"As a work reflecting World War II, 'The Pacific War' faces great challenges, not only with film masterpieces such as 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Letters from Iwo Jima', but also excellent miniseries such as 'Band of Brothers', the war's The theme is presented in front of the audience in all aspects, which not only requires the crew to break through and innovate, but also requires the crew to innovate on the basis of the original.
'War in the Pacific' did it.
The miniseries focuses on three characters, namely Robert Leach, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone. The series can be divided into two parts. The first five episodes, with Robert Letch as the narrator, reflect the direct impact of war wounds on soldiers, from physical injuries to human brokenness, faltering; the last five episodes, by Eugene Sledge shoulders the responsibility of the main line, reflecting the profound impact of the continuous fighting on the battlefield on everyone involved - not only friendly forces, but also enemy forces; not only on the battlefield, but also in all aspects of life.
In addition, John Basilone, a well-known war hero in the United States, is interspersed with his story threads, which focus on reflecting the strong contrast between life and death, especially the indifference and cruelty of the main battlefield and the American mainland. The singing and dancing are happening at the same time, which is even more sighing and sighing.
The real soul of the 'Pacific War' was Eugene Sledge. In the first five episodes of the story, Robert's loss of soul and displacement laid the foundation of the story, presenting a devastated and cruel battlefield; John intertwined the battlefield with the life in the rear, and linked the story in the first half of the story. The second half of the thinking is sublimated; in the end, all the burden falls on Eugene's shoulders, and it is up to him to complete the 'thinking'.
This is also the root cause of the uneven quality of episodes.
In the first half of the story, there are too many foreshadowing, too many clues, and the theme idea is always unclear, which not only causes the rhythm of the episode to be slightly chaotic, but also the reflection brought about by the war scene is intermittent, and it is impossible to really establish a connection with the audience. ; But in the second half, after all the clues were gathered on Eugene, the condensed ideological theme finally burst out with powerful energy:
What can a war bring? Live and die? Victory and defeat? Glory and shame
Eugene Sledge tells us it's much more than that.
Every time the hands are stained with blood, the fragments of the soul will lose a corner until they finally lose themselves and find no way to return; every time they witness the killing, the mind will become numb, the darkness and Cruelty is bursting to the extreme, and after losing trust, it gradually becomes a beast; every time it dances wildly on the edge of life and death, the past life will be further away, standing behind and witnessing everything with one's own eyes and empathy is ultimately inferior to the bloody battle in person. Experience, no one can understand what it feels like, unless you really stand on the battlefield, so you gradually isolate yourself forcibly from your previous life and become displaced.
The real cruelty of war lies in tearing the soul, destroying human nature, and cutting off their connection with family, friends, lover, and society. To move forward, only know to keep moving forward, except for fighting and killing, completely losing control over oneself.
This loneliness and pain is more terrifying than the war itself, more cruel than PTSD, and more bloody than life and death, because it divides society into countless pieces, which are difficult to be rounded.
In fact, this is the core idea of the entire work of 'Pacific War', Robert - Letch is so, John - Basilone is so, Eugene - Sledge is so, so are many other characters. But Renly Hall, the twenty-year-old actor, brought Eugene Sledge alive, vividly and truthfully, cruelly and grimly.
Every pain, every collision, every bloodshed, and even every step, you can see with your own eyes that the light in those eyes dimmed a little, as if the corner of the soul was torn apart again, without tearing your heart The cry of the split lungs, there is no crying and screaming, and there is no indifferent indifference, but the delicate emotions show the shock of the mountains and tsunamis, so that every audience can clearly feel the grandeur and vastness of the vicissitudes of life.
Before he realized it, tears had already filled his eyes, and the emotions in his heart were surging, ups and downs following Eugene's every move.
This powerful performance aura reawakened the excitement of the 'Pacific War'! Even enough to rank among the classics!
Why can the drama continue to rise in the follow-up story despite the controversy in the first half, and then become a classic? Objectively speaking, the overall frame structure of the drama plays a decisive role. After all, this is a group drama work. After the highlights of each link are combined, the overall quality is outstanding!
