By Dave Shiflett (Bloomberg) – You know you’re watching an intense war film when being machine-gunned is an act of mercy, as it is for many Japanese soldiers in “The Pacific,” a 10-part HBO miniseries produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman. Better a bullet than to roast to death, which is the alternative after U.S. troops open up with flamethrowers and create screaming human torches, as seen several times during the immensely powerful series, which debuts March 14 at 9 p.m. New York time. “The Pacific” follows the lives of three Marines - Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda)— who served during World War II. The film is partly based on Leckie’s “Helmet for My Pillow” and Sledge’s “With the Old Breed.” The opener introduces Leckie, Basilone and Sledge, who were motivated by Pearl Harbor to join up for what some hoped would be a year-long war. Everyone seems to smoke, including Sledge’s father, a doctor who chomps on a pipe as he monitors his son’s heart murmur, which keeps Sledge out of the war initially, though he signs up and hits the beaches a few episodes in. These were pre-hug times, with fathers and sons parting ways with handshakes, and there’s no question where the Almighty stands. One officer ends a pep talk by proclaiming the Americans will “sail across God’s vast ocean where we will meet our enemy and kill them all.” You don’t have to wait long for combat. While the Marine landing at Guadalcanal was unopposed, the Japanese were waiting in the jungles for the sun to go down. These were the days before the routine use of night-vision equipment yet flares, tracer bullets and muzzle fire illuminate a ferocious slaughter. The sun rises on a vast plain of bodies -- proof the Japanese believed dying in combat was a sacred honor. Comparisons to “Band Of Brothers,” the 2001 Hanks/Spielberg/Goetzman series set in the European theater, are inevitable. “The Pacific,” for my money, is more gripping, perhaps because much of the combat is set in the jungle, where there seems to be a sniper behind every palm tree, and because the degree of slaughter is astounding. In some combat sequences the body count makes a Schwarzenegger film look like a gathering of Quakers. In one scene, piles of Japanese corpses have to be pulled down to provide a clear field of fire. Filmed mostly in Australia, the series also focuses on other horrors of war: bowel disorders, running sores, low rations (with a bloody Japanese skull decorating one mess area), and mental strain and collapse, a theme that picks up steam as the series moves on. There are a few love angles – Leckie hooks up with a comely Australian woman (Claire Van Der Boom) and there’s an ill-fated romance late in the series – while Basilone, who has been awarded the Medal of Honor, goes home for a time to sell war bonds. His reception at one rally illustrates the jarring disconnect between a soldier’s grim experiences and the gung-ho attitude of the folks back home. The grimness depicted in the battle scenes never lets up as the action shifts to Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Some of the footage is almost unbearable to watch. Even wounded soldiers are raked with gunfire as litter bearers try to carry them out of harm’s way. It is difficult to imagine a more intense viewing experience. The mental toll of war seems harshest on Sledge, a mild-mannered southerner who was warned in the opener by his father, who treated veterans of World War I, of what might lie ahead. Soldiers often “had their souls torn out” he warns, and when Sledge finally comes marching home he is a deeply haunted man. Many films claim to be epic. This series, which airs Sunday nights through May 16, delivers. (
