| The Sand Pebbles | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster byHoward Terpning | |
| Directed by | Robert Wise |
| Screenplay by | Robert Anderson |
| Based on | The Sand Pebbles byRichard McKenna |
| Produced by | Robert Wise |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Joseph MacDonald |
| Edited by | William Reynolds |
| Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | 20th Century-Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | |
| Country | United States |
| Languages |
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| Budget | $12.1 million[2] |
| Box office | $30 million[3] |
The Sand Pebbles is a 1966 Americanepicwar film directed byRobert Wise inPanavision. It tells the story of an independent, rebelliousU.S. Navymachinist's mate first class, aboard the fictionalriver gunboat USSSan Pablo, onYangtze Patrol in 1920s China. The production was filmed on location inTaiwan andHong Kong.
The film starsSteve McQueen,Richard Attenborough,Richard Crenna, andCandice Bergen, and featuresMarayat Andriane,Mako, andLarry Gates in supporting roles.Robert Anderson adapted the screenplay from the 1962novel of the same name byRichard McKenna.
The Sand Pebbles was a critical and commercial success during its general release. It becamethe fourth-highest-grossing film of 1966, and was nominated for eightAcademy Awards, includingBest Picture andBest Actor forSteve McQueen, his only Oscar nomination, and eightGolden Globe Awards, with Attenborough winning the Golden Globe forBest Supporting Actor.
In 1926, China during itsWarlord Era, NavyMachinist's Mate First Class Jake Holman transfers to theYangtze River Patrol gunboat USSSan Pablo as their new engineer. Almost immediately, he upsets the crew when he will not accept thecoolies they use to do most of their duties. Instead, Holman takes personal responsibility of the engine room. He befriends a seasoned sailor named Frenchy.
After an engine malfunction caused by a problem Holman noticed, but the captain refused to repair, the chief Chinese engine-room worker dies. Lop-eye Shing, leader of all the Chinese workers on board, blames Holman. The captain tells Holman he must find a Chinese replacement, so he chooses the simple but genial Po-han.
The sailors onshore leave visit a bar and brothel run by a former sailor. A high-priced virgin named Maily captivates the crew. Frenchy discovers that her price is the debt she must pay to get her freedom.
Holman's nemesis Stawski conspires with Shing to get Po-han kicked off the boat, in response Holman proposes aboxing match; if Stawski wins, he gets the money needed for Maily, but if he loses, Po-han keeps his job. Stawski is almost beaten when the alarm sounds, forcing the crew to rush back to their boat, but Holman forces theten count to finish. A Chinese mob has been angered that British warships have fought abattle with Chinese warlords on the Yangtze River.
When theChinese Civil War begins, theSan Pablo is ordered to remain neutral, while rescuing stranded Americans up river. Po-han is sent ashore by Shing while the sailors collect Jameson, a missionary, and Shirley Eckert, his schoolteacher assistant. After being caught by a mob, Holman violates the captain's orders to stay neutral by shooting Po-han to end hisbrutal death on shore.
Back in port, Chinese locals openly show their hatred towards the sailors. Jameson and Eckert head off to a new mission. Frenchy tries to buy Maily's freedom, but instead she is put up for auction. Holman tries to help Frenchy pay the higher price, but a fight breaks out. The three of them escape. Frenchy and Maily have an unofficial marriage in an empty church. Holman and Eckert start to meet and fall in love, but he thinks it cannot last, as he will likely be leaving China soon.
As winter comes, the boat becomes stuck as the river level drops. Shore leave is cancelled when the Chinese workers abandon the crew and a flotilla of local civilians blockade the ship. To see Maily, Frenchy regularly swims the freezing waters, but eventually he catchespneumonia and dies. Antiforeign Chinese forces kill Maily and frame Holman for her murder. They surround the ship and demand his surrender. With tensions rising and the crew also demanding Holman leave, the captain fires aLewis gun, ending the matter.
Captain Collins decides to rescue Jameson and Eckert from their new mission after hearing ofantiforeigner riots inNanking. However, theSan Pablo encounters a line of tetheredjunks blocking their way sparking an armed conflict. Under fire, Holman chops through the rope. He kills a Chinese militiaman only to recognize the young man as one of Jameson's and Shirley's students.
The gunboat arrives at the mission, but Jameson and Shirley Eckert refuse to leave. While they argue,Nationalist soldiers attack, killing Jameson. The patrol retreats, but when Collins is killed, Holman takes command. Shirley and he affirm their love; Holman promises to follow while covering their escape. He kills several soldiers, but is fatally shot as he is about to rejoin the others. A dying Holman bewilderingly asks, "I was Home ... what happened? What the hell happened?"
