1966 American period war film directed by Robert Wise
The Sand Pebbles is a 1966 American epic war film directed by Robert Wise in Panavision. It tells the story of an independent, rebellious U.S. Navy machinist's mate, first class, aboard the fictional river gunboat USS San Pablo, on Yangtze Patrol in 1920s China.
The film stars Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna and Candice Bergen, and features Mako, Simon Oakland, Larry Gates and Marayat Andriane in supporting roles. Robert Anderson adapted the screenplay from the 1962 novel of the same name by Richard McKenna.
The Sand Pebbles was a critical and commercial success during its general release. It became the fourth highest-grossing film of 1966 and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Lead Actor for Steve McQueen, his only Oscar nomination, and eight Golden Globe Awards, with Attenborough winning the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.
Plot
In 1926, during China's Warlord Era, Jake Holman transfers to the Yangtze River Patrol gunboat USS San Pablo as their new engineer. The ship is nicknamed the "Sand Pebble" and its sailors are "Sand Pebbles".
The crew hires unofficial Chinese workers to do most of the work, leaving the American sailors to focus on boarding exercises. Holman upsets the balance as he takes hands-on responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the ship's engine, but becomes close friends with Frenchy, a seasoned yet sensitive sailor.
A problem with the engine causes the death of Chien, the chief Chinese engine worker, due to an issue Holman noticed but the captain declined to fix. The leader of the Chinese workers, Lop-eye Shing, blames Holman for the death, and the captain tells Holman he needs to find a Chinese replacement. Holman trains Po-Han to actually understand the work they are doing. However, his close relationship with Po-Han causes friction with the American sailors.
While on shore leave, the sailors spend time at a bar and brothel run by a former sailor. They are all transfixed by Maily, the new hostess, and would gladly take her to bed, only to discover that she fetches a very high price since she is still a virgin. Frenchy discovers the price is actually the debt she needs to pay off to get her freedom.
One of the sailors, Stawski, conspires with Shing to get Po-Han fired. Holman convinces Stawski to participate in a boxing match: if Stawski wins, he gets the money needed for a night with Maily; but if he loses, Po-Han gets his job back. Stawski dominates the early fighting, but Po-Han won't stay down, and eventually Stawski's lack of stamina causes him to be down for the count. As he is being counted, the alarm sounds for all sailors to return. They embark just ahead of an angry torch-wielding mob: the captain had gotten word of a battle between British warships and a Chinese warlord that has soured Chinese opinion of foreigners. It has also boiled over into the Chinese Civil War between the Communist Party under Mao Zedong and the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek. The San Pablo must remain neutral while rescuing stranded Americans, including Jameson, a missionary, and Shirley Eckert, his schoolteacher assistant. During the rescue, Shing sends Po-Han ashore, where he is caught and tortured by a Chinese mob. Holman violates the captain's orders by shooting Po-Han, putting him out of his misery.
As the ship returns to port, they find local opinion of them has not improved. Jameson and Eckert continue their mission on shore. At the bordello, Frenchy tries to pay for Maily's freedom, but instead an auction breaks out. Holman trys to help Frenchy pay the higher amount, but a fight breaks out and the three of them make a break for it. Eventually, Frenchy and Maily have an unofficial marriage in an empty church somewhere. Holman and Eckert fall in love, but he tells her it can't last. The crew of the San Pablo finds themselves stuck for the winter, waiting for the water levels to rise. The Chinese workers abandon ship, and all shore leave is cancelled. Frenchy regularly swims to shore to be with Maily, but swimming in the cold winter waters eventually causes his death. When Holman discovers his death, Chinese forces come in, kill Maily, and frame Holman for her murder. They surround the ship and demand his surrender. Eventually, the crew also demands he surrender, until the captain fires a gun across the bow of a Chinese ship and calls for the San Pablo to attempt to leave.
The same day, they received word of the Nanking Incident. They travel to rescue Jameson and Eckert, as Americans are now all in grave danger. The San Pablo must break through a barricade of roped-together junks blocking the river. A team is sent to cut the rope. Fighting breaks out and twelve U.S. crewmen and many Chinese are killed. Holman chops through the rope while under fire. He kills a young Chinese militiaman who attacks him, then recognizes him as a friend of Jameson and Eckert. Once free, the ship continues upriver.
Upon arrival, Jameson and Eckert refuse rescue, claiming that they renounced their U.S. citizenship. Collins orders Holman to forcibly remove Eckert and Jameson, but Holman declares he is staying with them. Nationalist soldiers suddenly attack, killing Jameson. Collins orders the patrol to take Eckert to the ship, and remains behind to provide cover fire. Collins is killed, leaving Holman in command. Before parting, Holman and Eckert declare their love, with Holman promising to follow her shortly. Holman kills a dozen soldiers but is fatally shot as he is about to rejoin the others. His last bewildered words are, "I was home. What happened? What the hell happened?"
Eckert and the remaining two sailors reach the ship, and the San Pablo sails away.
