THE SAND PEBBLES

US, 1966, 193 minutes, Colour.
Steve Mc Queen, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen.
Directed by Robert Wise.

The Sand Pebbles was one of the big films of 1966, gaining many Oscar nominations including best picture. It was nominated for many other awards and Richard Attenborough won a Golden Globe for best supporting actor. Steve Mc Queen himself was nominated as best actor.

The film is set in China in 1925, a time of great turmoil with the warlords and the anti-imperialist revolutionary moves. It was only twenty-five years before the communist revolution and the ascendancy of Mao Tse Tung. (Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil takes place in the interiors of China in this same era and this is well portrayed in the 2006 version with Edward Norton and Naomi Watts.)

Steve McQueen? comes from the United States to be in charge of a patrol boat. His American ideas clash with the Chinese way of doing things, rice bowl diplomacy, saving face. He has to learn what it is to be an American in China. Richard Attenborough and Richard Crenna as well as the Japanese actor Mako are strong in support. Candice Bergen, at the beginning of her film career, is the female lead.

The film was directed by Robert Wise who had begun as an editor with Val Lewton in the 1940s, made some horror films but then moved into mainstream films of many genres including The Day the Earth Stood Still. In 1961 he won an Oscar for best director of West Side Story and again in 1965 for The Sound of Music.

1. Was this an enjoyable adventure film? Its epic size? As successful human drama? Was it a successful big budget spectacle?

2. The meaning and tone of the title? The focus on the boat and the men? The need for audience in such a big and long film?

3. The quality of the panavision filming, the colour and locations, the musical theme and its use throughout the film, the impact of the stars? Why do audiences enjoy these ingredients? In films like this?

4. Audience response to the Chinese setting? Interest in China, in the Chinese past, in America's role in China this century, the exotic atmosphere, of Americans away from home? How well did the film use its Chinese atmolsphere and settings?

5. The importance of the war background for the film? The film as pervaded by an atmosphere of hostility? How unreal compared with American backgrounds of the West did this war and hostility seem? The disruptive effects on a country, its people, on visitors like the Americans? The effects of war?

6. How important was the commentary on American activity in the East? Chinese hostile attitudes towards the Americans? How justified were these? How honourable was the American's behaviour because of their involvement?

7. How important was heroism in this film? The nature and quality of a hero? The need for heroics? For other people? Issues of life and death and personal involvement? The importance of the cause? The meaning of life, suffering and death?

8. How attractive wa s Steve McQueen? as the hero of this film? The Mc Queen type hero? The orphan. the misfit at home, working to save people away from home, laconic, questioning orders, difficult to work with, involved in fights and friendship? The impact of the war atmosphere which was bigger than the hero? The emotional changes in his life? The demands made in terms of life and death? Could audiences identify with this ? Or could they merely admire it?

9. How important for the film was the picturing of the morale of the Americans, life on the gunboat, the fights amongst the crew, relationships with the Coolies. life on shore, the hostilities of the men amongst themselves in the face of war and Chinese hostility? The repurcussions on McQueen?

10. How realistic was the love interest in the film? The relation between Holman and Shirley? The way that this was presented? The initial encounter, the friendship, Shirley's charm, her dedication to her work, being rescued? The effect of sharing, danger, of getting to know one another, the visit to the zoo and their talking? The impact of Shirley's return on Holman? As a motive for him to go and save her? His dying for her? How attractive was Shirley as a heroine? As an American away from home, doing good?

11. How important was the character of Frenchie? As a contrast to Holman? His work on the ship? His friendliness? The impact of his love for Maly? His devotion to her, his escaping from the seige, his marrying her, the importance of his dying for her? The meaning of his life?

12. The importance of such sequences as the fights and encounters in the brothel, the marriage ceremony, the incidents and fights on the ship?

13. What use was made of various incidents to make points about war and men in war? The seige of the ship, the torturing of the Chinese, the forcing of the boom?

14. How violent was the film? Was it appropriately violent for a war film? The fights themselves? The coolie being tortured? Holman shooting him, the fighting at the boom, the axe killing, the final shooting? What was the purpose of such violence in the film?

15. The significance of the captains decistons about the role of Americans? His relationship with Holman? What kind of man was the captain? His trying to follow orders, his decisions. his seeking some kind of heroism? Was he right to have ignored orders and to have attavked the boom? What was he trying to prove? The significance of his death?

16. The impact of the final violence: the death df the missionar:y'and the betrayal of all he stood for, Shirley's decision to go, the captain's death and its meaning, Holman's death and its meaning?

17. How much was the film to be taken as an ordinary adventure spectacle? How much as a war film and a commentary on the meaning of life and death in war?