Shirley and the remaining sailors reach the boat. TheSan Pablo slowly steams away.
Former child actor and career naval officerFrank Coghlan Jr., was the film'sU.S. Navytechnical advisor; he made an uncredited appearance as an American businessman.[4]
For years, Robert Wise had wanted to makeThe Sand Pebbles, but the film companies were reluctant to finance it.The Sand Pebbles was eventually financed byTwentieth Century-Fox, but because its production required extensivelocation scouting and preproduction work, as well as being affected by amonsoon in Taipei, itsproducer anddirector Wise realized that principal photography could not begin for more than a year. At the insistence of Fox, Wise agreed to direct a "fill-in" project, theAcademy Award-winningThe Sound of Music.[5]
Fox spent $250,000 building a replicagunboat named theSan Pablo, based on theUSS Villalobos — a formerSpanish Navy gunboat that was seized by the U.S. Navy in thePhilippine Islands during theSpanish–American War (1898–1899) — but with a greatly reduced draft to allow sailing on the shallowTam Sui andKeelung Rivers.[6] The replica's final design was closer to that of 1928river gunboats than that of theVillalobos.[7] A seaworthy vessel that was actually powered byCummins diesel engines,[8] theSan Pablo made the voyage from Hong Kong to Taiwan and back under her own power during shooting ofThe Sand Pebbles. After filming was completed, theSan Pablo was sold to the DeLong Timber Company and renamed theNola 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.[9] The boat was towed toSingapore and broken up in 1975.[10]
Robert Wise's cinematographer fromThe 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.[11]
The Sand Pebbles was filmed in Taiwan and Hong Kong.[12] Its filming, which began on November 22, 1965, inKeelung,[13] was scheduled to take about nine weeks, but it ended up taking seven months.[14] The cast and crew took a break for the Christmas holidays inTamsui, Taipei.
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.[14] In March 1966, the filming moved to Hong Kong andShaw Brothers Studio for three months, mainly for scenes inSai Kung andTung Chung. In June, production traveled toHollywood to finish its interior scenes atFox Studios.
Due to frequent rain and other difficulties in Hong Kong, the filming was halted and nearly abandoned. McQueen had developed an abscessed molar and returned to California because he did not wish to be treated in Hong Kong. By the time he received treatment in Los Angeles, he was very ill and was ordered by his dentist and physician to take an extended period of rest, one that further delayed production for several more weeks.
Some filming took place on the dreadnought-type battleshipUSSTexas, but these scenes were cut from the final film.[15]After more than 40 years, 20th Century Fox found 14 minutes of footage that had been cut from the film's initialroadshow version shown at New York's Rivoli Theatre. The restored version has been released on DVD. The sequences are spread throughout the film and add texture to the story, though they do not alter it in any significant way.[16]
The military life of theSan Pablo's crew, the titular "Sand Pebbles", portrays the era's culture andcolonialism on a small scale through the sailors' relations with thecoolies, who run their gunboat, and thebargirls, who serve them off-duty, as well as, on a large scale, with the West'sgunboat diplomacy domination of China.
Although the 1962 novel antedated extensive U.S. activity inVietnam, 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 theVietnam War in reviews published byThe New York Times[17] andLife.[18]
It rained the night of the premiere, December 20, 1966, at the Rivoli Theatre,750 Seventh Avenue, 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 madeThe Sand Pebbles.[19][20] He was not seen on film again until two 1968 films,The Thomas Crown Affair andBullitt.
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.[21] In September 1970, the studio recorded a loss of $895,000 on the movie.[22]
The film was acclaimed by a wide array of critics. The film has an 85% rating onRotten Tomatoes based on 20 reviews.[23]
Bosley Crowther ofThe New York Times called it "a beautifully mounted film" with "a curiously turgid and uneven attempt to generate a war romance". Crowther wrote, "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."[17]
Arthur D. Murphy ofVariety declared it "a handsome production, boasting some excellent characterizations. Steve McQueen delivers an outstanding performance."[24]
Philip K. Scheuer of theLos 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 besideThe Bridge on the River Kwai,Lawrence of Arabia,Doctor Zhivago, et al ... Too, the parallel with 1966 and Vietnam could hardly be more timely."[25]
Richard L. Coe ofThe 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."[26]
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."[27]
Brendan Gill ofThe New Yorker wrote that McQueen "works hard and well" in his role, but described Robert Wise's direction as "molasses-in-January".[28]
The performance earned Steve McQueen the only Academy Award nomination of his career.
The film is recognized by theAmerican Film Institute in:
Reviews