HBO's The Pacific, Part 10

 

Part 10 of HBO's The Pacific debuted on 16 May 2010. This episode looks at the post-war lives of the main surviving characters.

The main characters in this episode is:

Eugene Sledge (played by Joe Mazzello)
Robert Leckie (played by James Badge Dale)
Sidney Phillips (played by Ashton Holmes)
Lena Basilone (played by Annie Parisse)

Timeframe of Part 10 - immediate post-war era

Episode 10 of the epic HBO miniseries The Pacific, gives us a look at the lives of the main characters as they make the sometimes wrenching adjustment from their experiences in the Pacific back to the civilian world. Our collective memory of the World War II homecoming is a rosy one, and part 10 helps shed some light onto the reality people faced as they struggled to make sense of what they had survived.

Countless films and TV programs have told and retold various aspects of the World War II story. But only a handful have provided a a glimpse into what happened after "the boys came home." War stories are by their nature exciting and engaging. There's the drama of men in battle, the exciting storylines, special effects, and so on. Whether any of it is realistic is another matter completely. But telling a story of homecoming isn't nearly as easy.

In part 10, there are no battles, except those that take place inside of the characters' hearts and minds. There are no big homecoming parades or gigantic celebrations, except for a scene of flares being fired into the sky on Okinawa after VJ-Day. These are real people trying to come to grips with the human aspects of earth-shaking events. They make the passage with varying degrees of success.

Of course, the story of coming home is also a tale of partings. We witness Sledge as he says goodbye to his battle buddies Snafu (Rami Malek) and R. V. Burgin (Martine McCann). It's 1946 by the time the three Marines return stateside, and life has moved on for most Americans. Snafu spots a pretty girl and offers to show her his "caboose." After she slaps the Marine, Snafu quips that he would've gotten a better reception with his pick-up line if he'd gotten home earlier. In reply to a question from Burgin about what he plans to do, Sledge says, "No job, no girl, no plans."

These were young guys who'd spent their formative years under extremely challenging conditions in the Pacific. Their world had been kill or be killed, life and death, split-second decisions, wrenching heart-break, soaring emotions. Now they had to come back to a world that had been going on without them. Reflecting on episode 10, I can't help but think of the classic film The Best Years of Our Lives, and the character Fred Derry (powerfully acted by Dana Andrews.)

Derry, who had served as a bombardier on a B17 heavy bomber in Europe, can't find a good job. So he has to go back to being a soda jerk at the drug store he worked in before joining the Army Air Force. In his job interview, he's asked what qualifications he has. All he can say is that he knows how to drop bombs. He ends up having to work for the new manager, a 4F that had been under Derry before the war, but has moved up in rank while Derry was flying in combat.

Sledge goes through a difficult phase trying to come to grips with his memories, one that strikes the same chord as that portrayed by Dana Andrews. In his memoir China Marine, Sledge recorded an incident that highlights the stark difference between military and civilian life:

"I'll never forget my first day at Auburn. I was in the Registrar's Office in Sanford Hall....There was a loud hubhub of voices with about a hundred people in the room....When I stepped up to the table at the head of the line, a pretty brunette about my age...asked pleasantly what schools I had attended in the Marine Corps. I recited all the weapons and tactics schools we had in training. She became more and more disconcerted as she looked in vain on her checklist for anything remotely resembling what I was saying. Finally, in desperation, she slammed her pencil on the table and said in a loud, exasperated voice, "Didn't the Marine Corps teach you anything?" A gasp ran through the crowd and you could have heard a pin drop...

Slowly placing my hands on the table...I said in a loud, calm voice: "Lady, there was a killing war. The Marine Corps taught me how to kill Japs and try to survive. Now, if that doesn't fit into any academic course, I'm sorry. But some of us had to do the killing–and most of my buddies got killed or wounded."

Joe Mazzello gives a realistic and sympathetic portral of Eugene Sledge, suffering from PTSD in the war's aftermath. (Although the term and its symptoms would not be acknowledged by the medical community until decades after the war.) Mazzello's character is at once tragic, and hopeful as he works through what is happening to him. Withdrawn, with nightmares of combat, he still goes on.

