Capt. Dale Dye, senior military adviser for ‘The Pacific;’ (left) The Author with James Badge Dale, one of the lead actors in the mini-series. (right)

LOS ANGELES – It was for HBO’s forthcoming original mini-series, “The Pacific,” that brought me to the City of Angels recently. I was among the few media people invited to the world premiere of the $200-million production, which has multi-awarded actor Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman as executive producers. They were also the creative team that was responsible for HBO’s previous Emmy and Golden Globe winning series “Band of Brothers,” the world premiere of which I also covered a few years ago in Normandie, France.

As expected from most of our junkets, we were billeted at the posh Four Seasons Hotel along Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills where colleague Ricky Lo and I also stayed for previous coverages for past movies of Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, and Eric Bana among other top Hollywood actors.

“The Pacific,” which will be premiered in Asia (on HBO and HBO HD) on April 3, less than three weeks of its US premiere, is based on the true stories of Marines in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.

Intertwined in the story are the odysseys of three US Marines – Robert Leckie, played by James Badge Dale; Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda).

The 10-episode production tells the extraordinary experiences of the three lead characters and their fellow Marines – from their first clash with the enemy (the Japanese soldiers) in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal to the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up to the bloody sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa and to their triumphant, yet difficult return home  after V-J Day.

“The Pacific” is partly based on the books “With the Old Breed” by Eugene B. Sledge, which was hailed by historian Paul Fussell as “one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war,” and “Helmet for My Pillow” by Robert Leckie (recipient of the Marine Corps Combat Correspondents Annual Award), with additional material from “Red Blood, Black Sand” by Chuck Tatum, “China Marine” by Eugene B. Sledge, as well as original interviews conducted by the filmmakers. Hugh Ambrose, son of Stephen E. Ambrose who began the World War II oral history work, served as a consultant for “The Pacific.”

The screening of the first two episodes of “The Pacific,” was held along Wilshire Blvd. but our round table interviews with the three lead stars (James Badge Dale, Jon Sedda and Joe Mazello), co-executive producer Bruce McKenna, co-executive producer, Tony To, co-executive producer and director, Capt. Dale Dye, the senior military advisor for the mini-series, were held at the Four Seasons Hotel. Of course, we were disappointed that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg weren’t present for the interviews but we knew beforehand that they might not be around. (Hanks was in Normandie though when we were there for the “Band of Brothers” promo launch and premiere.)

In our table were other journalists from France, London, Turkey, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the US.
We had a lively discussion about the project with Capt. Dale Dye who did three combat tours with the 1st US Marine Division and was stationed in Japan, Thailand and the Philippines (he served in Subic Bay for three years). When I told him I was Filipina, he said “I know you are. I know a Filipina when I see one.” I asked him if he fell in love with a Filipina and he said yes, not only to one but several.

Needless to say, he had very memorable experiences in the Philippines and about the war, “but to talk about it all would take me hours,” he laughed. He said he retired in 1984.

For the mini-series, Capt. Dye trained three groups of actors among them Japanese aged 17-18. It astonished and surprised him to find out that they were barely aware that there was a World War II in the Pacific of which their country was a main participant. “I had to teach them about their war history,” Capt. Dye said. Japanese advisors told him that in Japan they don’t tell or teach their young about World War II.

Capt. Dye said that for the “The Pacific,” they used a lot of gunfire and explosives – the brutality of close combat – females wouldn’t like this mini-series for this reason and some others, like watching soldiers in combat grasping for life. “We spent a lot of time so viewers can get a close look at the desperate grasping for life. When you face death, there’s that moment of ultimate desperation – the ultimate desperation for romance, to fall in love, get married and get laid, and all the things that you want to do before you die,” he said.

But it isn’t just gunfire and fighting and explosives that could be seen in “The Pacific,” Capt. Dye stressed. The series has all the elements of a really good depiction of the combat in the Pacific. And it also has a romantic moment in the love story between John Basilone and his girlfriend. Basilone was 18 when he enlisted in the US Army and served three years in the Philippines where he became champion boxer. In 1940, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. and was machine gunner with the 1st Marine Division.

“His love story is the most beautiful but most tragic wartime romance I’d ever come across,” Capt. Dye said. “Because his wife died shortly after they got married. Basilone never remarried.”

The training of the actors under Capt. Dye was enormously intense he said. He had to wear them out not only physically but emotionally and psychologically too in order for them to get the depth and the emotion and understand the elements of service and duty and sacrifice. “I can train them and teach them how to go to war, how to fire a gun and all that in three days but that would be too shallow… I wear them out physically… I want to work on them inside and out, I want to reach into their hearts, guts and mind to get through the emotional walls... everything has to be enormously intense… I won’t tolerate any whining or tears…”

The most expensive HBO mini-series ever made in history, “The Pacific” is produced by HBO in association with Playtone and DreamWorks Television. Filming was done in and around Melbourne, Australia where US troops camped in 1943, and in other locations in Far North Queensland.

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Tidbits: Happy b-day greetings Monday, March 8, go to former Senators Ramon Revilla Sr. and Robert “Sonny” Jaworski, Ms. Lenny Parto, Sarah Balabagan, Chiquita Atienza, Ed dela Luna of Philkraft Mktg. Corp., Col. Apolonio Reyes, Billy C. Ramirez, Juanico J. Dizon, Carmelita J. Fernandez, Onix Ador, Mary Joy Rodriguez, Maricar Rizza Nuevo, Ernel Acosta, Aida Fernandez, Renato “Boy” Samson and Brian Termulo, Crisha Anthonette D. Sibug who turns 4 Monday… Happy wedding anniversary to Danny and Lilia Cruz…