Which HBO miniseries is better: Band
of Brothers or The Pacific? It is a question that has
plagued mankind since... well, since 2010 I guess. Actually “plagued”
might be too strong a word; most people agree that BoB (2001) is the
superior 10 part non-fiction Second World War series. But that's not
to say that The Pacific (TP, 2010) was bad or anything.
They're both very good; I must've watched them both a half-dozen
times or so. Both series have their strong points and shortcomings.
Today I'm going to go over the strengths and weaknesses of both
series and determine just how correct the majority is on this one.
Theme, Mood, and Tone
Let's
begin with the biggest difference between the two miniseries: the
theme. One need not look further than the shows' titles to learn what
their themes are. Band
of Brothers is about a
group of men who fight together throughout the war and form special
bonds. It's about the comradeship that develops between them by their
shared experiences. In sharp contrast, The
Pacific
focuses more on the effects of a hostile, unfamiliar, and chaotic
environment on the individuals involved in fighting. It seeks to
portray the emotional and psychological realities of the war on its
participants. These are two very different themes, as different as
the conflicts that they depict. For example BoB explores themes like
duty, bravery, brotherly love, and responsibility whereas TP brings
up themes like survival, hate, fear, ungratefulness, stress, and
loss. This makes sense seeing how the European Theatre of Operations
is remembered as a noble struggle to free people from fascism,
whereas the war in the Pacific took place in hostile, dirty
environments, amongst unfamiliar cultures, and against an enemy no
one knew much about. Similarly, it's normally the European theatre of
operations that is glorified in pop culture, while the Pacific War
remains largely misunderstood. It is important to note that both
series make a strong effort at portraying realism; it's just that the
two conflicts were very different in nature and thus warranted a
different understanding. This is perfectly exemplified by a quick
scene in The
Pacific's
last episode, where a cab driver – a former paratrooper – refuses
to take a marine's money out of respect for all the tough crap that
he had been through in the Pacific War.
Both
series also have very different endings, and it's not hard to guess
which series is more uplifting. Band
of Brothers
will leave you happy, The
Pacific
will make you cry.
Story,
Narrative, and Characters
As
with all good stories, the themes of these two series are vitally
embedded within their stories. Let's begin by looking at Band
of Brothers.
Based off the Stephen Ambrose book of the same name, this series
follows Easy Company (2nd
Battalion, 506th
Parachute Infantry Regiment) and everything they go through from boot
camp in 1942 all the way to their occupation of Austria in August
1945. Dick Winters (lieutenant, then captain, then major) serves as
the series' main-ish character; while some episodes have main
characters of their own, he's still a major supporting character
throughout. As he rises through the ranks, Winters learns how to take
responsibility for fighting the war while at the same time looking
out for the welfare of his men. Meanwhile, the dozens of supporting
characters under him must each overcome the physical and emotional
obstacles that confront them throughout the war. By the end,
everybody (everybody who survives, anyways) finds a way through it
all, making for a happy ending.
In
terms of narrative, The
Pacific
could not be any more dissimilar. This series was based on no less
than four books and it follows three main characters – John
Basilone, Robert Leckie, and Eugene Sledge – all of whom served in
the First Marine Division. However since these three didn't really
serve together in the same units or at the same times, the
narrative switches focus frequently, often within a single episode.
Generally speaking, the first few episodes are about Basilone and
Leckie, the middle few are mostly about Leckie and Sledge, and the
last few are almost completely about Sledge. If I recall correctly,
there's only a couple scenes where two share screen time together.
The three Marines are each affected differently by the war. Basilone
ends up becoming a reluctant hero after Guadalcanal, but he still
feels the need to fulfill his duty to the Corps. A smartass seeking
adventure, Robert Leckie has his confidence greatly shaken up by the
war, but after returning home he bounces back. Eugene Sledge –
arguably the
main character of the series – is a young idealist whose world is
turned upside down by the barbarity of the war. He struggles to hold on
to his faith and compassion, and after returning home he has great
difficulty fitting back in. Needless to say, there's quite a lot of
variety in character arcs to be found here. Like BoB, TP's cast
contains a multitude of supporting characters but they aren't nearly
as developed or memorable. Honestly, I still have trouble remembering
a lot of their names despite having watched every episode several
times.
