The Pacific - Part 10: Home - Series Finale

The perfect finish to the emotional ride that this wonderfully historical series has taken us on. My heart broke and I cried more about the marines' return home than I did while watching any of their battles, and yet I could only be glad that they had survived and feel hope that life would improve for the.

The three most memorable moments:

- Bob Leckie (James Badge Dale) telling his girlfriend, Vera (Caroline Dhavernas), and his family that he fought in the war for television.

- Lena Basilone (Annie Parisse) bring John (Jon Seda)'s medal of honour home to his family.

- Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) crying in his father's arms because he couldn't go shoot ducks.

When it ended, we got to find out what had happened to all the men we had met. We learned that every character had been based on a real man, and that those who survived went home and got married. They had lives, full lives, but despite that, the memories, the experiences, never left them.

It's 2010, and there are still men who fought in those battles who can remember and who can tell us about it. There are none in Canada who fought in the First World War. It won't be long before World War II is out of living memory as well. I'm really grateful for television. For a medium that can so vividly record the memories of men, so the future generations can get a taste, a surface idea, of what really went on.

The Pacific - Part 9: Okinawa

Just when I thought they couldn't escalate anymore, they did. Rain, lack of water, disease, stench, being shot at, insanity, suicide, Hell beyond measure, but Okinawa had something that none of the other islands had - civilians.

Again forced to contend with raw recruits, Sledge (Joe Mazzello) and Shelton (Rami Malek) are now the experienced and bitter marines. It was absolutely distressing to watch as one of those new recruits made mistake after mistake, costing the lives of many of the others, and finally going insane. The pressures on the mind of man when living in those conditions are something I am glad I will never have to experience.

I was very moved when Shelton noticed that news from home upset Sledge. It turns out that his dog died, which, compared to all the death surrounding him at Okinawa, seems a small thing, but losing a pet, a friend from home, someone whom you consider safe because he or she isn't with you in this Hell, that is harder than losing yet another recruit to the stupid mistakes only the green make.

I was also impressed with the balance between Sledge pulling his side arm to kill an enemy in this episode and Leckie (James Badge Dale)'s decision to do the same in the premiere. Here, Sledge was fulled by hatred and disgust, wanting the Jap dead, as he wanted all Japs, while Leckie had been unable to watch the Japanese soldier suffer and be toyed with. Throughout the war, Leckie had managed to retain his humanity, while Sledge lost it for a while.

But the horrors of what happened to the civilians helped bring him back.

We started by seeing them only on the road, trying to evacuate from the areas where fighting was going on. Then we saw them die as they tried to escape the Japanese. Next, we saw a woman holding a baby explode because she had been outfitted with dynamite, and following that, the enemy used those people as human shields. And Sledge and the rest of them men shot them to get to the Japanese behind them. Finally, in a shack, Sledge and Shelton found a crying baby, his mother and father both dead. They stood there and stared until another soldier came and took the child away.

It was after all this that things finally came back in focus for Sledge, when he found an old woman, her guts split open, slowly dying. She wanted him to kill her, to shoot her in the head and end her pain, but he could not do it. His compassion returned, and he held her in his arms until the light went out of her eyes.

After all that, a bomb was dropped on a Japanese city, killing men and women, the elderly and infants, and leaving behind devastation that would take decades to fade.

The last episode, entitled Home, will hopefully be full of hope, rather than the horror we have witnessed throughout the series. But, regardless, who could forget what we have already witnessed?

The Pacific - Part 8: Iwo Jima

Alright, well, I'm just going to sit here and cry for a little bit before I have the heart to put my feelings after watching this episode into words.

Last week, we lost Cpt. Haldane (Scott Gibson), picked off by a sniper. It was horrible and sad. I didn't think they could actually make me feel worse about a soldier's death. And I was very wrong about that.

Watching John Basilone (Jon Seda) finally manage to be able to return to active duty after suffering so long as a hero in name, but only in action past, filled me with a mix of understanding and sadness. I never doubted he would return to the war, never doubted that he had any other goals. That he had lost his best friend and that so many of his friends had stayed behind to fight and to die while he was given so many favours and was safe at home never sat well with him.

So he returns and begins training the new recruits. He doesn't want them going in feeling as useless and unsure of themselves has he had his first time, and he proves himself a leader as compassionate and wonderful as Haldane.

Next, he meets a woman. A woman whom he considers superior to all the other women he has ever met in his life, Lena Riggi (Annie Parisse). Most men, when they meet that woman, they marry her, and John was no exception. He wooed and won himself the perfect bride.

