a woman he called "Molly", and another "Sheila". It was his budding relationship with "Sheila" that caused his breakup with "Molly". Also, "Sheila" was a married woman, a fact that Leckie did not know until late in their romance.

So why change the facts in this part of the story when so many great pains had been taken for historic accuracy in the series?

Probably for a few reasons. But here's what I think. Bob Leckie was of that generation of our parents and grandparents in which you did not kiss and tell. In his book Leckie never assigned last names to the two women, and probably made up their first names as well. Possibly Bob took their true identities to his grave.

And maybe that's how it should have been.

So if Bob Leckie disguised the true facts and identities of his romances in Melbourne, it probably gave a green light to present that episode with a certain degree of artistic license. Perhaps "Stella's" Greek background came from a different source from another romance in Australia involving different players. But in the long run, it doesn't matter....the episode accomplished what it set out to do; that is, present the fragility of wartime romances in all of their heartbreaking detail.

From this site.

 

[AZslim]

Right, because everyone knows that the best way to appeal to a female audience is to add explicit sex scenes in between raw images of racism and men being eviscerated.

Thanks. We figured you would have good insight into this perspective.

 

['Ol Fezziwig]

Isn't it funny how some only see 'racism' in terms of the white man's vision and conveniently ignore (in this case) the Asian's vision?

 

[drchilds]

The episode involving "Stella" was fictionalized but had basis in fact. Bob Leckie had a relationship with two women in Melbourne. On pages 146-152 of Helmet For My Pillow Leckie talks about a woman he called "Molly", and another "Sheila". It was his budding relationship with "Sheila" that caused his breakup with "Molly". Also, "Sheila" was a married woman, a fact that Leckie did not know until late in their romance.

I got the impression that Stella was essentially an amalgam of Molly and Shiela.

I also got the impression that as a result of the hell-raising in Melbourne the guys wound up on Pavuvu between campaigns. I personally did not find the episode as pointless as some.

Besides... "Stella" had a nice a$$. :devious:

 

[MrP]

Episode 7.........waaaaaaaaay better, almost as gripping as a BoB episode I thought. Very nice, now looking forward to 8, 9 and 10.

 

[Portal]

"Artistic license" in this context is placing excessive episode air time on unnecessary fiction. Nobody in the audience required make-believe of Leckie's sex life. That Melbourne episode already suffered from over-exposure (in many ways ) and to add falsehoods to the storyline just brings insult to injury.

The series had moments but its overall storytelling was poorly managed.

 

[King Scott]

The series had moments but its overall storytelling was poorly managed.

I have to agree with you on this. I think they could have cut the Melbourne episode in half.

Had the series focused only on Sledge, it would have been five stars.

Semper Fi!
Scott

 

[James Taylor]

I have to agree with you on this. I think they could have cut the Melbourne episode in half.

Had the series focused only on Sledge, it would have been five stars.

Semper Fi!
Scott

I agree... had the series been totally dedicated to telling us about Sledge and his experiences it would have been on a par with BoB.

Still... the Sledge episodes are well worth the watch.

JT

 

['Ol Fezziwig]

...had the series been totally dedicated to telling us about Sledge...

I'm of mixed feelings there...missing the Guadalcanal episodes would have been a loss to the overall series, especially given the 1 MARINE Division theme.

 

[Fort]

I agree... had the series been totally dedicated to telling us about Sledge and his experiences it would have been on a par with BoB.

Still... the Sledge episodes are well worth the watch.

JT

I would much rather it had been called "Marine" and been about Puller...from the banana wars to Korea.....much better topic.

 

['Ol Fezziwig]

I would much rather it had been called "Marine" and been about Puller...from the banana wars to Korea.....much better topic.

errata to post: change "Marine" to "MARINE!"

 

[King Scott]

errata to post: change "Marine" to "MARINE!"

One of my guest lecturers in my American Military History class this semster, swift boat Vietnam veteran who currently teaches on Camp Pendleton, said that he is so sick of reading reports about Chesty Puller from his students that he has to now exclude him as an acceptable topic. :laugh:

Marine! ... good book by the way.

Semper Fi!
Scott

 

[drchilds]

I have to agree with you on this. I think they could have cut the Melbourne episode in half.

Had the series focused only on Sledge, it would have been five stars.

But then how many people would be screaming that they completely ignored Guadalcanal?

Edit: oops... should've refreshed my browser before posting. Point has already been made I see.