1. Joe Mazzello really grew into this role. I dont know who Rami Malek is but this kid made a career for himself now. What a performance. Everyone I know is talking about this characther. As someone who doesnt watch alot tv but is a film producer, I am hooked to this series just like bob. Do you hear any emmy talk for you guys? I think Rami would deserve a supporting nod but it will never happen. -mhenry, MakingOf Forums
M — Rami is fantastic. And why do you think we won’t get an Emmy nod? I think he will. He deserves it. Joe is fantastic, too, and the two of them together were magic.
2. Hello again, Bruce! First, my heartfelt thanks to you, HBO, and to all who had a hand in this series. Each episode in the 2nd half has really built in intensity and character development, and now, after seeing the penultimate installment, I’m filled with a bittersweet feeling; I can’t wait to see part 10, yet I know I’ll also be sad to see the series finally come to a close.
At the fan forum, we’ve been discussing certain liberties the show has taken throughout the series. There are certainly those purists who LOVE to grouse, constantly nitpicking scenes and equipment ad-nauseam (one might call them the "Eeyores" of the group) but setting that aside, most people understand both the inevitability and the necessity of such changes, for myriad reasons. But there’s one scene specifically that stands out to me in Part 9. Sledge’s encounter with the "old Okinawan woman" (who asks him to end her pain by placing a bullet squarely between her eyes) is one that has come up on more than one occasion, and I think merits discussion. Would you be willing to discuss the motivations behind crafting that particular scene differently than Sledge recounts in his memoir? I’d love to crawl inside your head for a few moments on this one. Thanks! -matt314159, MakingOf Forums
Matt — re: Okinawan woman; It’s a fair question to ask about any sequence in the Series. I originally wrote the sequence as it happened in the book. But as we (Producers in Australia) discussed it before we shot it, we realized that we hadn’t done a good enough job of showing what distinguished Sledge from his peers and what permeates his entire book, and that is his deep sense of empathy. How could we show that Sledge never lost his sense of empathy? It’s what saved him on Okinawa. So we decided to split the sequence to show him holding the woman as she dies, and then having the replacement shoot a young Japanese soldier afterward. The scene would have been just as powerful if we had kept it; maybe more so, but we wouldn’t have been able to dramatize Sledge’s empathy as well, at least in my opinion. Just seeing her hurt, not killing her, and then going for help didn’t feel as deep enough an experience for the audience to get inside Sledge’s head. Anyway, that is the thinking behind it.
3. I was interested in the same question that Matt posed about the scene with the Okinawan woman. I know liberties are usually taken, but for certain scenes such as this where the actual events say everything that needs to be said, I always wonder if the powers-that-be don’t trust the audience enough to handle the truth, and that’s why they feel they have to change it or make it more "Hollywood". Why I do agree that Rami is good in his role, I also wonder if he isn’t somewhat like that in real life and therefore maybe playing an extension of himself. I think equally as impressive, if not more so, is the more subtle change in Sledge’s character that Joe has portrayed. For crying out loud he even LOOKS older and more war-weary now than he did at the start. Now THAT is acting. Same with JBD. More important Bruce, what are we going to do next week when these weekly chat sessions are over? I’m going through withdrawal already. -JayLast, MakingOf Forums
Jay — Rami is nothing like Snafu in real life. THank God! He’s charismatic, of course, but highly moral and very engaging. But I do agree with you about Joe. His transformation from innocent to killer is simply spectacular. I don’t think a single war movie has ever done a better job of showing that transformation than what we see in Joe. He did a spectacular job. And as for those who grouse about it, they should know that the Sledge family is in in awe of his performance and think that he simply channeled Eugene.
4. Hi Bruce. This is a brilliant production. Everyone who worked on it should be rightly proud of what has been achieved.
Just wondering why the A Core Military extra and the IJA were not credited at the end of any shows? From Day 1 of Boot Camp, to the final shot, they were there, helping out the actors, being professional and doing what was required of Capt Dye and his cadres. Any chance that they might get credited at the end of ep 10 or on the DVD when its released? Thanks. -A Core, MakingOf Forums
A Core — I didn’t realize that the extras were not credited at the end of shows. THey should be, as they were uniformly fantastic and highly professional — as was the entire Australian crew. I don’t know if they will get their due at the end of 10 or on the DVD, but I will certainly ask the powers that be.
