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twistedmentat posted:At least they never forced Shia LaBouf on us in these. God I hate that guy, just an awful, awful actor. The only movie I ever saw him in that the role suited his rat like energy was in Nymphomaniac. He's really good in Fury, which happens to be a good but not great WW2 tank film.
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May 1, 2024 01:48
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Incredible. I want to tell you all about an incredible series called The Pacific. It's a follow-up to the excellent Band of Brothers, but this time focusing on the Pacific Theater of the war. It primarily follows the story of Eugene Sledge, though it includes other characters such as Merriell "Snafu" Shelton, Edward "Hillbilly" Jones, Andrew "Ack Ack" Haldane, Robert Leckie, and even a brief section on Medal of Honor winner John Basilone. The first three episodes follow Sledge's arrival at Pavuvu in the Russell Islands and then his landing at the small island of Peleliu where he undergoes hell assaulting a beach and then an airfield, before traveling up into the hills in pursuit of an enemy that the American troops have grown to hate with an intensity and savagery that is horrifying to see unfold. It is an astonishing technical achievement, tells a thorough and compelling story about the dehumanizing nature of war, shows the utter barbarity that men were exposed to and that they inflicted on their fellow men, how it broke even the hardest and seemingly unbreakable of soldiers, and how even those who survived were left exhausted, hollowed out and questioning their faith and their basic humanity. It is absolutely remarkable television, and a worthy successor to Band of Brothers. It's also episodes 5, 6 & 7 of the show, meaning we're actually over the halfway point of a series that only FINALLY now feels like it has properly started. I have not exactly been subtle in my critiques of The Pacific, but this trilogy of episodes brings all the many often baffling decisions into a fresh light because now we can see just what the show was capable of all along. The trouble was, they wanted to tell the story of the entire Pacific Campaign, so they didn't feel they could start with Sledge in Peliliu which would mean missing Guadalcanal and Gloucester. But then the first 4 episodes are split so unevenly between Robert Leckie and John Basilone, and the latter feels so detached from the other characters, that the show never seemed to find its footing even when the individual elements worked well. What's the solution? This is an exercise in futility, purely a thought experiment, because the show we got is the show we had, and who knows how a different direction might have been received? But based on everything I've seen so far, my pick would be to drop Basilone as one of the central POV characters. Yes that means you miss out on his astonishing heroics in Guadalcanal, but even that could work with Leckie and his friends in H Company waiting in agony through the night expecting to be overrun only to discover that D Company took the brunt, learning second-hand about Basilone's seemingly impossible feats. That could have even played into Leckie's spiral downwards, the growing frustration among the men about Basilone - only ever referenced, never seen - becoming a larger-than-life American folk hero who people think singlehandedly defeated the entire Japanese army at Guadalcanal. You could still do Iwo Jima by having Basilone suddenly arrive on the scene and perform his heroics before awestruck young soldiers who then face the cold reality that death can come for any of them. Unfair to Jon Seda perhaps, cutting his role down to almost nothing, but the character has been pretty ill-served by the show up to this point and even though the growing discontent Basilone feels in his position as a war bonds salesman/propaganda icon has value from a writing perspective, it also feels like an intrusion on the flow of the otherwise very smooth storytelling present between Leckie's fading out of the frontman position in favor of Sledge (who himself was also screwing with the flow in earlier episode scenes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jUs8OhLGx0 Like, this is a really strong sequence. I like it! I think it's doing important things character-wise... but it feels so disconnected to what we're seeing in The Pacific, and even if that's kind of the point, it impacts negatively on the flow of the show and continually reminds me how this show often seems to be working against itself. But as noted, it's a thought experiment only. These episodes being great doesn't change that they came too late in the series... but them being too late in the series doesn't change that they're great! Because they are, they really, really are! Watching all three in succession feels like a movie, and I mean that as a compliment. There are three solid acts, character arcs, plenty of action but not for its own sake, and in service of telling the story of the sheer horror and brutality and dehumanization of the war. Minor characters get development time, we see the shift in perspectives happen, the growing bond of characters through their shared trauma and need to survive. There's