The Pacific (2010)

I just got finished watching the last DVD in this mini-series. It took me a while since I had to wait for it through Netflix.

I thought it was pretty realistic in its portrayal of the Pacific Theater. It showed the good, the bad and the ugly. It didn't sugar-coat anything as most war movies do. What I really found interesting is when they compared the European Theater with the Pacific Theater. There is one scene where a taxi guy tells a returning soldier(at the end of the war) that he at least was given leave in Paris while the soldier fighting in the Pacific didn't get that.

I have always been interested in the European Theater and didn't pay much attention to the Pacific. I did know how sadistic the Japanese(with their kamikaze missions, how they treated civiliians and how they treated POWs.) The movie showed that briefly. One aspect that I didn't see was when they were in Okinawa and how the civillians acted. I had read accounts where the civillians there hid in caves and committed mass suicide because of the Japanese propaganda against the Americans.

Another thing that I liked about the movie is how the soldiers adjusted to life at the end of the war. Some went on with their lives while others struggled. The fact that civillians expected the ex-soldiers to simply move-on with their lives without understanding or caring what they had gone through shows that things back in World War 2 were just like present-day. Most people today do not give a thought to the men and women who are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and when the soldiers come home no real support is given to them to help them adjust to their new lives. While I have never been in the military I was a military brat and have seen first-hand what happens. Hopefully, this movie will awaken people's eyes to just how hard it is to be a solider and do more to help the soldiers and their families.