Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks‘ spectacular new World War II drama, The Pacific, starts this Easter on Sky Movies Premiere.
Shot in the same gritty, realistic style as their other World War II projects, Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, the drama tells the story of three US Marines and their harrowing fight against the Japanese.
The 10 episodes follow the soldiers from their first clash with the enemy in the jungles of Guadalcanal to their triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day.
The Pacific is based on books by veterans of the conflict – With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge and Helmet for my Pillow by Robert Leckie. In the series, Joseph Mazzello and James Badge Dale play Sledge and Leckie.
‘It’s the story of the corruption of the human spirit and the private war that all of these veterans had to fight,’ says Spielberg. ‘They were not only surviving an enemy that fought by rules never encountered before, they were also fighting the elements. The natural environment was just as debilitating.’
Filmed in Australia, with a budget of $200million, The Pacific has the stamp of quality all over it. See for yourself by checking out the trailer below, and of course you can find out more information on the official website.
As with Band of Brothers, it’s clear that in this series Spielberg and Hanks want to pay tribute to the men who fought and suffered in the campaign. ‘Our show is maybe about a handful of American Marines,’ explains Spielberg, ‘but it’s also about millions we don’t get to see in the mini-series’.
I watched the first episode of the Pacific 10 days ago, but nothing since as appeared on the Sky 3 channel. I assumed wrongly, that it should be on at the same time each week, Saturday at 9pm, but no, I have been scanning all channels but nothing is showing regarding the second episode, am I missing something?
Oh, Chubster, bad news I’m afraid – Sky were ‘very kindly’ running one of their free pass weekends on Sky3, showing programmes from the channels you normally have to pay more for. Pacific is shown weekly on Sky Movies Premiere – I’m assuming you don’t have the movie package… We’ll try to find out if they’re eventually planning to air it again on any other channels.