The Pacific, Parts 2 and 3 are very different animals. While Part 2 follows the first installment pretty closely, and deals with some very fierce jungle combat, Part 3 finds our characters on leave in Australia and it’s this action-less episode that’s garnered significant criticism around the intarwebs. Now I feel like it’s my duty—nay, obligation—to level some pretty harsh criticism of my own at those who had a problem with Part 3, but I’ll try to be nice.
The Pacific is the newest venture from the Spielberg/Hanks team that brought us the Oscar-winning Saving Private Ryan and the Golden Globe-winning Band of Brothers mini-series. With a resume like that, expectations for the pair’s new mini-series were understandably through the roof and buzz surrounding their new production began, in earnest, a full four years ago.
The Pacific began airing last Sunday on HBO. It’s a ten-part mini-series which will air in installments until May 16th. Like Band of Brothers, The Pacific seems to be based around the actual stories of World War II veterans but instead of focusing the action around the European theatre of war our characters find themselves in, unsurprisingly, the Pacific. The American war with the Japanese.
The Gathering Storm (2002) and Into the Storm (2009) are the first and second parts of an HBO-produced made-for-television movie series on the life of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. While they’re two very separate movies, with entirely different casts, produced seven years apart I think a review of them, in contrast and comparison, is the best approach to take.
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