But none of this would be complete without Renly. As Tom Hanks said at the premiere, Renly is the soul of the 'Pacific War', he not only bears the weight of the story, but also the key to sublimation, failures and successes come from the efforts of the entire crew , but the classics belong to Renly. "
This review came from The Wall Street Journal's Kyle Smith, who didn't rush to write a review right away, but waited until the end of the episode. Anyway, for mini-series, DVD sales are the highlight, and normal playback doesn't explain much, so he can take his time.
Kyle gave "War in the Pacific" a high score of 95 points, which also made the media review of the show unbelievably surpass that of "Band of Brothers", although it was only a one-point advantage of 87 points, but For the controversial "Pacific War", it is really incredible.
Although this is just the words of the "Wall Street Journal", although most film critics still refuse to admit that Renly's reputation for "Pacific War" is picking up, but these are not important, the important thing is that the audience's reputation of "Pacific War" is real Starting to climb up from the ground, the most direct and obvious performance is undoubtedly the IMDB score.
This score was only 7.3 points in the trough period. For the ambitious HBO, it was a complete disaster. However, after the sixth episode was broadcast, with the gradual increase in the number of scorers, the score began to climb slowly. When the ninth episode was broadcast, the score had returned to 8:5!
8:5 is still a long way from the unattainable 9:5 of "Band of Brothers", but for the "Pacific War" that has experienced ups and downs, it is a news worthy of celebration. This score has put "War in the Pacific" into the top 100 of the TV Classics 250 list, rewriting the myth of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg's invincibility .
From 7:3 to 8:5, from the fourth episode to the ninth episode, the world has undergone tremendous changes, and the discussion thread of the Yahoo community has completely changed.
After the live broadcast of the ninth episode, William opened a post on the Yahoo community for the first time, and couldn't wait to post his views.
"When the young master gently poured the nameless woman into his arms, I suddenly couldn't help but collapse. I can't describe what the young master went through in words, but I really felt that deep down in his heart. The warmth that is about to disappear: gently, bitterly, softly, painfully, bloody, vicissitudes, blank, scarred, sticking the dying life to my chest. Until this moment, I Understand that the most cruel thing in war is not death, because after death, everything is over. What is truly terrifying is living, bearing the sacrifices of all comrades in arms, the disappearance of innocent lives, and the bloodshed of destroying the enemy. The world goes on living."
As he was typing, William suddenly collapsed and burst into tears, even though he didn't feel that way when he watched "Band of Brothers".
"Band of Brothers" can make people's blood boil or make people stumble in tears, but the success of that work is that it describes the brotherhood of fighting side by side, that emotion is enough to make every man crazy, but the audience's connection to a single character is very weak; however, the "Pacific War" is different, this is a more personal work, about Robert, about John, about Eugene, the torment they endured, reflected on every soldier, A silent protest was launched against the war.
In the "Pacific War", this close connection made William unable to extricate himself, and he was deeply indulged in the emotions of the characters. When he saw the light of the little tears in the corner of Eugene's eyes, it was as gentle as spring in March/ The wind, but it was covered up in the blink of an eye, and the pain and struggle between the eyebrows swallowed up all the sadness.
"The young master just sat there quietly, silently squatting on the spot, holding a corpse that had lost its temperature. At that moment, even time couldn't bear to make any sound. Jesus Christ, I love the young master, I love the 'Pacific Ocean' 'War' is a better work than 'Band of Brothers'. I swear, I'm not lying."
Thinker
When William read this post, his eyes swept away, and then he saw the familiar nickname, "Brando Fever", and he couldn't help but smile. It seemed that he was not the only person who felt this way.
"Ten points, absolutely ten points! Just relying on the scene of the young master today, 'Pacific War' is worth ten points!"
"Fuck Hanks and Spielberg! I just watched this show for Eugene!"
"I can't believe it, I can't believe it! Today's episode was really good, and the score for the entire series has taken another level! 'War in the Pacific' can finally be among the classics, and there is only one reason: Eugene Sledge. "
The last episode of the show is about to end, and people suddenly realize that, even if they don't want to admit it, even if it's unbelievable, even if it's hard to believe, the fact is, "Eugene Sledge", the name is blooming The dazzling light, almost alone, pulled the "Pacific War" back from the cliff and pushed it to the top!