Wider Screenings film review - Sand Pebbles (1966: d. Robert Wise)

FILM FACTS

* Emananuelle Arsan who stars as Maily later became the author and inspiration behind the erotic French hit Emmanuelle, played by Sylvia Kristel in the movies.

* Pat Boone lobbied for the lead role but was passed over by director Wise, reportedly because he did not want a singer-turned-actor in the lead role.

* The book on which the film was based was inspired by Navy gunboats in China in the 1930s. Critics seized upon the film adaptation for its Vietnam ar allegories though these were not present in the original source material.

* Steve McQueen's only Academy Award nomination was for this film.

THE SAND PEBBLES (1966: d. Robert Wise)
d. Robert Wise; pr. Robert Wise; scr. Robert Anderson; novel. Richard McKenna; ph. Joseph MacDonald; m. Jerry Goldsmith; ed. William Reynolds; cast. Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Candice Bergen, Emmanuelle Arsan, Richard Crenna, Mako, Simon Oakland, Gavin MacLeod (179 mins)
(updated 19-Feb-2012 10:55 AM )

These ornate, high-budget films were bigger than life, epic in both scale and ambition. The features of the Roadshow movie were its running time (usually approaching three hours), its delicate pace, lavish sense of spectacle and the presence of an instrumental overture before the movie and during an intermission. These films were highly promoted and marketed as Academy Award contenders, the Roadshow format thus reserved for movies with the stamp of studio ambition, quality and prestige. Such movies were the “event” occasions of their day and even ticket prices were raised by select theatres to befit the pomp of the moment. Robert Wise is one of the directors often associated with these films, having made the successful West Side Story: 50th Anniversary Edition [Blu-ray] in the early 1960s. Following the Academy Award success of that musical, Wise tried to set up a protracted, detailed adaptation of a then successful but controversial book, The Sand Pebbles. When this was delayed, Wise was offered another project, accepting The Sound of Music (45th Anniversary Blu-ray/DVD Combo Limited Edition). Following the huge success of that movie, Wise was to be virtually enshrined as one of Hollywood’s foremost directors and when he returned to his earlier intention was able to realize the much more ambitious and politically contentious The Sand Pebbles with apparent total studio support and creative freedom.

The Sand Pebbles is set in China in 1926, when nationalist revolutionary movements were protesting the presence of foreign military powers, particularly the USA.

Steve McQueen here plays a sailor, an engineer newly transferred to a US gunboat, the San Pablo. He is a very nondescript person, unconcerned with others and content just to do his job. On the boat, he soon finds that there are factors complicating his desired indifference. When the Chinese engine officer is injured, McQueen is ordered to train a replacement (Mako). He does so and over time forms a respect and friendship with a man he had earlier dismissed, along with all Chinese, as another “slopehead”. He is forced into more drastic action when revolutionaries capture his new friend. His crewmate (Richard Attenborough) intends to save a Chinese girl from being sold into slavery and prostitution and McQueen also seeks to help him do so. The Chinese revolution deepens and the US gunboat is soon under a state of siege. During an excursion McQueen is blamed for murder and the US gunboat captain (Richard Crenna) is demanded by the revolutionaries to hand McQueen over. Soon, his fellow crewmates border on mutiny rather than be so tied down by the Chinese. When war is declared, the gunboat travels up river to rescue several stranded missionaries (including Candice Bergen) and there McQueen must face his greatest moral reckoning.

Intimate Character Study Within Liberal Critique of US Imperialism and Socio-cultural Degradation

Despite its format, much of The Sand Pebbles manages to be an intimate film, a forceful character study.

Yet, it is also memorable today as a fascinating treatment of US Imperialist foreign policy, its quite scathing criticisms all the more prophetic considering that the film was released only shortly before the Vietnam War divided American society. Thus, the film charts one man’s growing repugnance for the crass, racist exploitation perpetuated by his arrogant fellows, although he is bound to it by circumstance. It reveals his growing awareness of the true depths of his moral and cultural predicament and explores his reaction to such. He starts out as an indifferent participant in a form of cultural and social exploitation, going to a bar and picking up a Chinese prostitute. Indeed this activity is depicted as emblematic of American foreign policy – to control by the threat of violence and subsequently plunder a people for sexual gratification. Whatever political context may exist for their presence, he and his many fellows have at first no respect for such a foreign culture and its people. Slowly, through his friendship with Mako and with the gentle Attenborough, McQueen realizes the ugliness and crudity of American behaviour; the film charting his journey from a man with no aspirations to a man who realizes his responsibility as a human and an American, even if it may prove more than he can handle.

