[.ca] The Sand Pebbles (Widescreen)

From Amazon.com:
Following the success of The Sound of Music, director Robert Wise chose to film Robert McKenna's prize-winning 1962 novel, The Sand Pebbles--an ambitious choice for a director at the peak of his career. Shot in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the film combines historical sweep and intimate human drama in several parallel stories, all revolving around U.S. Navy machinist's mate Jake Holman (Steve McQueen). Holman is a skillful but fiercely independent sailor who joins the "sand pebble" crew of the U.S.S. San Pablo, a Navy gunboat patrolling the Yangtze River on the eve of the Chinese revolution in 1926. The San Pablo's inexperienced captain (Richard Crenna) obsessively defends the Navy's mission--however unnecessary or unwanted--to protect American missionaries and businessmen, blind to the more dangerous implications of American involvement with China's opposing political factions. Holman is a defiant voice of humanity in this clash between outmoded values and inevitable change; his final line of dialogue ("What the hell happened?") is a tragic summation of misguided policy, expressing the film's criticism of the Vietnam War. Rather than preach, however, Wise lets McKenna's potent drama emerge from finely-drawn relationships--between Holman and a young American teacher (19-year-old Candice Bergen, in her second film); between Holman and the Chinese "coolie" (Mako) whose heartbreaking fate transcends all issues of racial or political difference; and between crewmate "Frenchy" Burgoyne (Richard Attenborough) and the Chinese woman he's sworn to love and protect at all costs. Combined with the film's colorful supporting cast, adventurous scope, and climactic battle scenes, these personal dynamics bring substance and spirit to a complex story of good intentions gone awry. --Jeff Shannon

Utterly Serious and Genuine:
Steve McQueen, in one of his best performances, plays Jake Holman, an independent, outspoken, and proudly misfitting sailor with great engineering skills, who is assigned to the American Navy gunboat San Pablo, patrolling the Yangtzee River on the eve of the Chinese revolution. The Communists actively oppose the American presence, and Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists give a cold welcome, at best. All parties are fighting for power. Meanwhile, Holman falls in love with a young teacher, played in a surprisingly low-key way by Candice Bergen. Holman runs against the grain of the hierarchy amongst the Chinese laborers and trains a young man, played by Mako, as an assistant. Holman also butts heads with his inexperienced, spit-and-polish, by-the-book captain, played superbly by Richard Crenna. This is an anti-war movie that does not shout at you. With its intertwining plots, repeated tragedies, and epic scope, it leaves you wondering why America was there, what was the goal, and what was the effect. This is a quietly intense, slow-paced drama loaded with meaning. It is not for the impatient viewer, nor for the faint-of-heart. It is worth owning and watching closely.

Steve McQueen at his best:
The Sand Pebbles is a huge epic of a movie detailing a time in U.S. history that most people prefer to forget. The movie tells the story of the San Pablo, a US gunboat, and its new engineer, Jake Holman. Upon his arrival, Holman upsets the living and working system the crew has with their Chinese coolies. This is just the first of many problems that fall upon the San Pablo. Along the way, the crew must remain their presence as China goes through their revolution. Just the presence of the US gunboat upsets the people. The action scenes, especially the battle with the barricade of junks and the gunbattle in the courtyard are startling and graphic, but very effective. There are plenty of great scenes, especially those between Holman and his new Chinese coolie, Po Han. Their scenes together are great to watch as Holman tries to teach him about how the engine works. This is a great movie that takes its time to get going, but once it does it never slows down. Steve McQueen fully deserved his nomination for Best Actor for his performance as Jake Holman. He became famous for playing the brooding loner, and this performance is no different. Richard Attenborough is also very good as one of Jake's few allies on the ship, Frenchy Burgoyne. Richard Crenna is excellent as the captain of the San Pablo who refuses to question their orders, no matter how ridiculous they may seem. Candice Bergen is very good in one of her first roles as a missionary working with the Chinese people who befriends Jake. The DVD offers widescreen presentation, theatrical trailers, radio documentaries and spots, and commentary by the director. For an excellent movie with fully believable characters, a great story, and well choreographed action scenes, check out The Sand Pebbles!

