HBO's The Pacific: reactions to (new title)

[Steve Blair]

All very well said and understandable. I fear however that the greater US public does not want to know the reality and is more than willing, indeed eager to accept the shorter, glitzier, and ultimately artificial version.

There have been attempts to do what you call for in the past and some have come close. I still like the mini-series Once An Eagle with Sam Elliot playing Sam Damon. There was very little combat shown in the series. A parallel would be the mini-series Lonesome Dove where the western setting was merely a vehicle for the rich character development. Another was Shawshank Redemption; a deliberately long movie to develop the effects of time against the will to survive.

Absent companions,

Tom

I don't know that I'd go that far. I'd say they may have been conditioned to expect that, but given the popularity of the movies and mini-series you mentioned, as well as some you didn't, I'd say that the public (whatever that is) can still be moved by books and visual media where characters are developed and some of those characters die.

Plus, ultimately, we're all somewhat moody in what we read or watch (and we do make up part of that public). Glitz can be entertaining on some days.

[davidbfpo]

See his obituary: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...n-Clemens.html

davidbfpo

[Steve Blair]

He could...I think it depends on where they decide to start. Leckie's book covers the Canal, while Sledge joined the First Marine Division after that campaign.

[aussiedavid]

I would like to see an Australian film produced, not just a documentary, but one that focused on the Japanese threat to Australia through Singapore, New Guinea, Malaya, Borneo and the Solomons.

Whilst the majority of the Australain effort of almost a million was in Europe, the defence of her homeland began in earnest in 1942 when the Japanese sought to dominate the Pacific.

Many, many stories could be told and if I may I will relate the story of my late Uncle who was posted in Rabaul, a town in East New Britain Province, New Guinea.

He was a member of the 2nd/22nd Lark Force, which at the time of the Japanese invasion was about 1400 strong.

Rabaul was important to the Japanese because of its proximity to it's territory of the Caroline Islands, where a major Imperial Japanese Navy base was situated on Truk.

The Japanese invaded on January 4, 1942 with a strength of over 5000. Lark Force were only equipped with a few anti tank guns, Mortars and Vickers machine guns.The fighting was over in just a few hours.

Ultimately less than 400 eventually escaped. The balance was taken prisoner, enduring extreme hardship in captivity. Some 200 of them were executed, the majority in the horrific Toll Massacre.

Later, around 800 of his unit were bundled on board the Montevideo Maru along with 1000 odd civilians. The vessel was later unfortuneately sunk by the US Submarine............ USS Sturgeon with only one survivor.

The Army had no escape plans for its troops. Only the fittest, most determined and luckiest survived the long withdrawal across New Britain.

My Uncle had escaped into the jungle, not before being strafed by a Japanese fighter plane while fleeing on a motorcycle. Something out of a Steve McQueen Hollywood movie!

His exploits in the jungles of New Britain during the following three months were again the stuff of movies. But unlike the glorified Hollywood movies this was real!

He and his fellow escaping soldiers struggled against mountainous jungle terrain, diseases, starvation, sometimes unfriendly natives – and all the while pursued by the Japanese.

A total of 165 soldiers and civilians were eventually repatriated on the commandeered yacht “HMAS Laurabada”.... the name of the South East Wind.

Two months later he returned to New Britain as a Sergeant in charge of an infantry platoon of the 1st New Guinea Infantry Battalion.

For two years his platoon operated mostly behind enemy lines, ambushing and harassing the enemy, the Japanese, until the war’s end.

Ten years after the War he joined R W Miller and Co, Australia's largest producer and exporter of coal.

Ironically Miller's largest trading partner was Japan.

Rising to the position of Chairman and Managing Director he never forgave the Japanese for what they had done despite having to associate with his Company's biggest customer.

He had a lot of trouble relating a lot of his stories about the War and I'm sure he kept the majority to his chest.

I'm sure there are thousands of other individual stories but as I would hope a movie be made it would be difficult to select even just one of the others as it's main theme.

Thank you for reading the story of my late Uncle.

[Bill Moore]

AussieDavid,

Thanks for sharing this heroic saga with the council. It reminded me of when I was a boy on a camping trip with my father and his friend (his friend was a writer by trade, but he never wrote about the war) who was a Marine during WWII. That night while sitting around the fire after a long day of fishing I could see a visible mood change come over his face in the light of the fire, and then shared some of his experiences in the Pacific with us. For a boy, it was an education on how cruel the world really was in some places (during certain time periods), and how heroism (manifested in many different ways) was a common virtue.

There are millions of untold stories that I wish we could capture somehow, unfortunately that war is now often discussed unemotionally in history classes. The focus is on key dates, battles and causes, but I think our education is remiss in many way when it neglects to tell the human side of war.

Bill

[davidbfpo]

It was with mixed feelings I have watched in the last week the boxed set of DVDs, partly as i expected that nothing could equal 'Band of Brothers'.

Certainly different in scene presentation, notably with night fighting so dark - rightly - it was hard to follow. Harder to follow the characters too; the medal of Honour winner John Barsilone had an excellent portrayal.

Once again I failed to learn the lesson from 'Band of Brothers', to watch the last DVD first about the characters and the production. Australia did the film and history proud.

I have seen a few Pacific War films before and somewhere have Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. What I had forgotten was the horrific death toll, so on my next visit to Arlington National Cemetery a few more places to visit. We shall remember.

Finally, what did SWC members think of the film? This thread was before it had general release.