Production
Development
For years, Robert Wise had wanted to make The Sand Pebbles, but the film companies were reluctant to finance it. The Sand Pebbles was eventually paid for, but because its production required extensive location scouting and pre-production work, as well as being affected by a monsoon in Taipei, its producer and director Wise realized that it would be more than a year before principal photography could begin. At the insistence of the film company, Wise agreed to direct a "fill-in" project, The Sound of Music, a film that became one of the most popular and acclaimed films of the 1960s.[citation needed]
Pre-production
The film company spent $250,000 building a replica gunboat named the San Pablo, based on the USS Villalobos — a former Spanish Navy gunboat that was seized by the U.S. Navy in the Philippine Islands during the Spanish–American War (1898–1899) — but with a greatly reduced draft to allow sailing on the shallow Tam Sui and Keelung Rivers.[4] Although it was supposed to be based on the Villalobos, the replica's final design was closer to that of 1928 river gunboats than that of the Villalobos.[5] A seaworthy vessel that was actually powered by Cummins diesel engines,[6] the San Pablo made the voyage from Hong Kong to Taiwan and back under her own power during shooting of The Sand Pebbles. After filming was completed, the San Pablo was sold to the DeLong Timber Company and renamed the Nola D, then later sold to Seiscom Delta Exploration Co., which used it as a floating base camp with significant modifications, including removal of its engines and the addition of a helipad.[7] The boat was towed to Singapore and broken up in 1975[8]
Robert Wise's cinematographer from The Sound of Music, Ted McCord, had taken a scouting trip to the Asian locations, but he informed Wise that his heart problems made him not capable enough to shoot the film.[9]
Filming
The Sand Pebbles was filmed both in Taiwan and Hong Kong.[10] Its filming, which began on November 22, 1965, in Keelung,[11] was scheduled to take about nine weeks, but it ended up taking seven months.[12] The cast and crew took a break for the Christmas holidays in Tamsui, Taipei.[citation needed]
At one point, a 15-foot camera boat capsized on the Keelung River, setting back the schedule because the soundboard was ruined when it sank. When the filming was finally completed in Taiwan, the government of the Republic of China was rumored to have held the passports of several cast members because of unpaid additional taxes.[12] In March 1966, the filming moved to Hong Kong and Shaw Brothers Studio for three months, mainly for scenes in Sai Kung and Tung Chung. In June, production traveled to Hollywood to finish its interior scenes at Fox Studios.[citation needed]
Due to frequent rain and other difficulties in Hong Kong, the filming was nearly abandoned. When he returned to Los Angeles, McQueen fell ill because he had an abscessed molar. He had not wanted to see a dentist until he returned to California. His dentist and physician ordered him to take an extended period of rest, one that halted production again for weeks.[citation needed]
Some filming took place on the dreadnought-type battleship USS Texas, but these scenes were cut from the final film and have been lost.[citation needed]
Themes and background
The military life of the San Pablo's crew, the titular "Sand Pebbles", portrays the era's culture and colonialism on a small scale through the sailors' relations with the coolies, who run their gunboat, and the bargirls, who serve them off-duty, as well as, on a large scale, with the West's gunboat diplomacy domination of China.
Although the 1962 novel antedated extensive U.S. activity in Vietnam, and was not based on any historic incidents, by the December 1966 release of the film, it was seen as an explicit statement on the U.S.'s extensive combat involvement in the Vietnam War in reviews published by The New York Times[13] and Life magazine.[14]
Release
It rained the night of the premiere, December 20, 1966, at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City. Afterward, McQueen did not do any film work for about a year due to exhaustion, saying that whatever sins he had committed in his life had been paid for when he made The Sand Pebbles.[15][16] He was not seen on film again until two 1968 films, The Thomas Crown Affair and Bullitt.
Critical reception
The film was acclaimed by a wide array of critics. The film has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews.[17]
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it "a beautifully mounted film" with "a curiously turgid and uneven attempt to generate a war romance". Crowther thought, "It is not as historical romance that it is likely to grab the audience, but as a weird sort of hint of what has happened and is happening in Vietnam."[13]
Arthur D. Murphy of Variety declared it "a handsome production, boasting some excellent characterizations. Steve McQueen delivers an outstanding performance."[18]
Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times called it "adventure on the grand scale, of a kind on which the British have too long enjoyed an exclusive monopoly. 'The Sand Pebbles' earns a place up there beside 'The Bridge on the River Kwai,' 'Lawrence of Arabia,' 'Doctor Zhivago,' et al ... Too, the parallel with 1966 and Vietnam could hardly be more timely."[19]
Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post called the film "a strong story with highly unusual backgrounds, a character perfectly suited to Steve McQueen and an engrossing drive that falters only because three hours is a bit much."[20]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "History, of course, never really repeats itself in the way script-writers would like it to, and the parallel between China in 1926 and Vietnam today is distinctly dubious. But this striking of attitudes is the film's undoing, since it seriously undermines the narrative by presenting the characters as little more than pawns in a didactic chess game. And in any case, the script never decides which side of the political fence it wants to sit on."[21]
Brendan Gill of The New Yorker wrote that McQueen "works hard and well" in his role but described Robert Wise's direction as "molasses-in-January".[22]
Box office
According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $21,200,000 in rentals to break even, and by December 1970, made $20,600,000.[23] In September 1970, the studio recorded a loss of $895,000 on the movie.[24]
Accolades
The performance earned Steve McQueen the only Academy Award nomination of his career.
The film is recognised by American Film Institute in these lists:
