The European conflict has often been romanticised as to an almost mythic degree. The Pacific campaign, meanwhile, was in many ways more brutal - an exhausting war of attrition rather than a race to the finish line. It doesn't make for an easy watch, but it is intermittently gripping. There is an ample amount of action, much of it epic in scale and shattering in impact, and brilliantly portrayed on screen. The series largely alternates between the island assaults and the downtime experienced by the troops between them. Instead of focusing on one unit like Band of Brothers' 101st Airborne, The Pacific picks out three men - John Basilone (Jon Seda), Scott Leckie (James Badge Dale) and Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) - between whom it divides most of its attention. The main character of each episode changes between these three, at first focusing mainly on Leckie, then Basilone, and finally Sledge in the final desperate months of the war.
The structure works for the most part despite lacking the focus of Band of Brothers; it just leads to a different tempo and character of series. One also has to wonder whether the current political climate and attitude to war affected the tone, which is generally sombre, downbeat and respectful rather than jingoistic. To its credit, it also completely avoids sentimentality. It's therefore less brazenly patriotic and stirring than its slightly more populist brethren, and accordingly it achieved much lower viewing figures. Nevertheless, as a tribute to those who fell and those who survived in fighting the Japanese army, The Pacific is certainly a worthwhile endeavour. A few episodes dawdle slightly, hampered by there being less of a personal connection established with the characters than there could be, but the high points are many. To cap it all, the epilogue to the final episode is beautifully judged: a succession of text captions detail what happened to all the participants depicted in the series, making it the most moving few minutes of the whole 10 hours.
Release Information
Country: UK / Region: Free / Version: Collector's Edition Tin / Discs: 6 / Distributor: HBO (Warner Bros).
Presentation
The image is strikingly clean, colourful and almost grain-free - virtually the opposite of the gritty Saving Private Ryan style - and looks magnificent. Particularly the early episodes, in the lush green jungles, show off the transfer well; the later, bleaker, episodes set amongst rocky and muddy terrain are expectantly murkier. The DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack is simply superb, as expected - prepare to flinch when a few stray bullets go whizzing past your ears. The mid-series beach landing is a sequence to savour.
Extras
All the episodes have an optional historical introduction narrated by Tom Hanks - all worth a watch to give context - and two 'Enhanced Viewing' modes. One is a very good picture-in-picture track (helpfully, pressing left and right on your remote skips to the next piece, so you don't have to watch any of the downtime) with contributions from veterans and historians. The second, the "Field Guide", gives access to all sorts of historical information and video content, and will perhaps be too exhaustive for all but the most ardent enthusiast to completely devour.
The rest of the extras are granted their own disc, perhaps over-generously as their scope is not quite as encompassing as may be hoped. There's only a brief Making Of (22 minutes), some profiles of the real men depicted in the series (combined 48 minutes), and a 10-minute historical featurette called "Anatomy of the Pacific War". They're all interesting, but don't add up to much. Overall, while the historical side is thoroughly covered, the set would really benefit from far more production-related material.
Summary
It's not as good as Band of Brothers, but what is? The Pacific remains a brilliantly mounted miniseries, thoughtfully told. The audiovisual presentation on Blu-ray is outstanding.
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