Throughout the film is a question of why America should be in a foreign nation, enforcing its will through force until it threatens to get out of their control.

Working with such a powerful message, Wise lets it emerge through the story and the characters, never overstating his theme and in the process making telling points about American Imperialism and the role of violence as a fallback to a sense of traditional American glory. The film ultimately finds no heroism in American violence especially when such is aimed against the internal nationalist desires of a foreign country. As such, the film even probes the origins of the “Yankee Go Home” mentality that has greeted America throughout the century, thus finding some validity in anti-American sentiment. It is subtly critical of the American national character although sees in McQueen and Attenborough the potential for a reforming humanity. Its exploration of the casual cultural exploitation of a nation and people by crass, indifferent and even vulgar Americans is, however, complemented by a thoughtful analysis of the burden of command faced by the captain: another form of American pride and expression of the potential folly of American foreign policy. There is much to be had from this intelligent film, evidence of the cumulative and expansive power of Wise’s restrained direction and of the political criticism he managed to inject into many of his films.

The 16:9 enhanced widescreen transfer here captures the director’s subtle and consistent palette.

There are vibrant scenes of the local riverside existence and the film makes a telling contrast between the boat’s patrolling Chinese territory and the soldiers’ behaviour in a local whorehouse. Wise contrasts the large and small-scale dramas, inter-cutting them to resonant impact in the scenes of Chinese rebellion. The Sand Pebbles is a film of powerful moments, indeed having some of the best scenes in Wise’s career. The transfer preserves the clarity of the many depth of field shots and backgrounds are always clean and crisp. Black levels are deep and much is cleverly made of the differences in the gunboat’s changing appearance as it progresses through the film, a subtle reflection of American pride and collapse. The engine is almost another character and Wise expertly chronicles McQueen’s pride in relating to it and how it becomes his bridge to a human connection with Mako. Wise’s angles, set design and lighting all also contribute to a sense of danger in the engine room scenes. Foregrounds are especially vivid and colour is never overplayed – variations on the cleanliness of the sailors’ uniforms in their environs also a sly indication of American presence and pride. It is full of telling details and moments but the often-sparse set design ensures that the accent is always on the human drama.

Presented in what seems a fresh Dolby Digital 4.0 Surround transfer it locates the voices well within screen and frame space, complimenting the widescreen design and making this remarkable film an ideal home theatre experience, especially for audiences only familiar with previous pan-and-scanned television prints. There is a wealth of audible detail and considerable atmosphere in both the large and smaller scale scenes, adept at conveying the cultural codes and clashes within each location. Voices are resonant and the gentility of tone in Attenborough especially is used for notable effect in contrast to the brashness of some other crewmembers, particularly Simon Oakland. Likewise, the rumble of the engine that is McQueen’s pride and joy has a fullness that makes for a much-needed consistent aural background to the gunboat’s journey. This occasionally oppressive engine noise adds a documentary-like physicality that is a neat compliment to the action. Crowd sequences have an exciting vibrancy and the scene of Mako’s capture is here particularly harrowing, building to a devastating single gunshot that propels McQueen into a new conviction and involvement in the fate of others. Boasted by an excellent score, this both respectful and enhancing transfer does justice to both the breadth and the then technical advancements of the Roadshow format.

There is an original trailer, three promotional radio spots and two radio documentaries narrated by Attenborough. The first concerns the sounds of life in the Taipei locations and the second concerns the filming of the gunboat. A still gallery offers some scenic and intimate behind the scenes moments. Foremost, however, is an entertaining commentary track by director Wise and actors Mako, Crenna and Bergen. It covers the actors’ takes on McQueen, then at the height of his stardom but an apparently deeply troubled man. Mentioned is the Roadshow period of American filmmaking, how the project originated, the production logistics and the difficulty of shooting on the actual boat. It considers the film additionally visually impressive today due to the absence of any computer enhancement in the more epic scenes, stressing the reality of everything that is seen in true scale. It covers which scenes the director and actors consider McQueen’s best, and reveals particular praise for the long scene of his bonding with Mako. There is also praise for Wise’s sense of comedy and tension and his deliberate, assured pace. The actors all briefly discuss the film as prophetic in terms of the attitudes to the Vietnam War. They talk of the problems accommodating the weather and Bergen interestingly speaks of Wise’s directorial style in terms of his set designs and use of space.

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