Posted on 02/27/2010 7:34:06 AM PST by Saije
To prepare for the filming of HBO's epic, $200-million World War II miniseries "The Pacific," screenwriter Bruce C. McKenna accompanied a locations crew to a tiny coral island near Guam known as Peleliu. A ridge there is laced with hundreds of caves -- undisturbed for more than half a century -- where Japanese troops hid out from U.S. Marines during one of the war's deadliest conflicts.
"There are still skeletons in the caves, and we saw them," McKenna remembers with amazement. "At the first cave we found, we walked in and there was the rib cage of a dead Japanese soldier. Up in the hills, every square inch is covered with shell casings and rusted machine guns. The place is unbelievable."
And -- unlike Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Guadalcanal, whose names still ring in the popular lexicon -- Peleliu is also largely unremembered, a fact troubling to surviving veterans who fought there. If the oversight deserves fixing, justice will be delivered when "The Pacific," the long-awaited companion piece to HBO's Emmy-winning 2001 miniseries "Band of Brothers," begins airing on March 14. The 10-part production, probably the most expensive miniseries in television history, will run on consecutive Sundays at 9 PM, presenting the war in the Pacific from the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor to the emotional return of troops after final victory over Japan.
A full quarter of the series -- 2 1/2 of the 10 hours -- unfolds on Peleliu, compared with, for example, less than a single hour on Iwo Jima. For the filmmakers -- notably, executive producers Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman -- the beaches and jungles of Peleliu turned out to be a convenient place to show the horrors of battle as experienced by the real-life soldiers whose stories they are telling.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
This looks to be quite interesting.
Based on the mini-series of The Pacific.
Just got it yesterday.
So am I. Judging from the trailers it looks to be pretty good.
Ditto, BoB is one of the few movies/series I can watch over and over and enjoy it each time. I don’t get HBO, but can’t wait to see Pacific when it hits DVD.
Don’t know if everyone has access to it but HBO did have about a eight minute excerpt from the series that showed the Marine assault across an airfield, presumably what would become Henderson Field on Guadalcanal.
It was extremely intense.
“This trailer looks really good.”
Thanks for posting. I hadn’t seen that one.
I am so sick of hearing liberals and Leftists trash the military - now, after getting away with lying about Vietnam, they declare all wars meaningless, including WWII. And why? Because yet again, they are trying to undermine the resolve of the people's support of the military fighting now.
Leftists are all for fighting, as long as it's against a free people. But when America goes against totalitarian murderers, Hollywood fires up the trembling horror machine, and fronts actors intoning fear and grief at military families. And of course, the subtext is that the troops are too stupid to know their sacrifice is pointless, if not evil. It's war alright - war of the mind, and the enemy made the movie - yet again.
I will watch this and so will my brother and sister. Our dad (USMC) was there and his rare accounts of his service in WW2 to us kids were unbelievable.
It depends on the approach they take. If this is done like Band of Brothers, great. But if we start in on portraying the “Japanese heroically defending their unique culture” nonsense....
Great book!
Thanks for the book recommendation - Dad’s Honorable Discharge paper states he saw, “battles, engaments, skirmishes, expeditions: participated in action against the Japanese on Peleliu, Okinawa(wounded), and occupaton of China”. I will see if I can order this from Amazon today.
Semper Fi ... that trailer is intense.
The Pacific is partly based on that book and also, “I’m Staying With My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC”
I don’t see anything of what you’re saying in what he said. I saw it in a “it was strategically unimportant to the overall Pacific campaign” light.
I don’t know anything about the battle or it’s historical significance, so I can’t comment either way, but that’s what it sounded like he was saying.
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