This was a tough comparison for me. On one hand, you have BoB's focused narrative that follows Easy Company of the 101st Airborne as they drop into occupied Europe and battle the Germans all the way until the Nazi surrender. There's an excellent sense of how the unit evolves over time as young paratroopers become seasoned veterans and learn to trust their officers, even as men fall in each battle and are replaced by fresh recruits. BoB also does a great job in certain episodes showcasingf the military leadership decisions and tactics used on the battlefield -- the episodes "Day of Days," "Carentan" and "Crossroads" stand out in this respect.
On the other hand, you have The Pacific's more ambitious narrative that is less focused geographically -- it hops between the island campaigns and scenes in Australia and the U.S. -- yet much more intimate than BoB in terms focusing on the journeys of three Marines. Spielberg and Hanks are also working with a bigger budget, which shows to good effect in the recreations of the battles on Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa in particular. There is not much of a look at the play-by-play narrative of each battle and the broader strategic campaign of one unit, but there is a greater emphasis on the carnage being inflicted on both the minds and bodies of the Marines -- and all the horrifying details come out in ways that surpass any of the combat shown in BoB.
The two series also reflect the differences in the theaters of war. In BoB, the paratroopers exchange rumors about whether or not Lt. Spears gunned down a group of Wermacht prisoners in cold blood. By contrast, the Marines quickly learn the consequences of trying to take one Japanese prisoner in the very first episode of The Pacific. Whereas the paratroopers battle misery at times in the bitter cold of European winter, the Marines encounter a bewildering array of hostile environments ranging from dense jungle to coral-strewn shores, from the black volcanic island of Iwo Jima to the ridges of Okinawa that are churned to mud by the constant rain and combat.
When I started watching The Pacific, I have to admit that the first several episodes up through #4 didn't seem to live up to the standard set by BoB. The first two episodes do show their fair share of tension and fighting on Guadalcanal, but I was less than enthralled by the girl-chasing in Australia and the soul-draining jungle combat at Cape Gloucester. The series really took off for me starting with episode #5 and the three-episode arc covering the bloody battle for Peleliu. I began to get a good sense of the Marines who fought with Eugene Sledge (one of the three main characters), and quickly grew as fond of the supporting characters as I was of the paratroopers in Band of Brothers -- although many ended up killed, wounded or mentally broken by the end of the Peleliu story arc. Episode #8 with its focus on John Basilone -- Medal of Honor winner on Guadalcanal who returned to duty at Iwo Jima -- was still pretty compelling despite not being my favorite. Episode #9 and its look at the miserable mud combat of Okinama elevated the horrific depictions of warfare beyond even those seen on Peleliu, and Episode #10 served as a somewhat bittersweet coda that showed the struggle of some Marines to return to civilian life.
Having gone through The Pacific the first time, I went back and re-watched the earlier episodes. While they still aren't my favorite of the series, I definitely got a better appreciation of how the characters and the very nature of the Pacific war evolved. As a quick-and-dirty summary, the Marines in the first phase of the war fought with outdated equipment and often without good naval or air support, but were able to kill many Japanese soldiers when the latter launched wasteful Banzai charges. In the second phase of the Pacific war, the Marines had the better equipment and enjoyed more U.S. air and naval superiority -- but they found themselves fighting a much more costly war against the entrenched Japanese who were hunkered down defensively in their caves, tunnels and pillboxes.
The Pacific may have its less-than-stellar episodes, but upon recollection I think BoB wasn't perfect either. Certain episodes such "The Last Patrol" were somewhat lackluster compared to what came before, and I actually like how The Pacific wrapped up better than how BoB ended. Granted, I've watched The Pacific more recently than BoB.
In the end, I voted for The Pacific. That's not to say I think it's perfect (it's not), but I think it does succeed to some extent in its greater ambition that goes beyond what BoB tried to achieve. Better than perhaps any other war series or film I can recall, The Pacific shows how not only combat but also the terrible anticipation and fear of combat can break even the toughest veteran's will, let alone the wills of bewildered young recruits. Its depiction of all the inhumanity and brutalities of the Pacific theater is probably second to none, and I think it's perhaps the closest any of us non-military folk will get to appreciating all the little horrors of the Pacific theater -- the utter hatred between the U.S. Marines and the Japanese soldiers that led to horrific acts committed against both the living and the dead, the unforgiving and alien environments, and the added dose of hell that came from the stench of decaying, unburied corpses rotting quickly in the warm climates. The Pacific also takes the added step of showing the different mental stages of struggling to cope with the constant threat of injury and death all around. It may not be thrilling to watch Robert Leckie struggle with an unfortunate medical condition and the rain on Cape Gloucester and in a hospital, but it's a part of war that many war films don't even try to tackle. I particularly appreciated how the series showed Eugene Sledge's gradual change from green Alabama boy to an embittered veteran of two island campaigns -- and his episodes showcase some of the worst of war that The Pacific has on offer. And finally, the jumping back and forth between the battlefield and home really pays off in the last episode's focus on the return home, where you witness how a Marine struggles to reconcile his trade (killing) with civilian life and somehow try to shake the nightmares of Peleliu and Okinawa.
Having cast my vote for The Pacific, I still want to emphasize that BoB remains one of my favorite miniseries -- I don't know how many times I've re-watched episodes whenever they came on the History Channel. It'd be interesting to someday watch both series back to back, and to see the small nods that each gives to the other theater of war. BoB basically ends with the paratroopers contemplating a possible deployment to the Pacific for the impending invasion of Japan, whereas characters in The Pacific give the occasional jaded acknowledgment of the war in Europe even as they remain focused on their own miserable conditions. I'm sure that Spielberg and Hanks meant the two series to complement one another, and I think they do that well.
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