And then he had a choice - he could go home when his term of duty ended, or he could renew it and stay with his men. And I knew the choice that a man like John Basilone would make. He stayed on. And he went to Iwo Jima. And although he did a wonderful job rallying his men, he was shot down the first day of combat, and never saw his wife again.

It's very much the tragic Hollywood story, meant to draw our tears. But it is history, not just a story. John Basilone lived once. He had a wife and family, and he had friends. And he chose to stay with those friends, to continue to fight for his country, for his family, and for his wife, and he died for them.

That fight was so long ago, it's harder to understand why he fought. He could have gone home. He could have lived. He could still be alive today, or at least have lived into this century. But he chose to fight. And I can't be upset with him, no matter how sad it makes me, because, while he was a man who could have lived with a lot of things, he could never have lived with hearing the casualty rates from Iwo Jima and not thought to himself "How many of those men might have lived had I been there to help them?"

The Pacific - Part 7: Peleliu Hills

You can't dwell on it; you can't dwell on any of it.

That seems to be the motto for surviving the emotional and mental Hell that the marines went through throughout the war in the Pacific. They had to focus on the next day, the next moment, not the one that had just passed. Otherwise, they would be stuck, frozen in that awful second, and be of no use to anyone, including themselves.

Yet, how can you go on as your heroes die around you? Until now, men have died, but it just didn't seem as horrible. I guess we hadn't got to know them, hadn't really grown to appreciate and value their worth. They were just characters in a TV series about war - necessary because men died, but not evoking the pain felt if those men were real.

In Part 7, that changed. First Eddie (Leon Ford), who was quite a hero in Part 6, gets shot. Sledge (Joe Mazzello) is sent with a stretcher to get him, but even as they load him up, he's not looking well. Then all of them were peppered with bullets, and Eddie's chances disappeared. And as if the horror of that death, and the almost ridiculousness of running a stretcher in to try to save men - more likely the two stretcher bearers were going to join the list of casualties than save anyone - wasn't enough, another painful death soon followed.

Known as Ack Ack or the Skipper by his men, Captain Andrew Haldane (Scott Gibson) not only proved himself a great leader by winning the respect of his men, but he was also a good man. His conversation early in the episode with Sledge about his father only made a man we already valued into one we truly liked. And for him, so brave, so clever, so wonderful, to die off screen, taken out by a sniper, was fittingly awful. Normally, I would complain that so important a character was killed off screen, but the scene worked so much better this way. One moment, he was alive and leading his men, the next, we were told he was dead.

It was impossible to believe. How could he have been killed so easily, so quickly, so pointlessly? A man like Haldane should have gone down in a blaze of glory, taking out a hundred of the enemy. Instead, his body was simply removed, wrapped in a blanket his father might have made, and his men had to summon the courage to go on without him.

The deaths were hard on the men's moral, but even worse is the dehumanization. The Japanese soldiers weren't men, could not be viewed as men. They were a vile enemy, one which had to be stopped at any cost. And considering the cost of stopping them, how could any other view be taken?

Today, our culture has such a fascination with Japan. We have sushi places all over the place, Manga takes up more room on the shelves than Marvel and DC comics, and Anime are considered better kids shows than most of what North America produces. It's so hard to reconcile that love with the hatred that these soldiers, now grandparents, held for the same people.

I am horrified by the truths presented to me every time I watch an episode of this series, and yet I am grateful to be shown these horrors, to have the opportunity of appreciating what this war was like.

The Pacific - Part 6: Peleliu Airfield

As I continue to watch the Pacific, I find the value of having a gravestone and knowing where it lies all the more valuable. Over time, places of burial are lost, but that is different from having never existed in the first place. The tombs of unknown soldiers just can't make up for the number of bodies never recovered or returned.

I'm also amazed at how little we can comprehend while watching. Oh, sure, I'm always terrified about who's going to get shot and who's going to die, but what kind of terror is that compared to what these men must have gone through while running across an open space like an airfield while getting shot at. Besides, I'm witnessing actions that I know did actually take place, but performed by actors (talented ones, but still actors), and only in an hour. Sure, they can convey to me the fear, the tension, the thirst, but I can't feel it. And in an hour, I am still in my living room, comfortable and safe, while they were sleeping on rocks, being bombed, for months.

I am sad, though, that it appears that Leckie (James Badge Dale)'s story seems to be coming to a close. He was injured running back across the air field (a crazy and incredible feat), trying to get a doctor for a fallen comrade. Now he and that friend are on the boat home. Much as I credit the authenticity of the series in that it was unlikely that any man would fight in all the battles of interest in the Pacific, I had come to favour him very much and will be sad that he receives so little focus.

But what is that sadness compared to how I feel about what the real Robert Leckie lived through.

