WRITERS: George Pelecanos & Michelle Ashford[SPOILERS] A squealing change of pace, as the beleaguered marines are shipped from hellhole Guadalcanal and dropped in Melbourne, southern Australia, occupying a cricket stadium as a makeshift billet. Understandably, many of the men take the opportunity to go AWOL, slipping by Military Police and hitting the town to drink themselves silly in the pubs and, in a few cases, find love with the local girls...
DIRECTOR: Jeremy Podeswa
Of prime focus was Leckie (James Badge Dale), who took a fancy to a Greco-Australian woman called Stella (Claire van der Boom) after spotting her getting on a bus, managed to get her address (despite being half-drunk and a stranger), then found himself welcomed into the bosom of her family. In exchange for cleaning their guttering of vines, Leckie got a warm bed and slept with Stella under their roof; an arrangement everyone appeared very happy about. The celerity of Leckie's relationship with Stella and her parents' relaxed attitude to a Yankie soldier sleeping with their only daughter while AWOL, struck me as very peculiar. I'm forced to let it slide because The Pacific's based on actual WWII memoirs, so I assume these events did happen to the real-life Leckie, in this way. If so, lucky dog, but the story felt so unlikely and saccharine that I didn't swallow one second of it. Maybe the truth really is stranger than fiction.
Elsewhere, the only storyline of note was Basilone (Jon Seda) getting the Medal Of Honour for his heroics in Guadalcanal last time, which did a good job showing how such reward can connect with a man's soul and make a better soldier of someone, but there was a cruel twist in that Basilone was immediately ordered home by the Pentagon. A true American hero of his stature will do more good for the military as a spokesman back home, rather than risk his death on the frontline. Understandably, Basilone felt like he was letting his friends down by leaving them so soon.
Okay, here are my problems with The Pacific so far:
(1) This character-building episode has arrived too late, but what little it achieved for the likes of Leckie and Basilone doesn't feel like it'll have much bearing on what's to come. It would have been nice if Leckie's future battles against the Japanese had us yearning for him to be safe, if only to get back to the lovely Stella after the war, but instead this episode ended with Stella ending their relationship because she couldn't deal with the possibility he'll end up in an obituary. So the whole story was reduced to a light R&R story with no real bearing on what's to come. I guess it's possible Leckie will arrive back on Stella's doorstep after WWII ends, which would be nice, but I'd have preferred to feel their relationship was definitely still in play.
Similarly, Basilone's flown back to the USA, removed from the sharp end of conflict. I guess there's a chance he'll be back (isn't he one of the main characters?), but we'll have to see. Basically, the first hour of The Pacific should have given us solid reasons to care about these characters based on their pre-war lives, so we can feel connected to them and fear for their safety, but all we ever got was a 20-minute intro two episodes ago. Band Of Brothers got around the problem by focusing on the pre-D Day training. It was a shame The Pacific didn't have something similar.
(2) I like the documentary cold openings, but it's unfortunate they seem to just spell out the broad sweep of every episode. It was particularly noticeable here, as I knew exactly what would happen to the marines, so the actual drama was just the semi-fictional nitty-gritty at ground level.
(3) There are three kinds of people who watch WWII dramas, with some overlap: those who want to get inside the heads of the characters and feel the human trauma and drama of war from the comfort of their armchairs. Those who love history (perhaps in the military themselves) and just want to relish the ambience, costumes, period details and how the drama makes stiff facts and trivia feel alive in their mind. And those who essentially want huge reenactments of historic battles, told in as realistic and exciting way as possible (i.e lots of big explosions, gunfire, death, carnage and manly heroics.)
Trouble is, I don't think The Pacific is doing either one very well. The characters are still rake thin (Leckie's the most developed, but all we really know is he's more compassionate than his immature comrades and has an eye for the ladies), the battle sequences haven't impressed me yet (too incomprehensible and drowned in darkness), and while the production's definitely glossy and expensive enough to draw your eye and make you feel like 1943 exists on-screen, there's still a funny "Hollywood-ized" veneer to things. Perhaps tellingly, the (so far) superior Band Of Brothers was co-produced by the BBC, who are a lot better at making period drama feel authentic and less artificial.
Overall, I wish I was enjoying The Pacific more than I am, because I've spent a year waiting for its broadcast. It's not terrible, and I still have faith the story will hit a stride soon, but I expected to be far more invested in the characters and fascinated by the situation at this stage.
Asides
- As usual for a US production, I'm guessing a lot of the supporting "Australians" here were Americans doing their best Paul Hogan impressions?
- Worth noting that Isabel Lucas co-starred here as Gwen, the sexy Aussie girl Prvt. Sid Phillips (Ashton Holmes) dated while in Melbourne. Lucas is best known for a small role in Transformers 2, so it was a surprise to see her putting in a nice performance. And yes, I had to check IMDb to find Sid's name, as there are still plenty of faces I can't put names to.
