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The Pacific – Leckie can’t catch a break

You would think finding a Japanese officer’s side arm would cheer up a guy’s mood. Hell, even before his bastard of a Lieutenant stole it, it hadn’t done much to help.

Pvt. Rober Leckie just can’t win for losing. His trip to Australia didn’t exactly end well, and now he is paying the price for his incredibly poor reaction to getting dumped. I can only  imagine what Vera is thinking back in the States, reading his letters each week.

You would think finding a Japanese officer’s side arm would cheer up a guy’s mood. Hell, even before his bastard of a Lieutenant stole it, it hadn’t done much to help. Between that whole load of crap and his health problems, he is having a rough go of it. Even his time in the hospital, with the Coke and the french fries, made things worse. The boy has gone through hell and back, and his journey is nowhere near over.

I’ve talked each week about how we shouldn’t be comparing The Pacific to its precursor, Band of Brothers, and with pretty good reason. But now that I think we’re picking up steam, I have much less of a problem doing so. As Keith mentioned a couple weeks back, what we’re seeing now is much less about the characters than BoB, but, to his point, Stephen Ambrose’s book about Easy Company was more about the men, where our look at the PTO concentrates more on the experiences of the men.

Much more striking, however, is the difference in tone. Even in the darkest moments of Brothers (“The Breaking Point,” in case you were wondering), there was always a feeling of hope, mostly due to the camaraderie that was a focal point of that story. Leckie is, in contrast, very much alone. First dumped by his lass, then out of his company, and eventually to a hospital on a whole other island.

Leckie may be alone in the dark, but he is not the only one there. The Marines in the hospital were the worst off, but the guys still on the line aren’t much better. Considering we’re not even to the half-way point, I’m sure things are only going to get worse for our leathernecks.

Notes & Quotes:

  • Not going to lie to you … the scenes with the Marines singing Christmas Carols choked me up just a bit.
  • The night scenes where the Japanese army appears out of nowhere in the lightning continue to freak me out.
  • Also for the record, the bit with the Marine choking out his near dead enemy was much more disturbing to me than the “target practice” scene from the opener.
  • I totally missed Nathan Corddry’s name in the credits, but I couldn’t miss his voice in that first scene.
  • “I don’t know what it means, and I don’t care.”

Photo Credit: HBO

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2 Responses to “The Pacific – Leckie can’t catch a break”

April 8, 2010 at 8:23 AM

I don’t really get that “I’m going to feel like a pussy at the end of watching this show” vibe Tom Hanks talked about on the Colbert Report.

Maybe it’s coming but at the moment I have more respect for the cast of Survivor. So he got dumped. Boo hoo. So he got an infection… big whoop.

I’m also a bit disappointed that you didn’t mention the other soldiers getting crazy. No mention of the suicide? You say this show focuses more on the curcumstances, the effects war has on the people and then you only talk about the main character’s itty bitty problems while others clearly suffer more from the war than he does.

I mean it’s a shame really that after BoB the creators simply have to focus on the characters (dammit) and in the end deliver a mixed bag of everything.

I mean you DID notice that the guy who choked the japanese Soldier was the same one as the person who later ended up in the psych ward with Leckie, right?

May 25, 2010 at 8:33 AM

Respect to the real people of the Pacific: Basilone, Sledge and Leckie and all the army navy and airforce: But the pacific was the biggest violent american cliche soap opera ( what has sex scenes got to do with it ) that ive ever seen, i honestly waited for my has dog died and it came up in episode 9 now am waiting for the campin on the blue ridge mountains of virginia and fishing with me pa, when basilone got shot i was made up then felt guilty thinking of the real guy, they made him out to be a superman without the nickers over his combats, Leckie was a good character then went dull, sledge was made out like the captains gay lover or a ass licker, I mean no way did they stop in front of sledge as he cried and saluted just for him.. I really feel for the real people of the pacfic who may be watching from above thinking wannabe soldiers Speilberg and hanks has disrespected their memory in this load of crap

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