First I need to clear up a couple of things from my previous reviews.

Apparently each episode does have a subtitle as pointed out in the comment section of last weeks review.

Mitchell Robbins wrote:
Contrary to your understandable misconception, each episode does in fact have a working title...

1."Guadalcanal/Leckie"
2."Basilone"
3."Melbourne"
4."Gloucester/Pavuvu/Banika"
5."Peleliu Landing"
6."Peleliu Airfield"
7."Peleliu Hills"
8."Iwo Jima"
9."Okinawa"
10."Home"

For this I thank Mitchell as I have yet to see these subtitles on the screen. But I must point out that I was right on with my own selections for these subtitles on the first two episodes and I believe that “Melbourne” actually does translates from some old Scottish dialect as “Aussie Girls Are Easy.”

I thank all of you who leave your comments as they significantly add to the discussion of this series. I would also like to request that those of you who send comments directly to me by e-mail that you would instead post the comments on the website so that others can read them as well. While your comments are again greatly appreciated, they also significantly add to the discussion, but when they are sent as e-mail I am the only one who gets to see them.

Lastly, Vietnam Vet Fred Caleffie comments on his concerns that I am allowing my dislike for Liberals to bias my reviews. I harbor no love for Liberals, Progressives, Socialists, Commies, Democrats, or whatever they are calling themselves these days so I will admit that I am biased against them and their agendas. But in my defense Tom Hanks’ comments just prior to the series’ premier sent up warning flags that this series would not be what it should be. Unfortunately, in my mind, these concerns have been well founded by what has been shown in the first four episodes. So Fred, don’t blame me… Hanks started it.

So with this predisposition in mind I sat down to watch “The Pacific - Episode Four - Gloucester/Pavuvu/Banika” with a more positive and less biased attitude.

The Pacific: Part Four

In this series of reviews I have failed to mention that the introductory music and animation of the charcoal drawings are very well done. The music sets a solemn, reverent tone, which leads us to believe that what we are about to witness will be epic scenes of great courage, sacrifice and suffering. The chiseled point of the charcoal slowly draws dark lines across a parchment background and at times upon the echo of a bass drum splinters into what could be imagined as flying shrapnel. As the pictures take form they come to life often displaying the horrors and sorrows of war.

Likewise there have been some awe-inspiring images of events from our history, which will never again be reproduced. Scenes like the Marines watching the blazing Naval battles on the horizons of Guadalcanal and the armada of ships streaming across the vast expanse of the Pacific. All of these introductory scenes, images and music are moving and breathtaking. 

But then Hanks takes over with his brief narration, and try as I might his voice now rings false with any true meaning of respect or adulation towards these brave Veterans of this campaign. Hanks’ real life criticisms and beliefs cannot be wiped away by his being paid to read words that someone else has written.

Hanks narration is then followed by brief accounts of Marine Veterans concerning the events that will be shown in the episode. In my humble opinion these true life accounts should be immediately followed by the beginning of the current episode but instead what is shown are scenes from previous episodes. These scenes of previous episodes only interrupt the flow of the story which is about to be told and should be eliminated all together as they add little to what we are about to see.

The program listings for Episode Four was described in just four words, “Sledge trains for combat.” But the amount of time they actually showed Sledge training for combat was about two minutes. The rest of the episode concerned Leckie on Gloucester and his recovery from that terrible campaign.

The episode began with a Marine instructor screaming at Sledge and his buddies as they prepared to hit a target on the mortar range. Firing live ammo the round falls short to ‘kill’ two straw dummies designated as fellow Marines, Joe and Bob. As the Marines and their instructor walk out to the targets it is shown that Joe and Bob are laying face down while the two enemy straw targets are still standing. The enemy dummies have signs on them designating them “Tojo” and of course, “F*#* Face,” or as we have come to call it here in these reviews, “Bleep Face.” But really, “Bleep Face”?  Apparently nobody knew how to spell “Hirohito.”

And that’s it for Sledge and his training, as he will not be seen for the rest of the episode. Meanwhile, as I am sitting there trying to be positive I am given one more negative example of Marines, this time in their failure to even train properly. While short rounds do happen, I would think that with the short time allowed to show any Marines training, and this is all the training we will see in all ten episodes, that at least the makers of this series could show us something besides another short-coming.

