Post your questions here for Part Seven of "The Pacific" after it airs Sunday, April 25th at 9:00pm, only on HBO.

Bruce -

Fantastic episode, the best so far. It just flowed together so naturally and does a fantastic job showing the brutality and chaos of war, but had its moments of dark humor (the bit where Jay De L'eau's bathroom break is rudely interrupted).

I have a question about Snafu. He fills sort of an "antihero" role in the series, and I wonder why Snafu? Is it just that there is so little information on the real man, and no relatives to confirm or contradict his portrayal? I don't mean to criticize, I think Snafu is the most fascinating character so far.

I picked Snafu to be the "counterpoint" in many ways to Sledge, because he was. Whereas Sledge was an upper middle class kid, educated, sheltered and very naive about the world, Snafu grew up in a CCC camp and was a bit of a professional gambler before the war. He was jaded...experienced and compared to Sledge, a bit amoral. So putting the two of them together was a great way to highlight Sledge's moral progression from innocence to degradation. But keep watching...because Snafu will surprise you in future episodes.

I don't have a question this week. I just had to offer my congratulations to you (and Tim Van Patten) for a fantastic episode this week. I would say it's the best of the series so far and can definitely stand up to any episode of BOB (and maybe even surpasses 1 or 2 of them). You 2 make a great team and I'm looking forward to episode 9 that you also worked on. The opening montage was almost poetic or artistic, I can't think of the right word, and there wasn't a false note in the whole show. Well done.

Hello Bruce,
congratulations on this wonderful opus, it really is great in size and scope... and as a dramatic experience overall.
In a previous response you stated that you were extremely satisfied with the structure of the series, as well as that of every single part, and I guess the fact that each week someone would come up with a comment that states each episode as the best so far (I put myself in that category) is quite revelatory of it.

I also realized early on that it is unfair to compare The Pacific with BoB, since where the latter aimed to be a truthful approach to warfare itself, The Pacific dwells much more into the psychological, spiritual and moral corruption that comes with warfare: it truly is a real step forward in the kind of war genre started out with SPR.

One question that I had in mind since I first saw his name in the credits is: in what consisted the contribution of George Pelecanos? He's one of my favorite writers so I was just plain curious about that.
Then, in the first phases of the creative process, did you plan the series as single, organic whole or did you started out by sketching the outline of each part?

Thank you so much! I can't wait to watch the next episode!

Loved the episode, my favorite thus far, and especially the temporary reappearance of Chuckler, since I was so concerned about him last week.

My question this week is regarding the scene where Sledge thinks about prying the gold teeth out of the dead soldier. In real life, it's Doc Carswell who stops him from doing so. Here, it's Snafu. Why choose Snafu as opposed to Burgin or someone else?

Excellent episode.

I just have a quick question regarding John Basilone. He looks to be wearing Staff Sergeant insignia, yet he keeps being referred to as Sergeant Basilone, why is that? Now while this is common in the Army to have an NCO's rank shortened it is not customary within the USMC. In today's Marine Corps that is a huge showing of disrespect and to show that disrespect especially to Gunnery Sergeant Basilone is absurd to me.

Also, something that has been bugging people over on The Pacific forums:

Why does Gunny Haney wear Staff Seargeant patches on his jacket?

Hello Bruce
Throughout the first few episodes focusing on Leckie and Basilone we would always have a brief peak at Sledge. I think part 3 is the only chapter where he doesn't appear? In part 7 we get a brief glimpse at Chuckler (I'm glad as I was concerned about him) and Chesty, but no Leckie. Will we get an update on him soon, or do we have to wait till part 10?
Snafu is a mesmerising character. One reviewer likened him to Smeagol, a very apt comparison. Going into this project, did you know he would become so popular, or was that only realised after the inspired casting of Rami Malek?
Thanks :)

Hey Bruce,

Episode 7 was absolutely fantastic. Thank you for doing such a great job. I really enjoyed seeing so many details from the book pop up. The scene at the end with the replacement officer and the Red Cross nurse is one of my favorites. Joe Mazzello and Rami Malek really nailed "the look".

I know Tom Hanks and possibly the rest of the producers including yourself thought the historical intros were unnecessary. However I have really been enjoying them. My question is why haven't we seen any of the interview clips with Sledge? I thought for sure they would play some before the Peleliu episodes but so far he hasn't been shown. Is there any particular reason for this?

Thanks!

Hey Jay --

Sorry for the delay in responding. I've been traveling.
Thanks for the compliment. I enjoyed working with Tim very much. And I think you will be very very impressed with the work he did on Episode 9. It's a doozy.

