WRITERS: Robert Schenkkan & Michelle Ashford[SPOILERS] In one hour, Part Eight achieved everything I wanted from The Pacific as a ten-part miniseries. Fun training sequences, a relatable performance from its lead (Jon Seda), engaging romance, beautiful visuals, brutal action, and a genuinely emotive climax. This miniseries still ranks as a disappointment to me because of its thin characterization and choppy narrative, but it's certainly started to reverse a decline since Part 6, so I'm hopeful the last two episodes will maintain this quality...
DIRECTORS: David Nutter & Jeremy Podeswa
Sgt Basilone (Seda) has been a curious presence; initially one of the supposed lead characters, he was sent back home after his Guadalcanal heroics to be a spokesman for the US Army's spin doctors. A handsome face with a gripping tale of slaughtering "Japs" who could increase conscription numbers, he's floated in and out of the narrative, giving us one of The Pacific's more unique elements; a soldier awarded the Medal Of Honor who doesn't like how that's turned him into a household name. A born marine eager to serve his country, Basilone's instead spent a year of wartime making dinner speeches, bedding famous actresses, and acting (badly) in radio plays.
That all changed here, with Basilone renewing his determination to return to active duty and being rewarded with a transfer to train new recruits. A job that began in earnest with just two star-struck privates to shout at as they tackled the grueling obstacle course.
More importantly to the story, Basilone fell in love with beautiful Lena Riggi (Annie Parisse) after seeing her across the mess hall, although his amorous advances weren't reciprocated for awhile because Riggi was cautious about bedding a celebrity she suspects isn't genuinely interested in her as a person. But, after bonding over a shared opinion of their duties and a sense of commitment to the military lifestyle, Riggi started to lower her defenses and accepted Basilone into her life. In fact, after a whirlwind romance that included a beach scene straight out of From Here To Eternity, they quickly got married when it became clear time was short and Basilone would soon be leaving for Iwo Jima.
From there, a devastating cut to a very different beach: Iwo Jima, where we found Basilone accompanying his men in a truly horrifying D-Day assault. The Pacific appears to be delivering more harrowing war sequences with every episode, and so far this ranks as the most frightening -- with soldiers being shot to pieces everywhere you look as black dirt was kicked into the air, almost as if the marines were stuck in a hellish pit of ash. At times it was impossible to imagine anyone would survive the Japanese artillery laying waste to dozens of people every few seconds.
And, cruelly, this was the moment when Sgt Basilone's luck would run out, just when he had something worth living for, as he was shot down by enemy fire and collapsed to the ground, his death throes captured in slow-motion, with his shocked cadets watching on and unable to help. For the men he trained, his death wasn't just the demise of a mentor and a respected soldier, but of a legend. Someone they'd come to view as an indestructible vanquisher of the enemy, but now just one of many men littering Iwo Jima's shoreline. Basilone's last life lesson: death doesn't discriminate.
Overall, Part Eight was definitely the best episode of The Pacific yet, even if it often dealt in romanticized clichés. The fact Basilone was a real person also gave his character added weight, and this episode just did a much better job at balancing character with story. Basilone and Riggi's romance was more believable than the sappy nonsense of Leckie's love-story in Melbourne, and telling a story that felt contained yet connected to the series at large made it more satisfying as an hour of TV . It also featured the first death of the miniseries that actually took a toll.
17 MAY 2010: SKY MOVIES PREMIERE/HD, 9PM
