I will admit it – I love television. Give me a 24-hour marathon of “Homicide Life on the Street,” or a newer iteration, and I am fixated. Better yet, lock me in a room with “Dirty Dancing” and “Top Gun” and I could not be happier. These are my guilty pleasures.
I think I may add HBO’s, “The Pacific” to the shortlist. Sunday was the first of 10 installments. It focused on the path to and arrival at Guadalcanal. WOW. I was lucky to have worked the 50th anniversary commemoration of the campaign. I spent two weeks on the island reliving the lengthy and lethal struggle. (The fighting positions are still visible.)
Watch this show! Of course it is not possible to capture every vignette, but the creators do a very good job portraying key events. As one would expect with HBO, the cinematography is lush and enticing. The show informs, entertains, captivates, shocks, surprises, sobers, (add your verb here). No tear-jerkers yet, but you can see that it may take a most welcome emotional toll.
They call this a miniseries. This first episode was as strong as its ensemble cast of striking, though imperfect, boys (and men – Chesty Puller is larger than life). You know they are going to detail John Basilone’s famed action on the island for which he received the Medal of Honor and chronicle his personal tale. But you want to know about the other boys going to war.
This is when Marines were Marines and not the Army Auxiliary they slowly became with war’s end. Yeah, we may hound Corps Commandant James T. “Not in My Corps” Conway, but given his push to get the boys out of Iraq and his interest in sea basing (we’ll cover that separately) it seems he wants to move the Gun Club generally to what it appears we will witness in “The Pacific.” (I believe they may refer to those as core competencies.)
Don’t have HBO? Get it. Well, I don’t have HBO either, but I have a friend with it plus a working television. Game on! Sundays 9 -10 pm.
This is not an advertisement for HBO or the Marine Corps – Just watch “The Pacific.” Make it your guilty pleasure. I think I will.
If you saw it or have thoughts on it, please comment. I am very excited about this series, as you can tell.