The only odd note regarding Mazzello's performance was a scene in which he wore rose-colored sunglasses while sitting underneath a tree talking to his father. It seemed a frankly out-of-place eyewear choice given the era. Johnny Depp wore a similar pair of glasses during some of the motion picture Public Enemies (set in the 1930s) and they were just as out of place then as in part 10. They made Mazzello – and Depp for that matter – look almost if if they belonged in a 70s acid-trip program. Anyway...

At war's end, Robert Leckie is still in the hospital recuperating from wounds suffered on Peleliu. Like many servicemen in the summer of 1945, he was expecting to head back to the Pacific. In Helmet For My Pillow, Leckie recorded his feeling on learning the atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima:

"Suddenly, secretly, covertly–I rejoiced. For as I lay there in that hospital, I had faced the bleak prospect of returning to the Pacific and the war and the law of averages. But now, I knew the Japanese would have to lay down their arms. The war was over. I had survived. Like a man wielding a submachine gun to defend himself against an unarmed boy, I had survived. So I rejoiced."

As Robert Leckie, the actor James Badge Dale strikes a perfect balance between war-weariness and hope for the future. In one scene, he puts on his dress blues to go and court Vera, his future wife. Later, he is having dinner with Vera and and the two families. The parents begin complaining about things that Leckie seems to think are too trivial to even think about, and Vera's father asks why they even fought the war. In a piece of emotion-laden dialogue, Leckie says, You know what I fought for?"

Leckie gazes around the table, as everyone peers intently, obviously wondering what he is going to say. After a pregnant pause, he says mischievously one word: "Television." It's a beautiful little scene that captures the gulf between reality for veterans and the folks at home. It isn't as if Leckie is actually going to say what he fought for in this setting, but no one else (except maybe Vera) knows it.

In another poignant scene, Lena Basilone (Annie Parisse) the wife of fallen hero GySgt John Basilone, meets her husband's family in New Jersey. Parisse is a beautiful actress and her understated performance really breaths life into the part. It is hard not to shed a few tears while watching her give John's Medal of Honor to his parents. Parisse and her version of Lena is just another reason why The Pacific is such a powerful television event.

As literally millions of young men returned home after the war, they faced a country without enough jobs, housing shortages, uncertain prospects for the future. Many veterans suffered from the affects of their combat experiences, but the national mood was war-weary and ready to "get on with life." This is the reality that episode 10 portrays, or at least, attempts to illuminate.

Watching this episode, I felt a stronger sense of personal connection to the characters than in any other. Every returning veteran of war has faced a homecoming, with all that it entails. It is one of the human threads that binds veterans together across generational boundaries. Each Marine, Soldier, Sailor and Airman faces gates that must be crossed in the path to war. There's the first time firing a weapon, going overseas, the baptism of fire, seeing buddies killed and wounded, and so much more.

But the homecoming, as shown in episode 10, can be just as scary. And the thing is, the military teaches its members all the things they need to know to stay alive. But as the fictional Fred Derry, and the real-life Eugene Sledge found out, there was no manual that told them what to do when the terrible combat dreams came at night. Robert Leckie, a seasoned warrior, was on his own surrounded by civilians at the table wondering what he was going to say, how he would react.

Is episode 10 a perfect rendition of the World War II homecoming? No, it isn't. To me, Joe Mazzello did a serviceable job. Maybe he was tired from all the work shooting combat scenes, as the real Eugene Sledge was after his deployment to the Pacific. But, Robert Badge Dale was truly magnificent as Robert Leckie. The cynical, yet hopeful way that he gives life to his character is a testament to his acting ability.

I felt the storyline itself could've used some work. It must've presented a challenge to the writers, since they had to rely on the dialogue and interaction between the cast to carry the story. Unlike other episodes, the combat scenes weren't the "main show." I wish we'd seen more of Robert Leckie's struggles, and that Joe Mazello had better material to work with. WW2 Gyrene gives episode 10 of HBO's The Pacific a solid B +.

 

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