Barley --

I get asked a lot to compare BoB with the Pacific. It's a good question and it would take a long to time to answer every facet of any comparison. But let me say this. Band may be "Truer" to the events depicted (maybe 10 percent truer), but in many ways I believe the Pacific to be more accurate to the actual experience of the men in combat because of its psychological acumen. I know some fans will prefer Band because they are more "historicallly minded". And some will prefer TP because it is more "morally accurate." Our desire to really nail the emotional cost of war is what informed our decisions to compress the books, or change details of the books (like having Snafu tell Sledge not to pull teeth rather than Doc Caswell). I respect those who prefer Band, but I disagree with any sense that it is more accurate. We could have written and filmed Band in a way that more accurately reflected the darkness and pain of combat in Europe. We don't show the men in Band doing things that were pretty shocking. Spiers, for instance, was shot in the ass in Holland and the very strong rumor was that he was shot intentionally by a member of Easy Company (and yes, I know who may have done it). Members of Easy Company shot civilians by mistake. It wasn't just Spiers who shot German prisoners. And much to the chagrin of the Prudes out there, the men of Easy enjoyed female flesh (much of it purchased) all across Europe. We hinted at some of these things, but didn't really "go for it" in Band because it had a different dramatic purpose. A different set of truths. Part of the reason also, is that the majority of our characters in Band were still alive when we filmed, and so we were very respectful.
The one thing I will say as that most (not all, but most) of the vetarans I have spoken with either of WWII or Korea or Vietnam or Gulf 1+ 2 have lauded the Pacific because the veterans think that TP captures their terror, loneliness, fear and moral corruption in ways that no other war movie has. Including BoB.
It's an interesting discussion because it gets to a pretty big question: What is Truth? What strategies do you adopt to capture it on film? To sum up, I would say that BoB and TP were after different Truths...and both shows do an admirable job of capturing the Truth they were after.
As for George Pelecanos...I hired him in 2004 as one of the first two writers on the show. His father was in the Third Marines during the war and he really wanted to write for us. He did a great job, not just on the scripts he worked on, but helping me on mine. I have enormous respect for George, both as a person and as a writer. He's a foxhole guy. And that's rare in Hollywood.

Barly part two!

I forgot to answer the question about planning the Series. It was always structured from the whole to the particular. The hard part was figuring out how to break the story down into parts that could stand on their own, and yet propelled the entire story forward. It's one of the reasons it took so long to get it ready to film. We originally had THIRTEEN eps with Five Main Characters...and we then changed it to Ten.

Patton --

Good question and it exemplifies what I was trying to get at in my answer to Barley's question. I knew we needed to see Sledge stopped from pulling teeth as it is an important moment in Sledge's character arc. The question is...who? I knew it couldn't be Doc Caswell, because he's not a character in the Series (you can't have too many characters you lose dramatic traction). I wanted it to be Snafu because it would surprise the audience. Snafu's arc in the Series is one of my favorite aspects to the show. We think he's an amoral maniac...but as each episode progresses, he becomes something else indeed. So I used him to kill several birds with one stone, so to speak. He sees in Sledge something that he knows he's lost or may never have had...and so he wants to protect it. It's very touching. You'll see how this pays off by the show's end (I hope!)

Doc --

Good question. The use of the term Sergeant Staff Sergeant etc. is a touchy one. Basilone himself publicly stated that he liked to be called SARGE, which in today's Marine Corps is a real no no, as Sarge is an army term. However, in WWII, most of the men used Sarge as much as Sergeant. Especially in combat. IN addition, "staff Sergeant" is a mouthful...so we shortened. it. Dale Dye was happy. When Dale's happy, I'm happy.

As for Haney. He was bounced up and down from Gunny to plain Sergeant several times during the war (and passed from Company to company -- which ought to tell you something). He's wearing Staff Sergeant...but he might not have actually been a Staff Sergeant on Peleliu. I'd have to check my notes.

Simon --

Romi is fantastic, isn't he? I knew that his character was memorable -- on the page. But as soon as we saw him audition, we knew that he would service his lines beyond our expectations. And even then, you never know how someone is going to appear on film...and he just pops.

Silt --

I'm not sure why they don't include clips of Sledge. My guess is that they weren't up to snuff production wise in terms of quality. All the interviews you see were shot by us within the last few years. I'm not sure, but I think you will see lots of Sledge in the DVDs when they come out. This decision was made above my pay grade.

Hello Bruce,
thanks for answering and clarifying so much any nuance of your work. It is quite extraordinary to have this kind of first hand insight.
Rami Malek is superb, indeed. He delivers a multifaceted performance of a man that, just when you thought you knew him, gets you off guard and leaves you out of reach. His Snafu is a great character and a wonderful "mirror" of Sledge's emotional path.
Being a foreigner, and so not knowing a lot of the historical episodes, I didn't consider Snafu in his philological aspects, but rather from a dramatic standpoint. And when he stops Sledge from pulling the dead soldier's teeth off, I found myself screaming: "That's exactly it!".
A milestone of a moment in a series that's full of them like a river flow.

Hi, mr. McKenna. I just want to thank you for writing this terrifc piece of television and all that jazz. The series is immensly enjoyable, and definitely on par with other great HBO mini series as far as entertainment goes.

With that said, I wonder why the decision to omit the Ngesebus island landing, and making it look like they were on mainland Peleliu the whole time in lieu of it was made. Certainly, five or seven more minutes of screen time wouldn't have been that bad, right?

AEA --

Thanks. Moving Ngesebus to the main island was necessary as it would have involved filming another amphibious sequence (otherwise how would we know we were not on the main island?). This was not only too expensive, but it really screwed up our shooting schedule. Half of Episode Five was shot up north on the beaches in Queensland. The rest was shot outside of Melbourne where we had the airfield. Melding the two locations into one seamless sequence was one of the major feats of movie scheduling that made the Series possible from a financial point of view. But, alas, we could only do one big amphibious landing sequence (Well, two, including Guadalcanal, but that was unopposed). We felt that what was important (True) about the pillbox sequence had nothing to do with where it happened, but what happened to Eugene.

Great thoughts man !! I really liked your views on this subject !!
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