laughter, sadness, despair and both the resilience AND the fragility of the human spirit all on display, and it never feels overpacked or like these big emotional moments aren't earned. We saw no training for Basilone or Leckie, and only one brief scene of Sledge's mortar training (which he hosed up!), but that partly works in the show's favor this time as Sledge arrives in Pavuvu looking VERY wet behind the ears. He and his fellow soldiers don't exactly get a warm welcome, the Marines aren't anything like the picture of discipline and fighting spirit they were expecting from boot camp and all the excited newsreel coverage, and Sledge in particular looks like a lost lamb as he wanders about trying to find old friend Sidney Phillips. Their reunion is a happy one, but a lot has happened since their last meeting, and Phillips has seen some horrifying poo poo that he simply can't explain to Sledge who asks him for his perspective not out of voyeuristic curiosity but because he's terrified he won't have what it takes when he finally faces the reality of the war. The Marines, veterans of Gaudalcanal or Gloucester or both, are unsettling. Men strip nude in sudden rain to shower, or swing bayonets around in full view of everybody killing imaginary "Japs". Men seem indifferent to rank, are slovenly and lazy, lounging about on their bunks and languidly going about their day. A Master Gunnery Sergeant, "Gunny" Haney, screams obscenities at a superior officer for his poor weapon discipline, and when the Lieutenant turns a stunned look at his Captain, the Captain simply shrugs and points out that Sergeant was right to do so. Sledge, always squared away and taking everything enormously seriously, doesn't seem to know where to look, everything seems to be upside down and round the wrong way from what he was expecting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu51rszgotI With an in to Phillips' crew, Sledge gets to briefly spend some time with Leckie, which helps aid the feeling like this is a passing over of the central protagonist role even though Leckie remains a part of the series. Leckie and Sledge have an interesting conversation about religion, with Leckie - only so recently returned from his hospital stay - still somewhat burned out and a far cry from the man who went to Church every Sunday and made sure to go the day he enlisted so he could say a prayer for those who died in Pearl Harbor. Sledge is a believer and isn't remotely shaken by Leckie's challenges to God's divinity, and you can tell that while Leckie might feel Sledge won't maintain that same faith after he sees war firsthand, he also envies that Sledge still has it. Leckie has also often carried himself like he feels like he is the main character of the story of the world, a novel he's writing in his own head. After Banika, that has been shaken somewhat, and I think it's in Episodes 5 and 6 where he finally - for now at least - comes to the rather disheartening revelation that the story goes on without him, and that he isn't the central character. He and Sledge both make landings at Peleliu, they both fight their way forward, they both suffer from the debilitating heat and the desperate need for water. Leckie, disgusted with himself but too worn down to let it hold him back, searches the dead bodies of his fellow soldiers in hopes of finding canteens that still have water. Sledge joins other excited soldiers who think they've found water, only to discover the head of an animal dumped inside by the Japanese army to poison any water the Americans could find, further enraging the men against the monstrous "other" that is the Japanese. Leckie sees Hoosier badly hurt and carried away, unsure if he's alive or dead. When his friend Runner also takes a bad hit and their radio operator is killed, Leckie is tasked with finding a working radio to call in a corpsman and finds himself facing the horror of running back through the warzone he just crossed as soldier after soldier died around him... and then having to come back. But he does it for his friend, only to be blasted unconscious by the concussive force of an artillery shell explosion. He wakes being loaded onto a boat, coughing up blood as doctors and nurses treat the wounded. When he belatedly discovers that Runner survived and ended up on the same ship, he's happy of course but also devastated, because he "failed" to save him. I don't mean that in an accusatory way towards Leckie, because he didn't want to save his friend to be a hero, he just wanted to save his friend... and he didn't. He failed. Runner was saved but it wasn't because of him, and that means for Leckie that he wasn't there for his friend, he wasn't able to do the one thing he promised to do. When Runner wheels him up onto the top desk and they stare out over Pavuvu as they're sailed away, their war appears to be over... but the war continues. It's got to be a heady mixture of relief, guilt and confusion: they have put so much into looking out for each other, of being the guys there to fight the Japanese and avenge America for Pearl Harbor, and now they're being sent away, and neither of them knows if Hoosier is alive or dead or even somewhere on the same boat. They're heroes in America, they've done things many men would never be able to do (and should never HAVE to do), and they have more than done their part... and yet, the job is undone, and they're going home. That has to gently caress with a person's head. As an exit for Leckie, it's incredibly well done. He isn't done with the show, and I'm not saying he should be, but looking at these three episodes as their own thing, this feels like such a strong exit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsYgW64Dt7g But as Leckie's story "ends", Sledge's is just beginning, and it's incredibly effective in how its all laid out. From a fantastic quasi "single" take of Sledge arriving on the Peleliu beach (there are some clear edit points but it still looks and sounds great) all the way through to reaching the edge of the airfield and then the eventual assault on it is only really matched by Saving Private Ryan's amazing depiction of the D-Day Landings. Sledge acquits himself well, but the show makes it clear that he's utterly terrified the entire time and forcing himself forward every step of the way. He openly admits after the assault is over that he has never been more terrified in his life, and Captain "Ack Ack" Haldane very gently lets him know that they all are. Haldane is a character I wish had been seen from the start of the show, given he also served in Gaudalcanal and Gloucester, and he makes one hell of an impression in these episodes in his firm, obviously disciplined but also compassionate leadership and the obvious admiration all of his men - including the hard-bitten Gunny Haney! - hold him in. He kindly helps a soldier on the verge of a nervous breakdown get some rest, he gives troubled soldiers like Sledge basic tasks that take their mind of the chaotic mess in their minds after their first experience of war, and a particularly harsh one at that. After the misery of taking the airfield, Haldane looks out for his men first and foremost, further deepening their respect and trust in him when he and his right-hand man block an APC and all but hold the driver at gunpoint as they tell (not ask, TELL) him to load up their injured before he goes anywhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4fjzWUO1B8 Part of the issue with the series up to this point has been the lack of a sense of the wider company beyond the small group of friends for the central POV characters of Leckie and Basilone. With these three episodes, we not only see Sledge getting bloodied in his first battle, but also the developing relationship between him and his fellow soldiers - particularly Snafu - as well as importantly showing the structure of the company with Captain Haldane, Lieutenant "Hillbilly" Jones and Gunnery Sergeant Gunny Haney. You get a sense of structure, of how things operate, of showing the importance of the mortarmen in helping to clear out opposition or dampen resistance enough for the riflemen to get through. You also, importantly, see how everybody holds up when that structure is lost, and how the bonds formed in battle help the men make it through when they lose Hillbilly, they lose Haldane, and though he's still there how they see Haney crack. Haney himself symbolically passes the torch of the 1st Marine Division to Sledge by giving him his lighter as they stand smoking on the deck of their ship near the end of episode 7 as they finally put Peleliu behind them. Sledge, who showed up in episode 5 squared away and politely declining to smoke, ends episode 7 smoking, harder, battle-tested but also still holding onto a sense of himself. Sidney Phillips, visiting Sledge's parents, tried to put their minds at ease by saying the mortarmen are always behind the frontline and that he was surrounded by the finest soldiers. Both those things were technically true, but he also knew that Sledge was doing to be facing danger and terror like he'd never experienced before, and nobody knows how they will react until they face it. Sledge, it seemed, passed the test, putting aside his note-taking for a moment as he does something he would have never remotely considered when he first arrived on Pavuvu, stripping naked and joining his fellow soldiers for a swim in the ocean, perhaps finally understanding the attitudes and appearances of the Marines who were nothing like he expected when he was dreaming of serving his country but trapped in the cotton wool of his family home. Then there's Snafu. Rami Malek was a known quantity when he starred in this show, though he wouldn't really take off as a big star until 2015 and Mr. Robot. But even with the benefit of hindsight, Malek stood out even when he was just "that Pharoah dude from Night at the Museum", and his role as Snafu is remarkable if only for the fact that he seems to appear fully formed and with a well-defined character despite making his first appearance in episode 5 and in place as just one supporting role to the co-lead who himself was getting his first full proper episode. Part of what is remarkable is that Snafu does some incredibly hosed up things and yet he does them so... matter-of-factly. Gunny Haney is all about bluster and presenting the image of the epitome of a US Marine. Haldane is the caring, big brother of a Captain. Hillbilly his shadow who struggles with his own self-doubts when left in charge (the unintended killing of a panicking