Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

gogoschka-1 I'm guessing most of us watched 'The Pacific' for at least one of the following 3 reasons:1. We have an interest in history, particularly in WW2.2. We are fans of movies and television shows (well, the good ones anyway)3. We had seen - and loved - the previous Hanks/Spielberg co-production 'Band Of Brothers' and expected a mini-series on the same level.Now from reading some of the reviews here I gather that third reason was the most important one for many viewers - and it's also why 'The Pacific' apparently left quite a few people disappointed. As for me, I wasn't disappointed - I was devastated.I'm a lucky man; I've never had to suffer through a war. But I had relatives who did, and though they're all long gone now, I'll never forget their stories. War is the most extreme and outrageous experience humans can possibly endure, but there are many different aspects and layers to it, because a war is not a single experience: it's all the experiences of all the individuals who have to suffer through it, and no single film or TV show can cover all of them. 'Band Of Brothers' focused on certain aspects of a war, and it chose a narrative that helped emphasize what the core theme of the series was: the brotherhood of war. It was about people who retain their humanity and form the closest of bonds under the worst, most horrific circumstances.That inherently human element in 'BoB' was also why we could identify so well with the protagonists, and why we were - and still are - so deeply touched by what they had to go through. It's an outstandingly well made series, and I can't imagine how those experiences by those soldiers could have been portrayed better. Which is why 'The Pacific' doesn't even try. Instead, it goes almost in the opposite direction by choosing to focus on the sheer insanity of war: the relentless horror and despair of people losing their humanity and their struggle to regain it. Of course, just like 'BoB' it's also about the heroic sacrifices of those brave soldiers, but if there is a core theme in 'The Pacific' it's that of trauma: the trauma of having your humanity stripped from you and your personality shattered; the trauma of witnessing the complete disintegration of everything you thought you were and knowing you'll never be whole again.What we see in 'The Pacific' is Hell, plain and simple. It's scores and scores of anonymous, young Japanese soldiers running senselessly into machine gun fire, wave after wave, until the piles of their bodies are so high they block the sight for the machine gun; it's American soldiers barely older than kids in despair or completely numb from the sheer amount of random death around them; it's vibrant young men turning into barely alive husks whose only remaining focus is to survive - which means they have to kill other barely alive young men who will stop at nothing to kill them in turn; it's kids killing other kids like rats by any means at their disposal: guns, knives, flame-throwers or with their bare hands; it's people living among the rotting corpses of their dead comrades and enemies and completely losing any regard for human life. And the few moments where we witness how those kids get a brief taste of how precious and beautiful life could be make their fate all the more heartbreaking.Over large stretches, 'The Pacific' is devastating and depressing to watch, and though I found it never less than compelling, it's actually easy to see why many viewers who had hoped for a similarly engaging experience as in 'BoB' were left disappointed. But this is a different story about different people who fought in a different theater of the war and who went through different experiences, and once you stop comparing it to the story of the men in Easy Company from 'BoB', you'll find that, while different, in terms of sheer quality 'The Pacific' is every bit as good and as much of an outstanding achievement as its more popular predecessor.The realism, the performances, the music and the production values in the series are superb (this was a 200 million production after all), and the attention to historic detail is simply staggering. As for me, witnessing what these men went through left me devastated; yet I am grateful I've watched 'The Pacifc': because in its relentless depiction of the horrors of war it honors the sacrifice these brave young soldiers made in the hope future generations wouldn't have to do the same. I originally rated this series 9 stars out of 10, but upon a recent rewatch and with more knowledge of the war in the Pacific theater, it's clear that this is a 10/10. Outstanding.Favorite films: IMDb.com/list/mkjOKvqlSBs/Lesser-Known Masterpieces: imdb.com/list/ls070242495/Favorite TV-Shows reviewed: imdb.com/list/ls075552387/

