– Weak characterization, esp. compared to the first hour of Band of Brothers.
– Tough to counter cliches. If you know your history-- or you’ve seen The Thin Red Line-- you knew they weren’t landing on a hostile beach at Guadalcanal, so there was zero dramatic tension in a scene that was a play on the Saving Private Ryan scene (obviously so, in effect playing with audiences expectations for the scene).
– Only got to see one episode (first night of BoB they showed the first two eps, so you had more to chew over).
The production values were a bit spotty. Overall it was good, but the battle of the Tenaru felt like it was done on a soundstage, and they didn’t do a good job of hiding the edges around the CGI during the initial naval sequences (one shot in particular, when the Marines are boarding their landing craft, was especially jarring).
One nice, subtle totally geek-out attention-to-detail moment: the Marine machinegunner taking the time even in the midst of the battle to slip on his asbestos mitt before he grabbed the gun to relocate it (those barrels get hot!).
One WTF moment: the world map behind Chesty Puller when he was speaking to the NCOs had Iceland marked as a German conquest. Huh?
You summed it up pretty well, especially the Thin Red Line storming reference (altough done better in the film, more energy and more of a letdown when nothing happend) And yes, I kept staring at Iceland on the map, trying to figure out what they meant by that? Possible conquest perhaps?
Hopefully they’ll get the show rolling more in the next episode, was a bit of a letdown after all the hype.
I noticed Iceland on the map too. The first explanation that came to mind, from a cartographic aspect, was that Iceland was a Danish Protectorate at the time, and so it might have been considered part of a conquered Denmark.
That the US occupied Iceland made no difference from a map-making perspective; it was German territory. If the map was produced to show the massive spread of the Axis powers, then some geographic exaggeration might be in order.
But that’s just a hunch.
OK, stupid question. Why was the surviving Japanese soldier frustrated and crying? Was it because he didn’t die fighting, but was killed unarmed? (Yes, I have trouble reading people)
The machinegun (Browning M1917?) was the star of the first episode! They highlighted the two guys porting it in the landingcraft. They showed it being set up a number of time, including at least two scenes where they focus on the water tube being connected and, of course… well I don’t want to spoil anything. They even mention the good job one of the gunners did in moving around. I am expecting great things from that machinegun in future episodes.
Defintiely enjoyed this one, I really like how they got into the emotional strain on the soldiers after only one episode. I think they are definitely going to play up the stress of the Pacific war a lot. I’ve heard it was pretty brutal since the Japanese woudl fight to the last man and it was often really bloody hand to hand combat.
Not sure if I’m feeling the “home front” inclusion, but it seems like this is going to be phased out except for that one kid writing letters in the future.
Because he knows he’s trapped and his opponents are just toying with him now. He tries to run left, they shoot and cut off his escape. He tries to run right, they shoot and cut off his escape.
Yes they had great night vision equipment and tactics. One our our greatest losses was a night sea battle ship to ship at Savo Island where we lost four cruisers to Japanese warships.
My one complaint is how quickly we got to battle. In *Band of Bro’s *there was the whole training story arc that made the time in battle seem so … Idunno … displaced from the training. While in *The Pacific *… bam … piles of dead Japs at about 30 minutes in.
But I lurved *Band of Brothers, *I suspect I lurve this too.
I agree. The more I think about the episode (I may rewatch tonight or tomorrow), the more I feel it was rushed a bit much. But maybe that is how we are supposed to feel? I know easy company trained something like 2 years before D-Day. What was it like for a typical Marine who just enlisted after Pearl Harbor before seeing action? I’m guess measured in weeks? If so, maybe they want to convey that?
I agree with the above about the “rushed” feeling of episode 1. They could have done a 2-hour opener, perhaps.
I’m also curious to see how they’ll contrast marines who entered the war later with this first batch, esp. the no-training aspect. For instance, I remember from reading Flags of Our Fathers that the marines who stormed Iwo Jima practiced their specific maneuvers over and over again in Hawaii. I’m interested to see if any of that sort of mission-specific training gets covered, or if the fellows we’re following now just don’t take part in such things at all.
I noticed a Marine with a bolt action rifle in one of the scenes. No scope so I’m guessing he wasn’t a sniper. Didn’t everyone have semi-automatics by that time?
And yes, I kept staring at Iceland on the map, trying to figure out what they meant by that? Possible conquest perhaps?