1. Bruce: another amazing episode of one of the best things I’ve ever watched in any media – I hope you and the entire team are really proud of the show and the reception so far. I’m sure the appreciation will grow over time just like it did for Band of Brothers; hopefully the Blu-Rays will outsell that little Avatar movie as well. Was there a conscious decision to return to the States and feature 35 minutes or so of relatively quiet action after the terror of Peleliu? I’ve read differing opinions on how Basilone actually died – mortar or bullets. Did you try to find the definitive truth or use what worked best for the scene? -PBandJ, MakingOf Forums
PBJ — Thanks. It’s pretty damn good, ain’t it? Yes, we intentionally spent some time away from Hell so that the audience could breath. Otherwise people would just turn off their tvs. As for Basilone’s death. I’ve interviewed dozens of guys who claim they saw him die…and all of them are suspect as witnesses. We relied on the offical medical report — unseen by anyone until Hugh Ambrose dug it out of the archives. It clearly states that he died from GUNSHOT WOUNDS. So that’s why we went with bullets instead of mortars.
2. As a Marine Corps Veteran i would like to say thank you for finally bringing some justice to the Pacific theater. I would like to know why you didnt choose to show the raising of the flag on Suribachi to honor all the vets who died on Iwo Jima? I understand that this episode was meant to honor John Basilone, and he deserves the respect that was shown to him, and Lena, but i’m just curious why you guys chose not to show the 1 thing the Corps is most associated with (The Suribachi flag raisings). I fealt a little let down by that because there were a whole lot more people who died on Iwo To with John Basilone that could have been honored by simply showing the flag raising.Fantastic series, and i would like to thank everyone for doing this for us. Please consider doing a mini series about the Marine Corps in WW1 next, and then Korea. WW1 is a forgotten conflict in modern film, and Korea is a forgotten war as a whole, and both could stand to be told in the way The Pacific is being done. thank you -Mike, MakingOf Forums
Mike — Thank you for your service. I’m really glad so many vets, marine corps and otherwise, have responded so positively to the Series. As for the flag raising, we felt very strongly that the audience’s pov should be that of the men we were depicting at all times. This made it impossible to show the flag raising at it happens a few days after John’s death on D Day. Remember that the power of the Series derives from its intensely personal pov of war, and that if we violated that, it would weaken the dramatic integrity of the piece. Now, having said that, I will reveal that we tried to do an entire episode on Iwo (very early in the script writing process), in which we followed the two men, Tatum and Evanson, who fought with Basilone. They did see the Flag Raising, but from a decidedly unheroic vantage point: they were frantically digging a foxhole to get out of a phosphorous attack by the Japanese when they heard ship horns, turned around, saw a glimpse of red white and blue atop Suribachi, then went right back to digging as fast as they could to get out of the white hot rain. I wished we could have kept that, but again, it violated our mandate to follow the three leads as closely as possible.
3. Bruce, hi. I’ve told you elsewhere how much I enjoyed the John-Lena portrayal, and how awestruck I was by the Iwo action. Question: historical sources differ on Basilone at the bunker, Basilone and the tank attack, and Basilone’s death. You seem largely to have departed from the conventional wisdom. Was that based on additional research? Driven by narrative? I’m most curious. In any case, terrific job. My respects, Doug -Doug, MakingOf Forums
Doug — You’re spending WAY too much time on line! ; ) The conventional wisdom for a lot of the Series is wrong. Particularly when it comes to Basilone. (He listed Golf as his preferred sport, not boxing, when he filled out his Marine Corps papers, for instance). The bunker attack was a bit different from Chuck Tatum’s depiction, which we were utilizing: the bunker had steel doors, but we couldn’t find any visual reference to this and so used a more standard open bunker. Also, the back of the bunker drained out into kind of a swale and not so much of a trench. Having said that, Chuck was pretty awestruck by what we portrayed. We also didn’t have enough SET to show the full extent of BAsilone’s push to the airfield. Because of this, we put him into a trench so that we could get a sense of passage and movement that was realistic; otherwise, you’d go, huh? he just ran twenty yards… The tank attack was a bit different because we filmed Iwo in the middle of a quarry in Australia with kangaroos hopping in the b.g. We were SEVERELY limited on what we could show and how long we could stay on any given shot on the beach. You’ll notice that the Iwo sequence is the one battle sequence that most heavily relies on Special Effects. Therefore a lot of things — like the Tanks coming up the beach — had to be truncated and abbreviated and shot in ways that protected us from seeing Melbourne in the b.g. As for Basilone’s death…see my answer above. According to the medical record of the day (prepared on Iwo), we got it right. Semper Fi!
