The Pacific – Sledge walks through hell and back

The battle for Peleliu (ironically known as Operation Stalemate II), and whatever strategic value it holds, is finally complete. Unfortunately, Pvt. Eugene Sledge and the rest of his unit seem to take the hardest hit in its last days. This week’s episode of the Pacific focuses almost completely on our newer participant in the war, and the completion of what seems to be the biggest battle we’ve seen yet.

I liked the bit where the grunts barely recognized the ground they sacrificed so much to get, but minimizing it in their eyes serves a bit to minimize it in ours. That run across the airfield last week was as harrowing as anything I’d seen on film, until this week, that is. The stretcher-bearer sequence was almost too hard to watch. These guys ran through hell again, and again, and again. Every episode I watch of this series explains President Truman’s rationale more and more.

Chuckler lives(!), but other than that, no mention of that unit of Marines that we followed so closely in the beginning of the series. I know we’ve not seen the last of Leckie, but leaving him completely for an episode seems odd. He, and his group, have been some of the few character’s I’ve liked in the whole series.

Did the speaker at the War Bonds rally call Basilone both a soldier and a Marine? How did that slip by the military advisors? I’m not sure I understand what exactly he is doing (not just physically, but emotionally). I get that fund raising isn’t the place for a real warrior, but I think I missed the point of the two dropped in scenes, especially the driving range. Was there some great piece of insight that completely flew over my head?

Bad-ass extraordinaire Gunny almost lost it when he was chewing everyone out, and couldn’t keep it together when Hillbilly got hit. It had to be tough for his men, who seemed to hold him in high regard, just lose the will to be the hard ass that he was before.

I had to look up both of the officers that were WIA/KIA in this episode. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it is incredibly difficult to tell these men apart in the heat of battle (Or, even off of the line, for that matter). Between what happened with the Gunny and seeing the Marines stand and salute when Haldane was carried to the rear, I’m not sure how these Marines continued on without cracking.

Unless, of course, we’re talking about Snafu, whom I doubt was ever not cracked in some way. The scene with him and Sledge arguing started weird (if not plain disgusting), and somehow managed to get worse. On one hand, it seems as if he was just protecting Sledge’s innocence, but on the other, like he was screwing with the junior man. I wonder about Snafu’s chances of making it back to the States (more so, how true the character is to real life, which I think I’ll find in Sledge’s autobiography).

I have talked before about my frustrations with the series, especially how it compares to its predecessor. Don’t let that fool you that I don’t think there is quite a bit to like about the Pacific, from the performances (Joe Mazzello as Sledge, in particular), the production values, heck, the whole scope of the story that they have tried to tell. I just wish there was more to the story. We just spent three episodes on Peleliu, and I don’t know why. The battle for the island apparently ended (rather abruptly), but if they hadn’t jumped on a boat at the end, even that would have been difficult to follow.

(A quick aside. It should be noted that the press screeners that we were sent here at CliqueClack, and that I use to review each episode, don’t include the Prologue narrated by Tom Hanks. I’m curious if those sequences were planned and just not ready for the DVDs, or if they were added due to similar concerns in test screenings.)

Clacked by Ivey West
on Apr 25, 2010 @ 23:38 EST5EDT