America’s screen fascination with war has always been questionable. It has been glamorised, stacked high with handsome heroes and epic storylines that have rarely related the true picture of war. But there have been signs in recent years that a new approach is bringing a new reality to our screens – and much of it is on the small screen rather than the cinema. Stephen Ambrose’s acclaimed book, Band of Brothers, proved to be an award-winning adaptation about GIs in the Second World War in Europe. Generation Kill, which focused on the conflict in Iraq, has been a worthy television contribution, while on the big screen The Hurt Locker highlighted the horrors of a bomb-disposal squad in Iraq. And although the latter had elements of High Noon, it was nonetheless deserving of its Oscars.
The 10-part series, The Pacific has been billed to compare with the best of HBO. It’s certainly the most expensive TV series ever made at a cost of $10 million an episode and a total cost of $100 million. It’s a budget that exceeds most Hollywood blockbusters and is executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and from the same team who brought Band of Brothers to our living rooms. The result is lavish filming, stunning effects, slick editing and a promising storyline. It’s probably still too early to judge, but at the end of the day the making will surely be in the script.
It’s the story of three young marines thrown into the Pacific war, following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and is based on the published memoirs of two of them, writers Eugene Sledge and Robert Leckie. But unlike so many Hollywood junk war movies this series is about fear; shocked young men petrified by war who enlisted to do the honourable thing, but who now would just like to be back home and away from it all. They naively imagined it would be an exciting adventure. “We’ve just won a National Geographic travel prize award”, jokes one of them. Instead it’s a nightmare of killing and death against an enemy the generals have clearly underrated and, as their commander puts it, “fighting on tiny specks of turf that we have never heard of”.
The series begins with Leckie and John Basilone joining up, but with Eugene Sledge initially denied because his doctor father has detected a heart murmur. Hurled onto the beach on the tropical island of Guadalcanal, just south of the Solomon Isles, the marines’ objective is to secure the airfield. After initial success, the Japanese regroup and begin a barrage of attacks that proves to be more devastating than they had imagined possible. Their fleet, at anchor, is virtually destroyed in one of the most shattering encounters in American naval history, leaving the marines stranded on the island short of supplies and equipment. Against all odds, they hold out against 24-hour Japanese bombing and attacks and eventually overcome Japanese resistance.
Like Band of Brothers, it’s not so much about heroes, but is the story of ordinary GIs, taking us from their first confrontation on Guadalcanal to the later Battles of Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
The Pacific war was essentially an American conflict, so it’s perhaps not surprising that it has been overlooked by historians and filmmakers on this side of the Atlantic. What is more surprising is that the Americans have largely neglected its history as well. Tom Hanks himself has commented that even though his own father fought in the Pacific, he never really knew any of the details.
Conflict is being examined more and more through oral histories and the eyes of ordinary people who took part in events rather than through the heavily-edited memoirs of generals and politicians. Much of Stephen Ambrose’s book was first-person accounts and there are strong elements of this in The Pacific. All of which makes it more valid and believable.
And yet, for all that, doubts linger about The Pacific. There are still heroes, gun battles, exploding bombs and all the paraphernalia of war. It’s Saving Private Ryan, but with the sunshine. Yes, it’s realistic and it’s frightening, but will never compare with, say, Das Boot, The Deer Hunter or even Apocalypse Now. Still, at $100 million, it has to pay its way.