feakes The Pacific does for the War in the Pacific theater. What Band of Brothers did for the European theater. It makes it more realistic. More understanding. and That's not an easy feat to do. As with Band of Brothers there is a large cast here . But the main focus is on only a few soldiers . Not surprising as the source matériel is taken Robert Leckie's Helmet for my Pillow and Eugene Sledge's In with the old Breed. Both books present a often shocking and brutal picture of the war. The Main focus is PFC Robert Leckie. PFC Eugene Sledge. And Gunny Sgt. Medal of honor Winner John Basilone. And the others caught in their orbit.Leckie's story is simply the story of a every man caught up in forces he can't control. the Horror and mind breaking conditions he faces as the war progresses almost kills him several times and yet he persists.Eugene sledge is the innocent young man 18 years old who wants to fight who wants to defend his country. And loses his innocence in the process. Sledge's story is the most emotional harrowing one here. Watching his story and the horrors he saw. Makes you wonder how he maintained his sanity. Sledge's friend Snafu is also a joy to watch as he helps Sledge maintain something of normality. In one scene when the new guys show up and snafu asks questions of them like their name sledge replies with a What Now you want to know their names . A common enough thing to happen during th war in which the seasoned vets did'not want to know the names of the new guys because they did not want to mourn them later on. The LAst main focus is Sgt. John Basilone a Marine who wins the medal of honor winner who wins it on Guladcanel after holding off a force of three thousand Japanese soldiers for three days . That story is vividly brought to life as well as his struggles in being a hero doing a War bond drive. and eventually returning to duty on Iwo Jima .The Pacific isn't perfect by any means . but in telling the story of the war. Its as good as it ever gets .

BoomerDT "The Pacific" is a very good TV series, some incredible cinematography, excellent staging and presentation of graphic battle scenes. It's the same time frame as BOB and tells the story as BOB did, of the citizen soldiers who came from all walks of life to quickly become soldiers, sailors and marines to fight the Axis powers from 1942-45. Of course, BOB is dealing with the European theater, from D-day to the eventual occupation of Germany, specifically through the life of Easy Company in the 101st Airborne. Meanwhile "The Pacific" is following the USMC in their island hopping campaigns, eventually leading to the occupation of Okinawa before the atomic bombs dropped on Japan forced their capitulation and undoubtedly saved perhaps 500K American casualties from an invasion of Japan.Having read the book a couple times and seeing BOB at least 4 times, my thoughts on why TP doesn't quite measure up:1] It's harder to follow and understand the story line. BOB uses a narrator in each of the episodes, usually the Lt/Capt/Maj Dick Winters character, who becomes the central focus, although each of the episodes is usually focusing on another character in Easy Company. It explains much better the background and objective of their various campaigns, such as the Normandy invasion and the subsequent battles to drive the Wehrmacht from Northern France, to the drops and battles in Holland, and then the Battle of the Bulge. TP shows us the gruesome invasions and carnage the USMC suffered in Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, but doesn't delve much into the military objectives in taking these heavily fortified islands. Rather than focusing on one company, TP looks at these battles through 3 Marines, who have no connection to each other.2] The training sequence, which is always fascinating to learn how civilians are trained into becoming cohesive fighting men and build a camaraderie to not only depend but willingly sacrifice for each other, doesn't come until episode 8 "Iwo Jima" when Sgt. John Basilone, the hero of Guadalcanal and MOH recipient, volunteers to leave the cushy life style of speaking in bond drives to train new marine recruits. This was, BTW, my selection for the best episode in the series.Excellent performances from a young cast and thank goodness the producers of TP avoided the tendency of some many movie makers who fill war movies with a cast of actors in the 30's and 40's. The overwhelming majority of these soldiers were teenagers or young men in their early 20's.

Alex John It's not a historical anything, it's just a "personal drama" over 10 episodes, with little to do with real life fighting, or how real life soldiers act, it does show some brutal stuff but it's put there only to let the viewers know it was indeed a brutal war in real life, but these are raw elements in an otherwise bland 10 episodes. The characters are not interesting and fake, the plot isn't interesting either, in fact it's typical American war movie: 1) don't show the real reason we are at war, fed the public some bs; 2) of course Americans get to have girlfriends of every nationality they want, because they're Americans; 3) personal drama and so called transformations on characters that clearly never existed in real life(and even by some miracle if they did, it's clearly not based on their actions); 4) portraying the enemy as SUPER STUPID(all the Japanese soldiers in this movie only know how to banzai charge and die like idiots), and SUPER EVIL, as if the poor Americans are hated for no reason at all; 5) portraying the Americans as fighting "a just cause", good vs. evil, and blaming the enemy for all the evil in the world, and brainwashing the average public that has no idea about history with this bs propaganda. As I said, the characters, scenes, plot, action etc. are all weak, I feel like I wasted my time watching what some guy believes happened in WW2 and not what actually happened or at least firmly based on what actually happened instead of some irrelevant and fake drama of non-existing people. Thanks for wasting my time, HBO.