As you might have guessed,
The Pacific's
narrative is much less linear; it bounces around time and space a
lot. Again this isn't unlike the Pacific War's campaign itself, what
with US troops leapfrogging back and forth across islands that no
marine had heard of before. Since we're not following just one unit,
this means we get to see the war's scope on a much larger scale. In
addition to combat, we see characters enlist, leave home, train,
date, go on leave, and return home. (The return home is by far the
most interesting of these scenarios.) There's even a few female
characters, something BoB had none of.
Action
The action scenes are also affected by the series' respective scope.
For instance, since Band of Brothers follows a whole company
of characters, the battle scenes show the progression of the whole
battle from multiple participants' points of view (similar to Saving
Private Ryan, but on a larger scale). On the flipside, The
Pacific's battle scenes only show the action to the extent of the
main character's involvement. For example, if there is a battle
involving John Basilone then only the parts directly involving
Basilone would be shown. The tone of the action scenes are also very
different. In keeping with its overall tone, TP's action is always
serious, intense, gritty, violent, and dirty. BoB, while it can
sometimes be gritty as well, isn't quite as intense, but more
dramatic, fast-paced, and even humourous at times.
Unfortunately, The Pacific's action scenes seem to blend in
after a while. A lot of the locations look similar, making it hard to
gauge progress and remember the places' names. Band of Brothers'
action is more built up – perhaps by virtue of having a commanding
officer as a main character – and thus ends up being more
memorable.
Other
Differences
As mentioned above, each series has certain advantages over the
other. Here's a brief list of what each one did better:
- Most Band of Brothers episodes begin with some brief quotes from the real life Easy Company veterans. The interviewees' identities aren't revealed until the end of the last episode.
- Band of Brothers episodes actually have titles, whereas The Pacific's episodes are just numbered (Part 1, Part 2, etc.). Pay attention, HBO: if you're watching either series from a box set, episode titles make it way easier to remember where you left off!
- Each episode of TP begins with a map indicating what part of the world the story is unfolding in.
- BoB has some stand-alone episodes that can be watched on their own. Try doing that with an episode of TP, and you'll be lost.
- Both series have very good acting, but The Pacific should be commended for bringing onboard actors who are age-appropriate for their roles. BoB's actors all look 5-10 years too old.
- The Pacific has the much better epilogue, showing real-world photographs of each character and detailing what happened to them later on in their lives.
Alos, both series display roughly the same amount of historical accuracy;
the main events are done fairly accurately, but some smaller things
got changed around a bit for the sake of drama.
Conclusion
Comparing
Band of Brothers
to The Pacific
reminds me a lot of an exercise in my WWI history class where we had
to compare Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel
to Louis Barthas' Poilu.
The two accounts of the war experience was very different, but both
were very well executed. One series portrays – some might say,
glorifies – a “company of heroes” working together to fulfill
their duties. The other is a much more personal story of a few
individuals trying to stay alive and retain their souls during
moments that are not always easy to watch.
While
both series are good, I'd have to agree with the majority that Band
of Brothers is the greater of
the two thanks to its more memorable characters and more satisfying
action scenes. The Pacific falls
short by virtue of its counter-intuitive, sometimes unfocused
narrative. TP took more risks with how it did things, and as a result
ends up being closer to modern, anti-war film territory (it invokes how
today's soldiers have to make sense of being sent off to unfamiliar
parts of the world to fight enemies that they don't understand).
Since it's relevant for a modern audience and it portrays a slice of
WWII that doesn't receive as much popular attention as it deserves,
I'd be willing to say that The Pacific
is the more
important
of the two series. But as far as entertainment value goes, Band
of Brothers is better overall.
Curahee!
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