The Pacific...
I just watched Episode 3 of HBO's "The Pacific", which was intended to be a companion piece to the series "Band of Brothers" based on the inspiring story of a group of soldiers in the 101st Airborne by Stephen Ambrose. The book was wonderful and every time I see that a TV channel is showing re-runs of the series, I find myself watching it again. Four of my uncles fought in WWII; my dad's brother was in the Navy and was in the D-Day invasion when he was only sixteen or seventeen. My mother's three brothers were in the Army; one fought in the Pacific, and two fought in Europe. Her brother, Donald, suffered injuries including frozen feet in the Battle of the Bulge, but her brother Peter lost his life there. In 2008, Ken and I visited his grave in Luxembourg.
I was hoping that "The Pacific" would be as moving as "Band of Brothers" but so far it is disappointing. HBO cobbled together the memoirs of a few soldiers, as I understand it. So, the series lacks the unified point of view that "Band" had. Tonight's episode took place in Melbourne, Australia. One of the Marines spent an idyllic leave with the family of a gorgeous woman who climbed into bed with him. The sex scene was as artfully photographed as it is in any Hollywood romantic comedy. Well, I thought, give me a re-run of "Band of Brothers" any day.
Non-fiction books about war are so compelling that there are few authors who can manage to write war fiction that can teach or inspire. Two notable exceptions are "Tales of the South Pacific" by James Michener and "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller. "Catch-22" was made into a great film and James Michener's book was the starting point for the great Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific". I will give HBO's "The Pacific" one more chance, but if another episode is as disappointing as tonight's was, I'll just re-read Michner, Heller, and Ambrose.
I loved Six Armies in Normandy by John Keegan, although I read it years ago, so don't quiz me!
ReplyDeleteI love "blond justice"--it sounds like you're a superhero, maybe in spandex with a cape, flanked by your canine sidekicks?
My husband is a major fan of 'Band of Brothers'. As for me, the images that came home to us from Vietnam in the late sixties were so indelibly and painfully seared on my visual memory that I still find 'good' (ie, true to life) war movies really hard to see... so I'm not a big consumer of war stories, either literary or cinematic, but I gotta say I absolutely LOVED 'The Things They Carried' by Tim O'Brien, a collection of (sometimes harrowing) short stories about soldiers serving in our war in Vietnam. I thought it was a fantastic book, and it has really stayed with me...
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