The Pacific

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The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:37 am

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Messiah
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Spartacus is weak, and Caprica disappointing. The Pacific will redeem my faith in televised programming.
"All I was trying to do was get people to want to make their own new ring of light so that it is forever a name with meaning and substance ...." - BlackDove the Beneficent

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:55 am

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Isileth
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Yes im really looking forward to this. I am a huge fan of Band of Brothers.

Have the special box set plus the book (As well as all of Stephen Ambrose's other books which are amazing reads if you have even the slightest interest in WW2). And by the looks of it his son is working as a consultant on this one so hopefully should be excellent as well.

Hopefully it wont be to long before it comes out over here.


On a side note ive not heard of Spartacus before. I was again a huge fan of Rome, real shame they cancelled that (Specially as it was only due to it being such an expensive show not low ratings). Is it anything like that?

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:39 pm

Wolfman
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You are disappointed by Caprica, Mess? I have been wanting to watch it, but haven't gotten around to it. I loved Battlestar, my girlfriend got me into it over the summer and I watched from start to finish, it's one of my favs. I wasn't expecting much out of it though, is it not even interesting?
Wolfman

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 12:43 pm

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Isileth
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Caprica is no BSG, im still watching and hoping it will pick up though. Its certainly getting better as it took a while for them to develop the chars and start pushing some more storylines. But we will see.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:46 pm

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Rock-n-Roll
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I'm really looking forward to this show, though I have a feeling it might be even more gut wrenching than BoB was.

I have a bit more of a connection to the Pacific war as my Grandfather was a marine there.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 3:52 pm

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M.Steiner
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hmm a HBO show too, interesting. So far I've seen 3 shows which were broadcast on HBO; The Wire, The Sopranos & Six Feet Under. All 3 were spectacular and I highly recommend them for those of you who haven't seen em, they're amongst my favourite tv shows along with Lost & BSG.

I've had the Band of Brothers Blu-ray boxset on my wishlist for a while now as well but never seem to get around to buying it, I will do though!. I haven't actually seen BoB but since I've loved every other HBO show (above) I've seen I thought I'd buy that too at some point since it also sounded great and Spielberg/Hanks behind it. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for "The Pacific" to air over here, I'll have to make sure I've seen BoB before it does.


(I'm an episode behind with Caprica atm but I have it recorded on the Skybox ready to watch, definitely no BSG unfortunately (so far anyway) and feels quite different to it as well but I'm not giving up on it just yet. Like Isileth says it has been getting better and it was quite slow to get the story moving to begin with which made it hard to get into for the first ep & a half as well. Hoping it will pick up too so will continue to watch :))
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 5:18 pm

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BlackDove
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Not another World War 2 wankfest where we respectfully deal with the losers whilst portraying them as inhuman monsters during the commemoration of the winners. I get it, the "bad guys" lost and the "good guys" were brave and the epitome of all that is good with mankind.

Don't we have enough of this shit already.

Guess not.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 5:56 pm

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Isileth
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Actually if its anything like Band of Brothers it will be nothing like that BD.

And again I recommend all the books by Ambrose, they give an amazingly real view of the war because it is all just retelling of stories straight from veterans or letters and diaries. From stories of D-Day where some soldiers got to an embankment at the end of the beach and stopped to have a picnic while everyone else was fighting and those that fell asleep half way up while still being attacked to the more graphic tales of how they saw their friends die. Plus they deal extremely well with how they saw the enemy and how they treated each other.

Nice to get away from the American bravado of we won the war on our own as a shining beacon of light against an army of evil. Which is especially nice when its actually following American soldiers. (Although his books do deal with the Russians and British forces as well).

Band of Brothers is definitely the best book of the lot though especially if your a fan of the TV series because you can see just how little was changed in it. As a note on how much they tried to keep it real they even picked the actors based on who looked the most like the actual soldiers. Which is especially clear whenever it cuts to one of them talking about the war as old men. You can instantly recognise who each one is even with 50-60 years on top of being someone else.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:08 pm

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BlackDove
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Band of Brothers was one of the things I described, so yeah, it'll be exactly like that if it's like Band of Brothers.

Band of Brothers just kept that stuff going on in the background, while the foreground was BRO I LOVE YOU, BRO I HATE YOU, BRO I LOVE YOU, LET'S WORK IT OUT BRO, DON'T TASE ME BRO, YOU GOT MY BACK BRO, I GOT YOUR BACK BRO and the other social messages and general intonations regarding people, and war, and people in war, and killing, and blah, and blah blah, and blah blah blah.

