I just finished watching Tom Hanks' The Pacific. It's the 10-part HBO series which chronicles the U.S. Marines' experiences in the Pacific during WWII.
It's not as sweeping an epic as Band of Brother and, on many levels, not as interesting. But since my dad served in the Pacific, it felt a whole lot more real.
It is gritty, intense, lusty, vulgar, violent, and utterly compelling viewing. Probably the single best word to describe it is brutal. I have watched Band of Brothers three times. I won't be watching The Pacific again. Once was enough.
What a reminder of all that so many brave (and terrified) men and women went through (and are going through) for us. Words, and perhaps even images, are inadequate to really convey the reality, the hell, they endure(d).
Or the debt we owe them.
