The Pacific

[Xjmt]

THE PACIFIC is the HBO production by Tom Hanks that follows his 'war in Europe' mini-series. It's now out on DVD and surprisingly both engrossing and at times boring. The first two eps are concerned with the attempt to take back Guadalcanal and are almost entirely night fighting war scenes. After a bit of lead-in of course. The end results of the battle scenes are horrific when shown a graphical depiction of how many fighters of both sides lie dead the next morning as the sun rises.

The third episode is the transfer of the now combat veterans to Australia for some much needed R ' R. This is the first they learn of just how closely newspapers around the world were focusing on the battle. It seems everyone now knew the names Guadacanal and 1st Marine Division and considered the members of the 1st to be heroes.

But so did the girls of Australia who seemed to generously award their own personal combat decorations to the now battle scarred veterens of the 1st. Whoops, I mean