The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Johnny Bravo on February 28, 2010, 06:03:15 PM
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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 p.m., presenting the war in the Pacific from the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor to the emotional return of troops home 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.
Fittingly, though, Peleliu also symbolizes the plight of tens of thousands of soldiers caught in the glamourless, mind-wrenching mire of the Pacific war. It was a fight engaged on the other side of the world, on tropical archipelagoes with names nobody knew, for purposes that often seemed pointless to the average man in a foxhole. Isolated from families, cut off from familiar landscapes of roads and buildings, the troops on places like Peleliu battled oppressive heat, thirst, rats, dysentery and a particularly fearsome enemy in the Japanese, all to claim strategic islands that were barely habitable.
"You're fighting for nowhere in the middle of nowhere," as Hanks, a lifelong military buff, put it.
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I can NOT wait for this! I'm so excited. The previews look amazing. I am a huge fan of Band of Brothers. I watch the series at least once a month. I'll be setting my DVR for this one for sure.
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Tom Hanks has the respect for the Veterans to do the story right.
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looks cool
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There is no doubt that they are the Greatest Generation, they earned the title. Sleep easy tonight your tomorrows was paid for in full.
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Makes me wish I had HBO. I loved band of Brothers. Loved the book and the series. Hope this one is as good.
FQ13
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DVR is set for this one! 8)
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Before you grant sainthood to Tom Hanks you may want to read and check out the imbedded video in this article.
Tom Hanks: War on Terror, War in Pacific Driven By ‘Racism and Terror’
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2010/03/12/tom-hanks-war-on-terror-war-in-pacific-driven-by-racism-and-terror/
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Hello;
After reading these posts and blog site by WatchmanUSA - I searched "dale dye" you go to the site for "arm chair General" and he does an interview. Please read it. Dale Dye has a lot in store for us all. I am eager to see if he gets them all done. He seems to be keeping Hanks and Spielberg "in step". I did not read the playwrites interview that was scrolling at the top of the site page.
How about some comments after you all read from that site.
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I know of Dale Dye's bio and work, he has a history of getting it right.
The duo of Hanks and Spielberg also have a history of getting it right with "Saving Private Ryan" and "Band of Brothers".
Their personal opinions on modern affairs are not significantly, reflected in their portrayal of past events.
During his Marine Corps career it is probable that Capt. Dye met or served with men who had been involved in these events. I'm sure he will get the details right.
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Makes me wish I had HBO. I loved band of Brothers. Loved the book and the series. Hope this one is as good.
FQ13
just what the internet is for
Ch 7 went halves with HBO in paying for it however it won't be starting here for over a month after there + it will be full of adds here so guess how I will be watching it ;) hehe
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Hello;
Did anyone catch the coverage of this new mini-series on "The Pacific" that was on TV 101 /Direct TV? This was on Monday night @ 9pm. Most of the night was recaps of Band of Brothers making and a half hour preview of "The Pacific". If what I saw was an indication, our concerns of "racism" may not be a problem since in the 1 scene it showed 2 Marines trying to help a wounded Jap that only suckered them closer and blew them and himself up with a grenade.
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Hello;
Did anyone catch the coverage of this new mini-series on "The Pacific" that was on TV 101 /Direct TV? This was on Monday night @ 9pm. Most of the night was recaps of Band of Brothers making and a half hour preview of "The Pacific". If what I saw was an indication, our concerns of "racism" may not be a problem since in the 1 scene it showed 2 Marines trying to help a wounded Jap that only suckered them closer and blew them and himself up with a grenade.
I for one have no racism concerns with this series. I just want it to be as historically correct as possible. Screw the political correctness. I prefer it show what really happened in telling the true story of these great Americans.
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Look at the first 10 minutes or so of "Saving Private Ryan", They will get the important parts right.
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have downloaded it just not had the time to watch it planing on friday night with a couple of long necks
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Way OT, but did any of you guys ever see Hell in the Pacific with Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin? Came out in the late '60's. Nothing was dubbed or subtitled. Lee spoke only English and Mifune spoke only Japanese. I saw it while in Japan on R&R from a minor police action somewhat south of there. Audience was all Japanese except for me and my running mate, Eddie Jimenez. We were the only two who laughed when Lee peed on Mifune from his position up a tree. We quit laughing in milliseconds when 500 pairs of eyes suddenly stared at us in the dark.
What a movie.
That is all. As you were.
Crusader