Director Robert Wise masterminded such a box office hit in 1965 with The Sound Of Music that the executives at Twentieth Century Fox gave him virtual total control and an immense budget for his next project. That project - The Sand Pebbles - is a passable epic set in 1926 China which, while technically well done and colourfully performed, is decidedly on the long side and hampered by irrelevant allegorical links with the Vietnam War. On the plus side, the film features arguably the best performance ever given by Steve McQueen, and expensively recreates a convincing view of its period and locale despite being shot forty years after the incidents on screen. The film was envisaged as a major "event movie" from the studio, alongside the same year's The Bible: In The Beginning and The Blue Max. But, despite being up for eight Oscars, the film won in none of the categories for which it was nominated - which tells you everything you need to know. This is one of those films that looks good, sounds good, tells a worthy story at great length
. but ultimately fails to do justice to its own potential.
In 1926, US Navy engineer Jake Holman (Steve McQueen) transfers from an ocean-based warship to the river gunboat San Pablo. The San Pablo patrols the Yangtze River in China under the orders of Captain Collins (Richard Crenna). Collins likes to keep his engine room crew busy, while the officers and deck sailors spend most of their time carrying out combat drills. However, Holman performs his engine room duties with such conscientiousness and gusto that he gradually alienates himself from most of the other crew members. During their journeys up and down the river, Holman falls in love with a teacher at a mission outpost, the young and beautiful Shirley Eckert (Candice Bergen). He also forms a strong friendship with fellow sailor Frenchy Burgoyne (Richard Attenborough), who has saved a Chinese prostitute from a life of vice and degradation by marrying her. The political situation in the country deteriorates and the crew of the San Pablo find themselves caught up in a difficult situation. Things reach crisis point when a Chinese crew member is captured and tortured because of his allegiance to the Americans. Worse still, the afore-mentioned mission outpost is attacked by Chinese soldiers, and the San Pablo has to smash through a blockade of Chinese junks thereby declaring an intent of war in order to rescue the missionaries and their colleagues. This act of foolhardy heroism proves to be fatal for many of the San Pablo's beleaguered sailors.
The Sand Pebbles is based on a best selling novel by Richard Mackenna, who actually served in the China River Patrol (albeit in 1936, ten years after the events depicted in his story). Robert Anderson's screenplay incorporates much of the novel's complexity within its mammoth narrative, but the decision to turn the film into an apologetic Vietnam allegory is not a wise move. A film like this would be better off dealing with its own period and story, rather than dragging in heavy-handed subtextual meanings. Cinematographer Joseph MacDonald gives the film an exciting visual grandeur with his sumptuous lensing of the locations (Taiwan standing in for 1920s China), but Robert Wise's efforts to make the film succeed as entertainment generally come up short due, in no small part, to the heavy-going nature of the plot and the well-documented production difficulties (including bad weather, plus "creative differences" between him and McQueen).
In 1926, US Navy engineer Jake Holman (Steve McQueen) transfers from an ocean-based warship to the river gunboat San Pablo. The San Pablo patrols the Yangtze River in China under the orders of Captain Collins (Richard Crenna). Collins likes to keep his engine room crew busy, while the officers and deck sailors spend most of their time carrying out combat drills. However, Holman performs his engine room duties with such conscientiousness and gusto that he gradually alienates himself from most of the other crew members. During their journeys up and down the river, Holman falls in love with a teacher at a mission outpost, the young and beautiful Shirley Eckert (Candice Bergen). He also forms a strong friendship with fellow sailor Frenchy Burgoyne (Richard Attenborough), who has saved a Chinese prostitute from a life of vice and degradation by marrying her. The political situation in the country deteriorates and the crew of the San Pablo find themselves caught up in a difficult situation. Things reach crisis point when a Chinese crew member is captured and tortured because of his allegiance to the Americans. Worse still, the afore-mentioned mission outpost is attacked by Chinese soldiers, and the San Pablo has to smash through a blockade of Chinese junks thereby declaring an intent of war in order to rescue the missionaries and their colleagues. This act of foolhardy heroism proves to be fatal for many of the San Pablo's beleaguered sailors.
The Sand Pebbles is based on a best selling novel by Richard Mackenna, who actually served in the China River Patrol (albeit in 1936, ten years after the events depicted in his story). Robert Anderson's screenplay incorporates much of the novel's complexity within its mammoth narrative, but the decision to turn the film into an apologetic Vietnam allegory is not a wise move. A film like this would be better off dealing with its own period and story, rather than dragging in heavy-handed subtextual meanings. Cinematographer Joseph MacDonald gives the film an exciting visual grandeur with his sumptuous lensing of the locations (Taiwan standing in for 1920s China), but Robert Wise's efforts to make the film succeed as entertainment generally come up short due, in no small part, to the heavy-going nature of the plot and the well-documented production difficulties (including bad weather, plus "creative differences" between him and McQueen).