5. Can’t believe there is only one more new episode – have to thank you and the entire production team again for such an amazing piece of work. I’ve also been reading With the Old Breed like the reader above (as you recommended) but stopped short of the Okinawa sequence in the book. I knew a bit about Basilone before last week’s episode so I wanted to go into the Okinawa scenes fresh. Can you talk a bit about writing the amazing character of Snafu? Rami Malek does such a phenomenal job – how much was on the page and how much of the charisma/weirdness did he add? It seems like he could have been a fairly minor character like in the book; did you beef up his role at all when you saw how good Malek was? -PBandJ, MakingOf Forums
PBJ — Rami’s performance definitely shines. He was always going to be more than a minor character, but we made sure that we really delved into his relationship to Sledge in Ep 9, and partly that came about during production as we watched his dailies. But most of what you see was written before production. A lot of the weirdness is Rami’s interpretation.
6. Bruce, Great Great Great episode. Very Very powerful. Phenomenal job on the series. 2 quick questions, what was the reasoning for showing such a small amount of artillery barrages. Ive seen interviews with sledge where he states that the artillery barrages would go on non stop for days. Why such a low amount of shell fire scenes? Also, was there any talk of perhaps making Okinawa into two episodes? Taking the 2nd half of with the old breed and condensing it down to 50 some odd minutes seems a bit rushed. I feel Okinawa deserved 2 episodes for its sheer size and importance in history… it certainly seems like it deserved more screen time than the 1st marine divisions R&R in Melbourne, which received the same amount of attention in the show. I know condensing such a large portion of the book into one episode must have been a challenge and you and HBO did a fabulous job. Great episode Mr. Mckenna. Looking foreword to next weeks. Cheers. -JP234, MakingOf Forums
JP –
We did originally have two Okinawa episodes. But if you are familiar with Sledge’s book, you’ll know that the first month was relatively unenventful compared to the next two. The invasion was somewhat uneventful. And we had already covered the "anticlimactic invasion" on Guadalcanal. It didn’t make sense to ratchet down the intensity after Eight with an episode of K-3-5 in reserve (for the most part). Should we have had two full episodes of the kind of hell we portrayed in Nine? Perhaps, but we decided that would be too much for the audience (even nine by itself is almost too intense). We felt that we could get across the horror of Okinawa in fifty minutes. And I think we did a pretty damn good job. Do I wish we had eleven eps? Sure! As for "wasting" an hour on Melbourne, I clearly disagree. TP is a War movie, not a combat movie. War involves more than killing and mud and shells. It involves the intense feelings men have for women out of combat. It involves yearnings for home and hearth that is very very poignant. Leckie’s moral descent wouldn’t have worked without the hour in Melbourne (Stella dumping him). And you will see next episode how that episode pays off thematically. ANd just so you know, the Veterans certainly haven’t complained about a break from combat in Three. Lastly, I’m glad you brought up the artillery. I had it in the original drafts of the scripts. Two reasons why it mostly got lost. One because we needed to hear the actors…and two, we screwed up in Post. I tried very hard to get a lot more artillery in…but my pleas fell on deaf ears. Such is life.
7. I guess that’d a fair point about the first month of okinawa. And I agree, the third episode was very important to the character of leckie and i liked the episode very much. I was merely stating that Okinawa is a more a significant section historically then Melbourne. It’s a shame you guys lost the artillery scenes but the episode was still absolutely fantastic. Some of the most haunting scenes i think i’ve ever seen in a war film. Tremendous acting, writing, directing, and, well, everything. This episode is what put the series ahead of Band of Brothers. Congratulations! -JP234, MakingOf Forums
JP Thanks. I would heartily agree that Okinawa is far more significant historically than Melbourne. But our intentions were never to simply do a history lesson; but rather, to show the audience the impact of the war (combat and non combat) on our guys.