The next scene shows Leckie and his Marines on Gloucester where as one of the Marine Veterans described in his prologue narrative, “It was the only place where I saw morale fall in a Marine unit.” This may be the first and last time that you will ever see the Gloucester campaign on film. Why? Because except for the suffering of the men involved due to the constant rain, mud and other harsh realities of trying to survive in a jungle there just wasn’t that much going on. The entire part of this episode dealing with Gloucester was like watching a POW movie.

It also proved me wrong when I said in the last review that we would probably be subjected to an American atrocity in ever other episode because this one had more than you or I would ever care to see.

After repulsing a nighttime Banzai attack the Marines learn from three captured Japanese soldiers that most of the Japanese have left the area, but there is a base camp where many sick Japanese soldiers were left behind. The Marines are then shown entering this camp with these sick enemy soldiers helplessly lying around due to their illness.

A Marine Lieutenant steps on the outreaching arm of a Japanese soldier who is feebly trying to pick up a grenade and then calmly states, “Martin, this one is yours.” A Marine is then seen nonchalantly fixing his bayonet to his rifle and then stabbing the prone Japanese soldier in the chest. We are led to believe that the Marines entered this camp and basically murdered any Japanese soldier that was still alive. Sorry this does not compute to reality and yet it gets worse.

After Leckie confiscates a wooden Japanese chest from an officer’s hooch, he and another Marine silently watch in horror as a nutty buddy kills another sick Japanese soldier. Gibson, the demented Marine, is shown setting his rifle on the ground next to the almost comatose enemy. He then takes off his helmet, laying it next to his rifle, and slowly leans forward to choke the Japanese soldier in an all too graphic sequence. Gibson then looks hauntingly at Leckie and the other Marine and smiles.  

Later a Marine officer steals Leckie’s Japanese chest, and the Luger that was inside it, only to have Leckie steal it back. The officer makes matters worse by then placing Leckie on mess duty in the Officer’s Mess for punishment and then in front of his fellow Marines, condemns Leckie for wetting himself, which is due to an illness. Apparently the constant rain and jungle environment causes this urinary overflow but in this series Leckie will see no real concern for his well being from his officers in this make believe Marine Corps. 

After Leckie watches another Marine calmly strip naked, utter “Et tu, Bruté?” and then blow his brains out the Marines are taken to Pavuvu to recuperate. Unfortunately we also have to watch the Marine kill himself and we don’t get to go anywhere. 

On Pavuvu Leckie’s affliction does not dry up so he is sent to a Naval hospital on Banika, thus completing the subtitle. Here he is billeted in the mental ward only because, he is told, due to an overflow of patients. Yet it is clear that Leckie has an attitude problem. What is not clear to me is if this poor attitude is due to his combat experiences on The Canal and Cape Gloucester or because his sex-crazed Aussie girlfriend so unceremoniously dumped him?

Gibson, the choking Marine, shows up at the mental ward and as Leckie is leaving to voluntarily return to their unit finally talks about religion and praying. Gibson tells a story about being caught out in the open by a Japanese plane on The Canal where he and some other Marines had to dive into a “slit trench” as their only way to escape. For those who may not know a slit trench is a latrine without a roof. Gibson describes the fear that they felt and how another Marine was pressed against his back and he could hear him praying to God to save him. Gibson was surprised by the faith of this other Marine and envied that faith, which he lacked.

As Leckie was leaving Gibson told him that he hopes Leckie “gets it quick” so that he doesn’t have to suffer. This short three minute sequence between Gibson and Leckie has by a long shot been the most authentic so far in this series.

So there you have it in a nutshell, Part Four where I was trying to be nonpartial and positive. Yet all I was given was negative images of the conduct of our Marines. Just more atrocities with a new mix of thieving, uncaring officers and mentally ill Marines. I understand that these things happen. What I do not understand is that with all of the stories of courage, heroism, sacrifices, hardships, honor and selflessness that took place in this time of our history, why are we being shown these particular events in this series?

Approximately 500,000 Marines served in WWII.

One would think that the makers of “The Pacific” could be more positive in telling their story.

God Bless America

Semper Fi

"Copyright 2010.  Michael E. Tank   All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or in any other manner duplicated without express written permission of the author.”