Would Leckie have returned to Melbourne?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Pacific
Vorenus — 11 years ago(November 12, 2014 04:56 AM)
I watched a number of the series' episodes yesterday on HBO, and was even more convinced that Part 3 is one of the best episodes of the series (perhaps second only to Okinawa).
But back to my question, would Bob have gone back after the war if Stella had not rejected him in the end?
A great deal of his hurt was due to finally feeling like he was an accepted and loved member of a family and being thrown out of it was unbearable to him. His scenes at the family home were great, especially with Stella's mother.
So I suppose it is twofold, if Stella hadn't overheard that conversation, would she have told him to leave? If she hadn't told him to leave, would he have gone back to Australia after the war? Was it true love?
Would the time apart and being home recovering that close to Vera been too strong? His mother does help him out in the end, but he did need a push to get over to her house. -
Ed in MO — 10 years ago(July 13, 2015 01:00 AM)
I read Leckie's book "Helmet for my Pillow" and the Pacific miniseries took a lot of liberties with Leckie's romances in Australia. He actually hooked up with several women in Melbourne and none of his loves were as deep as the one depicted with the Greek girl.
Melbourne is half a world away from New Jersey, and it must have seemed even farther than that in the late 1940's. This was a pre-jet travel age when to get to Australia, one would have to take a train across America and then a ship across the Pacific. I doubt that Leckie would have ever gone back.
A lot of soldiers, sailors, and Marines had romances in Australia in World War II, and I would guess very few ever returned to see their gals. Hell, even forty years ago when travel was much easier, not many GI's went back after Vietnam to look up their sweethearts in Australia or Thailand. -
finbarr-saunders — 9 years ago(August 30, 2016 07:32 AM)
wow. there was no civilian jet travel in the forties?
thanks for the education :
I'm not buying this. The other geezer shipped his lass over from Oz and they lived happily ever after. Leckie could have done the same if he'd been that arsed.
Time to face the truth. He wasn't some whimsical windwept Byron-esque romantic, as portrayed. He was just a common-or-garden shagger. Plain and simple. Nowt wrong with that mind you. Plenty of it went on during the war. Then afterwards they all just went back home to mum and dad and the girl(or boy) next door.
The real issue is just script/screenwriters spinning these characters up in the name of drama to be far more "interesting" than they in fact were.
Go on Stanley, stick one in Jane Russell & win a goldfish. -
jporter-6 — 9 years ago(June 06, 2016 11:37 PM)
The romance portrayed the depth of Lecke's love for Stella and his regard for her family. Even though he might have been with other women, such portrayals would have showed him simply as a seeker-of-trollops, a cardboard character type.
We feel after his pursuit of and rejection by Stella that he was a man who was passionate and deep.