The Sand Pebbles (1966)

[lester1/2jr]

     this is that movie you sometimes see on TCM where there is a little chinese guy fighting a big american sailor in a bar surrounded by other chinese people and sailors cheering them on.  It's long (3 hours )  and some parts are more exciting than others but all in all it's a very good movie.    certainly better than, say, Ice Station Zebra.    I had never seen Steve McQueen before and he was great.  I also liked the chinese actress who's name I don't know as the hostess at the brothel the sailors go to.  She is clearly not cut out for the whore house life style and one of the sailors concern for her drives an interesting sub plot.  Some of the politics are a little heavy handed but the movie itself is not utopian or PC or anything like that.  shows that the communist uprising was stupid but pretty much inevitable.

[peter johnson]

This is one of several hundred American films that do-it-all Phillippino actor Mako appeared in.  Here he's the "subservient" cabin-boy, ship's launderer -- I was lucky enough to work with him on "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" --
* * *
Yes, a very good film indeed.  Try to find the Mad Magazine parody of it in one of their anthologies, as they really nail a lot of the conventions of the day --
peter johnson/denny crane

[The Burgomaster]

I bought this DVD 2 or 3 years ago and really enjoyed it.  McQueen was good, but I thought his performance would have been better because he got an Oscar nomination.  I suspect it may have partially been a "pity" nomination because he was a box office star for several years but never received an Academy Award.  I sort of feel the same way about John Wayne in TRUE GRIT.  Certainly one of the Duke's best performances, but I'm not 100% convinced it was Oscar worthy.  I think he got somewhat of a break because of his popularity at the box office.  Not to mention Art Carney getting a questionable Oscar for HARRY AND TONTO . . .

[Neville]

Very good film, I saw it as a kid and some of its images are deep buried in my mind. I saw it again a few years ago, found it good but with its share of problems. Like the idea od pressenting McQueen's character as somebody who wants to fit in the Sand Peebles, then forget about it, or how, when it comes to the Big Action Scene the film wants it to exploit it both ways, as the Big (and rousing) Action scene and as a monumental f**k up from a captain with a death wish.

And finally (and this is always a problem with Robert Wise films), it wouldn't have hurt to trim the running time just a little bit.

Not that it is a bad movie, it's a rather good one. After all, it does have a bunch of memorable scenes (a personal favourite, McQueen shooting a crew member who has been captured), good performances, wonderful sets and cinematography, and a desire to transform some long forgotten Chinese conflict into a sort of Vietnam allegory. Can't remember the last time I went to the movies and the film had even a subtext that wasn't "try the popcorn". 

[lester1/2jr]

Wise made a disaster movie "the hindenberg" that I really liked.

[Neville]

And a disastrous Star Trek movie too, let's not forget that. 

[peter johnson]

Wise also did 3 of the coolest movies of all time, for lovers of this website:  The Haunting, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and, perhaps the best of the bunch: . . . CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE!!!

Yeah, he also did Sound of Music & West Side Story, but nobody's perfect . . .

peter johnson/denny crane

[Neville]

Alright, "The haunting" rules, I admit it.

[trekgeezer]

Don't forget  The Andromeda Strain, The Sound of Music, The Body Snatcher, and one of my fave submarine movies Run Silent, Run Deep (Can' beat having Clark Gable and Don Rickles in the same movie).


The man had a lot more hits than misses.  He also has a lot of people to share blame with over STMP. .

[Allhallowsday]

I like ROBERT WISE movies, including THE SAND PEBBLES, but have to say I've never liked THE SOUND OF MUSIC very much, but I think that's a matter of taste.  THE HAUNTING is great (but not perfect, though nearly so...)  WEST SIDE STORY still works for me and I really like the music.  He also directed EXECUTIVE SUITE, ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW, and I WANT TO LIVE! three superior films that I love. 

[BoyScoutKevin]

Based on the novel of the same title by Richard McKenna, which is a somewhat fictionalized retelling of the story of the American gunboat U.S.S. San Pablo, which was sunk by the Japanese, during their invasion of China in the 1930's. The sinking almost leading to war with Japan.