4. Hello Bruce, I’ve just watched the episode. Thank you. It’s been fantastic. You guys made an outstanding job. Enough said. My question is not related to characters or historic dramatization: above, there are some really interesting comments and inquiries. Since I pretend to be a screenwriter myself, what I would like to ask you has to do with technical aspects of writing for television. How did you organize the writing tasks for the series? I reckon you were on board (and at the helm, I would say) from the get go, if not responsible for the whole development, so how did you worked with the writing staff (Laurence Andries, Robert Schenkken, Michelle Ashford, George Pelecanos and Graham Yost)? Were there brainstorming sessions before everyone closed themselves into their secret retreat or was it a more collaborative endeavour? -Barley, MakingOf Forums
Barley — It’s great to have a "making of" question! I was hired to create the Series structure and characters, etc. by Hanks and Spielberg. Then when we had a "Series Outline" (which at the time was 13 episodes and Five Main Characters), we hired a writing staff: Robert, George, and Larry. They worked closely with me (And me with them — they’re all pretty damn good writers), to crank out the first drafts. We talked regularly about the scripts…and then everyone came in to discuss them with Hanks — which is when we decided to cut the Series to 10 Eps and Three Main Characters. We went back to our respective "secret retreats" and rewrote the scripts again — always under my supervision. Then…as we got close to production, HBO hired Graham to get the scripts into production shape. At the time, I had no production experience, so my job was to help Graham and make sure that what he did hewed close to the facts and characters. Then…Graham brought in Michelle (I had asked her to work on the Series early on, but she had a scheduling conflict). As the Series went into production, Graham decided to direct an episode, so I came back as the "showrunner" to manage the scripts through production. Tom Hanks also acted as the "supreme commander" and rewrote scenes throughout the scripts. So, all in all, it was pretty collaborative. We all tried to keep each other honest.
5. Hi, Bruce. I really enjoy the Pacific, and think it’s well made. Even though you don’t grow as attached to the secondary characters as you did in BoB, I still think it works just fine, and I will definitely buy the DVD once it’s released.This episode was better than I expected, and it worked really well. The Iwo Jima part was amazing. Anyways, to my first question; I watched an interview with Charles Womack some time prior to the airing of the first Pacific episode. I’m fairly interested in flamethrowers, and the Marines whom operated them. There hasn’t really been many movies or TV shows with actors portraying real life flamethrower operator. The only one that comes to mind is Charles W. Lindberg in "Flags of Our Fathers", so I was surprised when Womack turned up in episode 7, even though i’d wish we would see more of him. So, my question being; Will we see more of Womack in episode 9? And to my second and last question; For some time, i’ve tried to find real life pictures of Snafu, but could only find one of him taken back in the 80′s. You wouldn’t happen to know if there’s any sites, or books where I can see more of him? I checked his character profile on HBO.com, but there wasn’t much. -Carne, MakingOf Forums
Carne — Thanks. As for Womack, we may see him or someone like him in Ep. 9. I honestly don’t remember. As for Snafu, you’re not alone. We had a hard time finding pictures of him. But if you watch Ep 10, I think we may show a picture of him then. And the DVD will have shots of him, I’m sure.
6. Hi Bruce, Thank you for taking the time to answer all of these questions and giving us some insight into the making of this incredible mini-series. I knew nothing about John Basilone or what he did for his country, but after watching episode 8 I will never forget his name and what he did. I cannot comprehend the courage displayed by this man and the sacrifice he made by returning to action after receiving the Medal of Honor. It was a privilege to see the series dedicate this episode to the memory of John and it was indeed a well timed break from the constant battles. I also wanted to ask you if there were any instances of continuity mistakes that you guys missed and whether you could point them out? Also, since you’ve had ample time to reflect on the project, are they’re any scenes you would have portrayed differently? And finally, were there any regrets after you wrapped production? -Xenonrider, MakingOf Forums
Xenon — There are occasional continuity gaffes, but they are very slight. My favorite is the DUKW that drives behind Captain Haldane in Episode Seven. It keeps passing him as we cut back and forth between Sledge and Haldane. There are many many things I would have done differently, now that I can step back and view the Series from a distance. Nothing major. I would have liked some of the editing to be different on occasion. But regrets? No.