The Pacific - Part 5: Peleliu Landing

It's been over 65 years since the events we are watching took place, yet the men are still so recognizable. Then, they were brothers, sons, husbands and fathers. Now, those who are left, those whom I knew, all were grandfathers. Yet, to see them portrayed by these young men, these men who are no different from those we work with, laugh with every day, it makes the horrors that much more potent.

The message throughout this episode was that the soldiers who had experienced the Hell of war could not tell anyone who had not been through it what it was like. John Basilone (Jon Seda) had no details to give to his brother, or to any of his fans who were about to leave for the war. Even when Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) finally joined his best friend, Sid Phillips (Ashton Holmes) on the islands, Sid couldn't explain what Eugene was about to face.

He told him that, when the soldiers were in Australia, he had slept with a woman. And that was one side of the specter. On the other side, far, far down the line, as far as you could go, that was what it was like.

And then we got to watch another offensive, meant to illustrate this point. How any man ever could have the courage to throw himself on a beach and crawl or run towards machine guns, I will never understand. The utter luck of the entire thing - if you are on the right, you live, if you are slightly to the left, you die - is unbelievable. Only God or the Fates or some other supernatural being looking out for you could cause you to live, for no choice that you consciously make can make a difference.

No wonder these men could not tell us what that Hell was like - how could we understand without having survived it ourselves. How could we possibly understand.

The Pacific - Part 4: Gloucester/Pavuvu/Banika

The Pacific is a tour of all the horrors the soldiers suffered while fighting in the Pacific during World War Two. Whether on the battlefield or during a rest period, the men were never free from the constant strains of war.

In Part 1, the men took leave of their loved ones, and set off to kill hundreds of men who, in many ways, were not so very different from themselves. Part 2 saw more fighting, with constant air attacks to keep them from peaceful sleep. Basilone (Jon Seda) distinguished himself by taking crazy risks, only to discover that his best friend had been killed by some stray bullet. Though Part 3 seemed to indicate a chance for rest, as the boys were posted briefly in Melbourne, Leckie (James Badge Dale) suffered a different kind of heartache, when the Aussie lass he fell in love with broke things off because she feared he would die and never come back to her.

Part 4 brought us disease and depression.

Sitting in the rain, waiting for a fight that never seemed to come, men fell victims to that constant strain. Some tried deserting, others simply committed suicide. And all the while, the rain kept falling, and then wet, bedraggled men became more and more exhausted.

If that wasn't enough, disease also ran through the camp. When Leckie contracted a urinary problem linked to the fact that he was always wet, he was finally sent to a military hospital to get dry and get better. Lacking rooms, the hospital gave him a bed in the mental ward, where he saw what happened to his fellow soldiers after their minds had snapped.

Leckie got better, and insisted on going back to join his company. He refused to give into the stain, he determined to be stronger than it all, but that did not mean he wasn't aware of the horrors.

As I continue to watch the series, I am amazed that any of the men who fought in either world war cam home to us sane. I hope you will take a moment of silence with me to remember all those who fought in these wars. On April 9th, in Canada, we remembered all our veterans from the First World War, the last of whom died in February. April 9-14, 1917, Canada and Newfoundland fought at Vimy Ridge for the freedom of us all.

The Pacific - Part 3: Melbourne

After two episodes fighting in the dark in the Pacific, the Marines moved to a much happier and beautiful climate, but that did not mean that their emotional situation improved much. The stresses of every day life are only made worse by being at war.

John Basilone (Jon Seda) was granted the medal he was put up for, while Bob Leckie (James Badge Dale) met an attractive Aussie girl, Stella. The experience wasn't what either expected, and certainly did not end as they had hoped.

Although Basilone started the episode as a normal soldier, in the company of his friend, J.P. (Joshua Biton), drinking himself into a stupor to the memory of their friend Manny, he could not stay there. When he was awarded the Medal of Honour, suddenly he became a role model. Any mischief he got into echoed loudly, any trouble was far worse. His new duties of being an example became more important that those he had had in the field. And to make matters worse, he also got the special honour of using his fame to go home and sell war bonds.

He had to leave behind the men he had come to know, leave behind J.P., and fly back to the USA where he would be safe to make money for the army. An important task to be sure, but for a man of action like John Basilone, the honour could only be taken as a demotion of sorts.

Leckie had it worse. Although his romance with Stella started hot and heavy, with her coming to his bedroom the first night, it could not last. Through him, we saw the pain of the folks left behind, those waiting to hear the news, to cry tears over men whose bodies might never be recovered. And Stella's family suffered the same. They were losing friends in Europe, while Bob was staying with them. And when Bob left, they would pray for him too.