soldier clearly impacts him deeply, even though not a single one of the soldiers blames him or holds it against him). Other soldiers hate the Japanese, they mutilate their corpses or rob them, one even trying to extract gold teeth from a still barely living soldier without the slightest compunction. Snafu, meanwhile, is a laidback and sardonic presence who amuses people, makes them laugh, cracks jokes and appears entirely relaxed with his place in the world and the war... and then suddenly he'll just go,"Oops, almost forgot!" like he left the water boiling, and casually extract gold teeth from a corpse, or happily plink away at the exposed brain matter of a dead Japanese soldier with pebbles to pass the time. He does this all without malice or rage, or even callously. It's purely functional, the dead Japanese don't need the gold in their teeth anymore and he can sell it and make money after the war... it just makes sense! But he also holds a sense of right and wrong - he and the other soldiers are disgusted by a non-combatant who offers to pay for Japanese blades or a flag so he has something to "show" for being in the war. He kills the barely alive Japanese soldier being tortured by an American not because he feels any sympathy for the Japanese soldier, but because the torture is clearly upsetting his friend Sledge, and offers a simple,"Makes it easier" explanation for this "mercy". But he also clearly knows that there is a line he has crossed, even if he did it without malice. After Haldane's death, a distraught Sledge who tossed aside the Japanese blade he was considering looting when he saw human bodies being desecrated is prepared to rip gold out of the teeth of a corpse just to find some outlet for his rage and grief. Snafu, tossing pebbles into the brain-matter soup of another corpse, warns him not to do it, and when Sledge quite justifiably asks why he shouldn't, Snafu knows that saying it is "wrong" won't hold water. So instead he simply declares that the doctor mentioned the Japanese have "germs" and so you shouldn't touch their dead bodies. Sledge knows this is a bullshit excuse, but it's enough to give him pause, and instead he snarls that he plans to take the soldier's insignia instead. Snafu has no issue with that, because he's kept Sledge from crossing a line, one that he has crossed multiple times himself. But while he may not have faith (I don't believe he ever makes a statement one way or another) he clearly knows that Sledge does, and that some things - even things that Snafu himself can do seemingly without issue - would stain the soul of a man like Sledge. The show isn't all relentless brutality, of course, and there are light moments and fun moments where the men are able to relax, laugh and forget their fears and stress for a moment - their bewildered, delighted reactions to Gunny Haney going,"WOOF!" directly in Sledge's face and then moving on comes to mind! But, importantly, death and dehumanization are a constant presence even during these light moments. Because they're on islands, the enemy is all around, often in areas they thought had already been cleared, there's not enough room to move the dead and not the space to move them in any case. The scene where Haldane's body is brought down from up in the hills stands out to me so much because they're surrounded by dead bodies the entire time they're there, but they've become part of the background and all but forgotten by the soldiers until suddenly a death catches them all by surprise, and all stare in stunned silence as Haldane's lifeless body is carried past them, as if seeing a dead body (or rather, THIS dead body) is something they were completely unprepared for. Even scenes like the below, where Jay De L'Eau shits himself and is lighthearted fun, is a scene preceded by Jay having a near breakdown and crying in Sledge's arms at night, and involves another human being getting shot full of bullets and killed as he was chasing a terrified young man while intending to murder him. And yet, the lightness works, because these are human beings and they need to find ways to keep their spirits up, even if the environment and their own actions lend everything a definite morbid touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt5rFdmnJUs This has been a pretty long post, because it's been 3 episodes. But it really does feel like a movie, with each episode it's own act, and feels like it is worth writing about all together. It completely flips my feelings about The Pacific around. I'm still irritated by the irregular nature of the series up to this point, but these three episodes back-to-back demonstrate that old Band of Brothers magic while producing something spectacularly different. It's a reminder of what could have been, just how good the series could have been but never quite managed to reach. Here though, for these three episodes, this show was every bit the equal of Band of Brothers. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 13:43 on May 2, 2024 |
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May 2, 2024 11:24
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Hell yeah that's the good stuff.
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May 2, 2024 13:11
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