Hope you enjoy the last ep! BCM
8. Bruce, one more very quick question, if I may: Throughout the episode, does SNAFU refer to Peck as "Boo," (an apparently sarcastic term of endearment), or is it "Boot’" (young recruit, wet behind the ears)? The latter seems to make more sense, however my ears never once heard Malek articulate a "T" at the end. Perhaps it’s simply lost in the Louisiana bayou accent he affects so well? I’d be grateful if you could clarify! I’ve discussed this with a few people and opinions seem to be somewhat split.
-matt314159, MakingOf Forums
Matt — It’s the bayou accent. Boot…as in wet behind the ears, young recruit. Hope that settles it. BCM
9. Bruce you are 100% correct about melbourne. It showed Basilone getting his medal and shipped out. Leckie’s fall. And in real life Burgin married one of the austrailian girls. The point of the sex and stuff with a kid like Sidney too me, was showing how they left for war as kids and when they arrive in melbourne after the battle of guadcanal, they were now men. Alot of people loved the episode with John and Lena’s relationship. That didnt have alot of combat but like melbourne was very pivotal to the story. -mhenry, MakingOf Forums
MHenry — Semper Fi!
10. Bruce – I had a couple more questions while reading Sledge’s (disturbing and incredibly honest) book:
What has been the response from Japanese Americans so far? Was there a lot of talk between the production team on how to portray the Japanese? Sledge seems to hate them even more in his book than what is shown on screen – which says a lot. When and why did you decide that The Pacific would be a ten hour film (I think you mentioned this before) instead of 10 distinct films like Band of Brothers? It seemed BoB almost had a different style and POV in every episode. -PBandJ, MakingOf Forums
PBJ I was asked by a couple of Japanese Journalists what I thought would be the response. I turned the question around and asked them. They both said that the older generation would watch it…and probably be accepting. THey were hoping that young Japanese would watch, if only to have their curiosity piqued about Japan’s role in the war. As a culture, they have really never deeply examined the War, and they need to. We always knew that TP would always be more of an organic ten (originally 13!) hour movie, broken into ten parts, rather than the more distinctive episodes like Band. ANd this is because we wanted it to be more of an intense character journey for our main guys. It made it harder to structure, because not only does each episode have to carry the War, as well as the characters forward, but each episode also needs to stand on its own, with its own mini-theme. So the scripts were more integrated from the beginning. We tried to have fewer directors to keep the style and tone as consistent as possible.
11. Bruce, Thank you again for answering our questions, and I wanted to say how much I absolutely love the series (again). Having gone through 9 parts, we saw relatively little of Basilone, featured in only 2 episodes, whereas the other two leads are featured in 5 each (Leckie 1,3,4 and splitting 5 and 10(I think)), Sledge (6,7,9, splitting 5 and 10).
I know you talked about 5 main characters when there were 13 episodes. Did you ever talk about just using Sledge and Leckie, and excluding Basilone’s admittedly amazing story? Their stories seem to mesh a bit better together, even if some of that is dramatic license (their meeting, Phillips not being as close to Leckie as portrayed) and, thus, the handoff is a bit smoother. -PattonEngineer, MakingOf Forums
Good question, Patton. I would have loved to have serviced Basilone a bit more. The original scripts did have more with him than what we ended up with, but even with that we focused more on Leckie and Sledge. Having said tha, JB’s arc is really important to the show. Both Leckie and Sledge were, for lack of a better word, intellectuals. Both self-reflective enough to record their thoughts and assess their experiences in a detached sort of way…They were both…in a sense alienated by the war and aware of that alienation. That’s what makes them great writers and recorders. Basilone was pure hero in the classic sense: Doing or Dying. He did both. I felt the Series needed to have the non-intellectual type who simply served and served well. A man like so many other thousands of Americans who did their jobs without a sense of self-reflection. As opposed to Sledge and Leckei, for JB, the alienation came when he was OUT of combat. And although we spend less time with him I think we served that truth well.
So, to finally answer…no, I never considered cutting him. Other producers did and I fought very hard to convince them otherwise.
