Thursday, Mar. 11

Bruce McKenna on The Pacific

Executive Producer/Writer Bruce McKenna speaks about the writing process on the new HBO miniseries “The Pacific” which starts this Sunday night. He covers the benefits of writing a series over a single 2-hour feature, making a slight jab at the classic father/son storyline which has been repeated sooo many times over the past decade. Basically describing a Steadfast Son and a Change Father (the father experiencing the greatest emotional change). He points out too that the reason you have to boil it down to a single “arc” or “archetype” is that you really don’t have much time to do too much more.

But what is really interesting (and hopeful for me, at least) is that he promises that this WWII series will not cover the same tired ground. I don’t know, but for me, watching the trailers so far, it really seems like it’s going to be the same ‘ol storming the beach, soldier falling in water, gunshots penetrating the icy surface, and shot after shot of war-weary faces. McKenna says that The Pacific will take an intimate look at the psychological effects of the war and perhaps even dive into “negative” characters and explore their darker side. Spielberg himself, apparently, even requested that there be “no blinking” and that they depict the amoral depths these soldiers had to experience.

Here’s hoping Sunday pays off.