The Pacific is the companion piece to Band of Brothers, following the US Marines' campaign against Japan in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the series is based on the memoirs of two Marines: Robert Leckie and Eugene Sledge, and the experiences of John Basilone.
Unlike the European Theater depicted in Band of Brothers, the Pacific War was fought in conditions of unimaginable horror. The jungle heat, tropical diseases, and a enemy that refused to surrender created a different kind of warfare, more intimate and savage. The series captures this with unflinching honesty, showing the physical and psychological toll of combat.
James Badge Dale as Robert Leckie provides the intellectual perspective, a young man who loves literature and finds himself in circumstances that defy his understanding. Joe Mazzello as Eugene Sledge charts the most devastating arc, a sensitive young man whose experiences in the Pacific transform him into someone haunted by what he has done and seen. Jon Seda as John Basilone, the Medal of Honor recipient who returns to combat, represents the warrior ideal tested by reality.
The battle sequences are extraordinary. Peleliu is depicted as a descent into hell, with coral that shrapnel turns into deadly projectiles and a Japanese enemy that fights from bunkers that must be destroyed one by one. The series does not flinch from the aftermath of battle: the wounded, the dead, and the psychological wounds that never heal.
The Pacific is essential viewing. It is a companion to Band of Brothers that shows a different, more brutal side of World War II, and it honors the men who fought in a theater that is often overlooked.