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The Sand Pebbles [VHS] [1966]
 
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The Sand Pebbles [VHS] [1966]

VHS ~ Steve McQueen
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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3 new from £3.89 12 used from £2.95 1 collectible from £9.95

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Director Robert Wise chose to film Robert McKenna's award-winning novel The Sand Pebbles as his follow-up to the success of The Sound of Music. Shot in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the film combines historical sweep and intimate human drama in several parallel stories, all revolving around US Navy machinist's mate Jake Holman (Steve McQueen), a skilful but fiercely independent sailor who joins the "sand pebble" crew of the USS 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 heart-breaking 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 colourful 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, Amazon.com

Synopsis
It's 1926. An American gunboat sails into trouble with the Chinese warlords along the Yangtze River.

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The Sand Pebbles [VHS] [1966]
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Sand Pebbles - a powerful and human anti-war film, 8 Oct 2000
By A Customer
"The Sand Pebbles" has been one of my favourite films since I first saw it on television in 1976. It is set in 1926 in revolution-torn China, when the crew of an American gunboat, the San Pablo, is called upon to rescue some American missionaries working far up the Yang Tse river. This widescreen version does justice not just to the sweeping panoramas of the quite breathtaking Chinese scenery, but also to the sweeping events and themes of the story. It is in every way a "big" film, dealing with political and military intervention (clear parallels with Vietnam at the time of release), nationalism, racism, and the horrors of war. Yet for all its heavy themes, it is most successful in the depiction of its very human characters. These characters are not just the means of conveying the "messages" of the film, or fodder for the gripping and well-staged action scenes. They are individuals in their own right, involved in something far greater than their own destinies. Some are unpleasant and ignorant while others are honourable but lost in the sea of historic events surrounding them. Some, like Jake Holman (Steve McQueen), demand sympathy and respect as they struggle to come to terms with their personal challenges brought to the fore by these historically significant and politically dangerous events. Inevitably there are slow and confusing passages as the political implications are expounded, but these are more than compensated for by our emotional engagement as we become involved in the stories of the people caught up in the political fall-out. Robert Wise's direction is strong and emotionally charged, complemented perfectly by Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully haunting and ominous music. Steve McQueen gives what was probably the performance of his career (receiving his only Academy Award nomination), and he is supported by a wonderful cast including Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen (aged just 19), and especially Mako. But it is really McQueen's film. His very presence lifts scenes and he manages to convey authenticity and gain the sympathy of the viewer with consummate ease. Apparently misunderstood by some critics on its release, it is a powerful and intrinsically human anti-war film. It is not a happy film, but it is totally absorbing and thought provoking.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Sand Pebbles / Gripping Adventure Story, 22 Nov 2003
By Rankin Cattan "rankin_cattan" (Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is an excellant movie ,directed by Robert Wise and Starring Steve Mcqueen as Holman an american sailor accused of murder by a puppet communist state in China at the start of the last century.Steve Mcqueen gives an excellant as the tight lipped loner who has to fight his way out of a nasty situation alongside his shipmates,colourful,and exciting "The Sand Pebbles" is well worth a look I would rate it 15
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars It's all in the eyes!, 3 Jul 2003
This review is from: The Sand Pebbles [DVD] [1966] (DVD)
(...)P>'The Sand Pebbles' has all the ingredients of an epic; a running time of well over two hours and a theme that reaches out beyond it's historical setting (pre communist China) to make a comment about the still fresh Vietnam War (...).

Robert Wise showed great foresight in getting the streetwise McQueen to play Holman. A sailor from the working class suburbs of America, a tough kid given the choice between the Navy and jail is almost a reflection of McQueen's own life. But he doesn't play the role for cool; we learn early on that he has trouble with authority and his scenes with Crenna's Captain Collins become increasingly one sided as Holman listens to Crenna's skewed sense of values spiral ever forward into dillusion. But Wise also spends time giving us the full character of Holman - we see his delicate, faltering connection to Candice Bergen's missionary teacher hover on the brink of romance and how he is unable to accept the cultural rules that have orientalised the running of the boat.

In particular McQueen is aided by Mako's performance as the coolie Holman reluctantly takes under his wing in the engine room. A deft comic timing overarches their scenes of education - with the awesome payoff that follows in the most powerful, coruscating scene of the movie. Caught in the most impossible of situations, McQueen's Holman makes a decision few of us would be capable of - the aftermath is one of the great unspoken stretches of virtuoso Hollywood acting. McQueen manages, with only his face (particulary his eyes), to encompass all the feelings that overwhelm his character; unable to communicate with anyone he descends to the engine room where the physicality of his actions displays more rage than any scream. A truly remarkable piece of gut wrentching acting.

So why only four stars? Richard Attenborough is miscast as Frenchy. He is unable to make Frenchy totally believable as either a sailor far from home or a lover (...). There are some loose scenes in the film, the Frency/Maily subplot becoming a little slack in places. But the crew are brilliantly drawn, with particular respect going to stalwart Simon Oakland's super Stawski.

Where Robert Wise and his scriptwriter deserve credit is in the ending of the movie. It is so downbeat that it is impossible to know it ever passed the studio moguls - and has I suspect not helped the film's popularity. But it is a fitting conclusion to the piece and gives McQueen an exceptional, blood curdling last line that probably was said many times in the jungles of Vietnam.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a 2-disc set
...despite Amazon listing it as 1. Also, there's a great little booklet made up of the original 1966 press & promotional materials, a envelope of 4 lobby cards, a typical... Read more
Published 5 months ago by N. C. Bateman

5.0 out of 5 stars A still timely epic on an excellent 2-disc NTSC special edition
The Sand Pebbles, Robert Wise's epic tale of gunboat diplomacy in the turbulent China of the mid-Twenties is hugely ambitious and hugely expensive, yet, as with the best of his... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Trevor Willsmer

4.0 out of 5 stars McQueen at his best
Sand Pebbles is the story of an American sailor, who is stationed on China's Yangtze River in 1926. Though he'd prefer to stay below deck and work on the engines, he falls in love... Read more
Published 21 months ago by M. A. Ramos

4.0 out of 5 stars Ibex Reviews:
This film is a classic. McQueen, the jinxed U.S naval marine engineer sails his gunboat through dangerous Chinese rivers to rescue the beautiful missionary. Read more
Published on 25 Jan 2005 by ibex

4.0 out of 5 stars Lost In Time - Ressurrected On DVD
Here making its DVD debut is the "The Sand Pebbles", an epic tale set in the 1920's starring Steve McQueen & Richard Attenborough as American Marines on board a warship caught and... Read more
Published on 17 Jul 2002 by trini_jselle

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