It's just like... can we do something else.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:21 pm

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Messiah
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/me makes a note not to send BD the Band of Brothers collection for Christmas.
"All I was trying to do was get people to want to make their own new ring of light so that it is forever a name with meaning and substance ...." - BlackDove the Beneficent

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:07 pm

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BlackDove
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WOOF WOOF

GROWWWWWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:44 pm

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Isileth
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Well as I said, if you read the book you will see the events that are shown in the TV series are actual events that happened. As are the way people handled them. Infact in a lot of cases they use the exact words if they are remembered/recorded.

Where it does have the clich11s of American war movies is where they actually happened. I would rather we not try and hide those just because they feel overdone. The problem is when they are added and accentuated as in 98% of other war films.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:48 pm

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BlackDove
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Yeah, because this dude is whom I go to when I want the historical truth about what happened in a place he was never at.

Other than the accusations of plagiarism and inaccuracies to suit a populist writing style (ie horseshit you sell to the masses: "LOOK AT ALL THAT GRIPPING STORYLINE OF DRAMA"), even if we do assume all of his historical facts were correct to the letter, he's still only a second hand source (ideally - but probably a third or a fourth), and therefore not worthy of my time.

I do appreciate the offer though, just simply "no thanks" I guess would be the polite answer.

Also, we should probably get back to the topic of the thread, which I believe is "Man, is "The Pacific" exploitation of history going to suck some major ass".

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:57 am

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Stracius
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Since when was anything on T.V. ever based on reality? I mean, we all know that, right guys? Guys?
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Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:48 am

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Futile Resistance
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Stracius wrote:Since when was anything on T.V. ever based on reality? I mean, we all know that, right guys? Guys?
Wait wait. You mean Jack Bauer isn't real?! He's my role model :shaking:

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:43 pm

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M.Steiner
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UK folk - http://creative.sky.com/thepacific/. Just saw this advertised on Sky1 during 24, airing this Easter.

We don't pay for the Sky movie channels so I'll have to wait until it eventually appears on another channel. :)
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:50 am

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Isileth
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I have it through Virgin but that does mean I miss out on HD sadly :(

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:26 am

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SSX-Killjoy
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Stracius wrote:Since when was anything on T.V. ever based on reality? I mean, we all know that, right guys? Guys?
You don't really think that the people on Gilligan's Island.....
Oh, those poor people...
Bonus points if you know the movie reference.. ;)
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Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:06 pm

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Messiah
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Galaxy Quest
"All I was trying to do was get people to want to make their own new ring of light so that it is forever a name with meaning and substance ...." - BlackDove the Beneficent

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 5:59 pm

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Anubis
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Messiah wrote:Galaxy Quest
Damnit. I KNEW that was familiar. I love Galaxy Quest too :(
"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Forever an eXile and proud of it!

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 5:51 am

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Messiah
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BlackDove wrote:Also, we should probably get back to the topic of the thread, which I believe is "Man, is "The Pacific" exploitation of history going to suck some major ass".
That is a question of perspective.

Will it be well written? Well told? Delivered well?

Band of Brothers was all of the above, and The Pacific is promising to be more of the same.

As entertainment, I think it will be tremendous. It will be emotional and moving for those who are connected to the story, personally and nationally.

Don't try to tell me it is not worth your time because it is not properly sourced. If you can immerse yourself in anime, you can give historical fiction a chance as well.
"All I was trying to do was get people to want to make their own new ring of light so that it is forever a name with meaning and substance ...." - BlackDove the Beneficent

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:48 pm

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BlackDove
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Sourcing only matters when you're trying to convey or pass off historical fact, which anime doesn't do.

But beyond that, even if we know it's a crock of shit, most of it anyway, you're right, you can have good direction, editing, scripting and acting all centered around a bullshit message (moral or otherwise).

Does that make it worth it?

I don't think so.

I can see your point of disagreement, after all, I've watched tons of shit because it was entertaining (masterfully adapted for the screen, which no contest Spielberg does extremely well, as Band of Brothers was), still do, and probably will in the future.

But this one is iterative. It's a matter of "how much can you stand to watch the same shit over and over again?"

I just can't.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 11:08 pm

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BlackDove
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So, the first episode aired.

How was it?

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:51 am

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Isileth
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Doesn't come out over here till Easter so no spoilers. I don't want to know who wins.

Re: The Pacific

PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:49 pm

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Anubis
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Isileth wrote:Doesn't come out over here till Easter so no spoilers. I don't want to know who wins.
Spoilers are fine as long as people use the spoiler tags ;)
"Perhaps this is what I have always wished for since that day. The loss and destruction of all. That's right, one must destroy before creating. In that case, if my conscience becomes a hindrance to me, then I will simply erase it. I have no other choice but to move forward....therefore!" - Lelouch vi Britannia/Zero, Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch

Forever an eXile and proud of it!

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