Awesome movie...:
I don't care if it's a metaphor for Vietnam because it's a good movie and a good story. The acting is fantastic and the action keeps you going. This is a movie about an aspect of history that doesn't seem to get covered much, namely our presence in China before WWII. It was a very turbulent time for China with the emergence of the Communists and the Nationalists and the waning of the Emperor. Stuck in the middle were some of the ships of the US Navy. The best performance in the movie is Richard Krenna by far. He plays a straight laced ship Captain. He is trying to make the best of a bad situation. It's a shame this movie didn't get the recognition it deserves.

A timeless classic of the time of Old China's awakening.:
This film, along with The Great Escape, established Steve McQueen as a major star, but it is much more than a vehicle for McQueen. This is a wonderful story of the intersection between Western culture and Old China, in the period when China was seeking to emerge as a modern nation. This is the story of one Jake Holman, a sailor in the American gunboat navy in China. The Navy's mission is to protect American/Western missionaries, businessmen, their lives and property. Holman serves on the USS San Pablo, known to her crew as the "Sand Pebble." Holman has a passion for engines, and sought to serve on the Sand Pebble on the notion that his engineering expertise would make him valuable and autonomous aboard. Instead, he learns that each American sailor has a Chinese servant who actually performs all of that sailor's routine duties. Holman is thus effectively prevented from performing his engineering role. Nor are the Chinese, untrained in engineering and acting by wrote, able to safely handle the ship's power plant. An undercurrent to the story is Holman's struggle to get control of the management of the ship's antiquated but essential engines. Holman's struggles to establish his place on the ship take place against the panorama of a China seeking to throw off foreign domination and become a modern nation-state. This is the larger story, effectively presented in this excellent film. This film is a reasonably faithful adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name. The cinamatography is superb, and the DVD appears to be a pretty good transfer from the original film. Recommended.

"Damn your flag, damn all flags!":
Steve McQueen is the classic American loner, as one observer puts it, "As long as he obeys orders the Navy takes care of him, its a life that appeals to a certain kind of man." It is not so much the Navy that appeals to McQueen's character, Jake Holman, as it is the solitude of the ships engine room, where he is the master and commander. Upon arrival on his new ship, the San Paulo, nicknamed the "Sand Pebble", Holman is in for a surprise. In keeping with the traditions of the 1920's South China Seas US Navy, locals have been brought aboard to do all the work, including in the engine room (South China Sea vets say all with this film is accurate save that key point, the engine room would have been off limits in most cases). The world is changing in many ways. Jake tries to keep his personal world from crashing by helping a fellow sailor who has fallen for a local girl, even though he should know better, and by trying to resist his own temptations to a fresh faced young missionary in the person of Candace Bergen. Richard Crenna is excellent as a prima donna Captain who sees Holman as a threat to his system even before he comes aboard. The political world is also in flux. With the Russian Civil War at an end, revolution is spreading to China as Communists and Nationalists both try to wrest China out of the grip of warlords and foreign powers. The acting by even the most bit players is believable in every nuance and there are simply too many stand-out performances to mention, from Simon Oakland's bullying ship-board nemisis to McQueen to Larry Gates as a frustratingly idealistic missionary. From Action to Romance this movie hits the bullseye every time. This is simply a classic of movie-making regardless of genre, era, or actors. It is top-notch in every respect. Thank goodness for wide-screen DVD, the ONLY way to watch this film. Nowhere is the non wide-screen, "pan and scan" technique more strongly indicted than in "The Sand Pebbles", I've sat through numerous viewings in that format where characters engaged in conversations can't even be seen! Widescreen DVD is the only way to go on this one.