But that was the problem, would Bob come home? The likelihood was not great, and Stella, claiming she could not put her mother through the pain, broke off the relationship. Imagine being dumped because you might die. Well, let's just say that your will to live, and therefore the likelihood you would end up dead, decrease and increase proportionately.

And then Bob, having got into a fight with a higher ranking officer, ended up also being separated from the men he fought with up until then.

So, although they did not lose any more friends through the course of this episode, they did end up getting spread out and getting hurt all the same

The Pacific - Part 2: Basilone

The episodes start with a quick historical into, an explanation of what was going on at the time, what the military's plans were and what the soldiers were experiencing in relation to those plans. And then there are a few comments made by the veterans whose experiences the story is based on. It is an unforgettable reminder that what we are about to watch really happened; it is not fiction.

I don't think, if it was fiction, I would want to watch. It's too horrible. Fighting at night, in the dark, unable to see who you are shooting at or where they are coming from, running back and forth trying to keep all defenses strong. In some ways, it is more stressful to watch. All we can do is observe as our heroes take risks, fight men attacking them in the forest, and avoid getting shot by stray bullets without knowing that they are even coming. At least they had the luxury of having survival instincts take over, of not having the time to actually consider what was happening to them.

It is only the next day, when they are able to stop, to assess the situation, when the horror of what they went through sets in. First, a man realizes that he is still alive. It might only be for the moment, but at this moment, he is still alive, and that is the first step. Then comes the realization that someone you know is not, or is missing, and might not be alive. Can you find them? Will you ever see them again? And finally, what is the next step? Are we fighting again; where do we go next?

John Basilon (Jon Seda) survived the fight. He risked his life multiple times - to get more ammunition, to clear the line of fire, to save his fellow soldiers from attacks. At one point, after firing his machine gun for some time in one spot, picked it up with very little defense from its burning heat to move it to a better location. He did not realize he had given himself 3rd degree burns until the next day, when he was more concerned with the search for his lost best friend. Manny (Jon Bernthal), that friend, did not survive.

There was something almost disgusting in finding out Basilone was going to be put up for a medal for his accomplishments that night. What was a medal compared to his lost friend or his burnt arm?

Yet, the episode ended on an upbeat. Our boys were going back to America, back to their homes, but that wasn't what mattered. Back home, people knew about them. The papers had published tons of stories about their accomplishments and they were considered heroes. And, although that cannot take back everything they went through, at least their people know that they went through something and are grateful to them for it.

The Pacific - Pilot, Part 1: Guadalcanal/Leckie

The World Wars were such a long time ago that the first is hardly in living memory anymore, and the second won't be for much longer. Yet, through the multitude of movies and televisions shows made about those historic periods, we do still manage to remember a little longer.

HBO's The Pacific focuses on the war between the Japanese and the Americans during World War II. We will follow the course of a few men as they find themselves on jungle islands, fighting against an enemy. Almost immediately, we can tell that Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale) is a little different. He's educated, and he's a writer; his perspective will be different from his fellow soldiers.

Those differences were made apparent through the presentation of Leckie's inability to dehumanize his enemy, which was two-fold, the first part brilliant, the second standard. After a horrid night battle, where the Americans shot at an oncoming enemy, one for all I could tell who could have been Japanese or American, several more Japanese soldiers appeared. Most were shot down immediately, but one was not. The Americans started playing with him, like a cat with a mouse, shooting to either side of him, forcing him to run back and forth, than hitting him in the shoulder and leg. Leckie, ignoring all his comrades in arms, took careful aim and killed the man, to the complaints of his friends.

This demonstration of his compassion, his refusal to give into the mob mentality that allows his comrades to face the horrors before them, was subtle and beautiful (I mean beautiful in a purely artistic sense, of course). When this scene was followed by Leckie opening up an enemy soldier's backpack to find a photo of the man and his wife, as well as a cloth doll likely belonging to his daughter, I could not help but roll my eyes. We had already got the picture that Leckie had not forgotten that the people he was killing were men too.

As for the battles, I have never felt such fear while watching a war movie or show before. The idea of tromping through forest, never knowing if or when an enemy might appear, is terrifying. Worse were the night scenes. It is no wonder that friendly fire took down a man who had left the group to take a piss; the soldiers were on edge, shooting before anyone else had the opportunity.

The above mentioned night battle was equally disturbing, though it made the carnage more easy to understand. It is easy to cut down men when it is too dark to tell what they are.

The Pacific promises to be a powerful and emotional depiction of the theatre of war in the Pacific in World War II, and while, like any war film, it may be hard to stomach the carnage and violence based in reality, it certainly will be worth it.