What I’m Watching: The Pacific

The Pacific: Season 1, Episode 5 “Peleliu Landing” (B+)

This miniseries is doing a good job of keeping its focus on the conflict abroad while checking in appropriately with its characters that are stateside. As his female friend suggests, Basilone seems to be coping well with his newfound fame and the need to be at home selling war bonds while the war is still raging overseas. In that same light, it’s interesting to see newly enlisted young men shipping out because the conflict is already underway, and it’s important to remember that people are coming in and out constantly, perhaps unaware of the extent to which things are happening on these islands. The slow, generally peaceful first half of this episode was just preparation for a deep dive in the second half. That shot of the doors opening and the marines preparing to head out onto the beach was incredible. This kind of scene has been filmed many times before, most notably in “Saving Private Ryan,” and it’s impressive that it’s still able to be fresh and compelling, and that’s an enormous credit to this show. The same painful, ringing silence experienced by Tom Hanks’ Captain Miller in “Saving Private Ryan” is present here, and it’s just as powerful. This extended battle scene, like the ones that came in the installments before it, sucks you in and doesn’t allow you to leave for the whole of its fifteen-plus minutes. It’s impossible to escape from these horrors of war, and this miniseries continues to do an excellent job driving that point home.