Rating: 
Summary: A memorable big movie from the 1960's
Review: Robert Wise was most well-known at the time he made this movie as the director of West Side Story and The Sound of Music, but he had directed top-notch action pictures like The Day the Earth Stood Still and the submarine picture Run Silent, Run Deep as well as the gritty drama I Want to Live. As far as I'm concerned he was far more at home in this kind of material than elsewhere, and it is regrettable that this picture has been overshadowed by the two musicals. This is a big production--a big star, color, scope, location photography--like so many movies of the era but it is far more dramatically compelling than most blockbusters. Steve McQueen certainly gives the best performance of his career in the loner/outsider role that fit him perfectly. (Bullitt may be McQueen's best movie, but it is little more than a showcase for the star.) The Sand Pebbles was strikingly photographed by Joe McDonald and it is unfortunate that the video is only available in pan-and-scan; I hope Fox will see fit to put out a DVD in the correct format sometime soon, since this would make an excellent candidate for digital transfer.
Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT !
Review: Spent some time in China while Stationed in Thailand. It offers a Military mans perspective of China and the Chinese Culture. The movie brought back a giant flood of memories of my visit there. Its very realistic in many ways ! Many of the events in this movie actually happen.
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING!!!!!
Review: AN EXACTING ACCOUNT OF LIFE IN THE ASIAN COUNTRY OF THAT ERA. THE PERFORMANCE OF MCQUEEN AS THE DUTYBOUND SAILOR AND AS THE HAD-TO-BE GOOD GUY/SAMARITAN, PROTECTOR OF THE LITTLE GUY AND PEOPLE WAS FANTASTIC. A RIVETING VIEW OF THE IGNORANT INDIVIDUALS, MCQUEEN HAD TO FIGHT/STAND-UP TOO ON BOTH SIDES!! HARDCORE DEVOTION/ NOT TO BACK DOWN ATTITUDE, A SOLID "THESE COLORS DON'T RUN", STYLE MOVIE!!
Rating:
Summary: One of the "Nominated" movies that many forgot about.
Review: This movie has an excellent story from the novel by Richard McKenna (?) which draws you into the characters and what they are going through. The cinematography and musical score in their attention to the scenes that are being played are right on the mark. This would have been a great movie to have seen on the big screen. Robert Wise is a legend in his directorial talent and shows it here. The acting is first rate and, besides Steve McQueen, some of the other actors are Sir Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen (her acting debut), Mako (a very popular and excellent Asian character actor), and others which you will recognize. It's a movie for those that want to see an excellent story played out in film instead of being bombarded by the typical fare of today's films. There are certainly some Asian stereotypes portrayed in the film, but this is part of the story and I think that this is truly the way that most Caucasian Americans saw the Asian people in 1926. I am surprised at how few people know about this film when it is such an excellent one.
Rating:
Summary: An Instant Classic
Review: Though it borrows greatly from Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls," this tense Steve McQueen vehicle pulls few punches in delivering its timely message about the futility of imperialism and war without purpose. The action star gives a brilliant performance as Jake Holman, an American ex-patriate assigned to an all-but-forgotten gunboat patrolling the Yangtze River in the early 1900s. Holman's desire to do right--including treating the Chinese coolies aboard as human beings, rather than latter-day slaves, and helping a good-natured friend (Richard Attenborough) realize his romance for an abused Chinese woman--clashes with the misdirected and often selfish sensibilities of those around him, especially his prideful but immasculated commanding officer (Richard Crenna), leading to a series of tragedies that Holman is powerless to avert. Director Robert Wise, whose films range from brilliant to lackluster, is in top form here, giving "The Sand Pebbles" a sense of David Lean-esque largesse without ever losing sight of the characters, even in the heat of battle. Jerry Goldsmith's score will stay with you long after the final credits roll. Even with the film's plot about factions in an Asian country opposing foreign attempts to control it a thinly veiled allegory to Viet Nam, "The Sand Pebbles" never devolves into an Americans-good/Chinese-bad melodrama; like real life, it is often subtle, complex, exhilerating, tragic, and haunting.
Rating:
Summary: A Film About War That Define's What Film Can Say
Review:
Robert Wise has directed so many films that have become classics, to single one out as best, seems pointless.
The Sand Pebbles is what filmmaking can say and do to an audience. It's what great filmmaking can and should be all about.
Although this film is about China at the turn of the Century- about conflict, occupation or presence of one nation by other nations, and political confusion- it's really about people and how we're moving through a wind that can change direction at any turn, leaving us directionless.
The amazing thing about this film and all of its character's is how they all make up the whole of what we, as human beings, are all about. And every one of them is right in their own belief system. Crenna's Captain is a moral man, looking to represent America's military presence in as precise and diplomatic way as he can. The missionary's stance is equally correct. 'Damn all flags'. McQueen's 'Holman' is the most impressive of all. Self contained and committed to nothing, initially, he grows the most to offer the final summation of this film. 'I don't have any more enemies' and ' come with me, we're going to a place where it doesn't matter who we are. We'll all be the same, there'. "
It's ultimate statement, I personally think, is a warning to all of us. " What the hell happened? I was home. "
Robert Anderson's screenplay- brilliant. Robert Wise's direction- brilliant. Jerry Goldsmith's musical score- brilliant. James Wong Howe's cinematography- brilliant. Crenna, Attenborough, Mako- brilliant. The support cast- terrific.
And McQueen.... Robert Wise once said, watch him and you'll never see his 'acting'. Think about it and you'll get it. Watch this film and you really will. The transition this character undergoes is an example of how good an actor (and under-rated) he was.
There's nothing more to say than brilliant work. It really is.
Rating:
Summary: McQueen's Masterpiece
Review: I heard a popular song the other day with Steve McQueen as part of the refrain. It's a type of music my kids listen to so I asked my daughter if she knew who Steve McQueen was. She had a vaque idea that he was once an actor. He was. He may have not been a Laurence Olivier but his was a commanding presence. Fortunately, he left behind a number of good, very good and several great movies. All things considered, "The Sand Pebbles" was the most impressive to me.
This movie qualifies as an epic film. It has all of those essential requirements; great costumes, realistic sets, great acting, great directing, great music, interaction with history, and more (including, if you saw it in a theatre, an intermission). This movie focusses on some of the back pages of 20th Century history; China during the time of the war lords. We follow the sailors of a minor gun boat; the San Pablo. Most of the men are from the fringe of American society. Most want to just put in their 20 years and retire on pension and buy a bar in Shanghai or some such place. Whatever makes life easier is good and whatever gets them closer to retirement is better. Along come a engineer, Jake Holman (McQueen) who just wants a ship's engine that he can operate alone in his own little world. Unfortunately, he finds that there is a system on the ship that leaves much of the work to Chinese "coolies". In his attempts to change the system, he alienates the rest of the crew. This may not sound like a very compelling plot. However, events start to happen, much of them as a result of the shakeup that Holman has caused on the ship. Ultimately, the San Pablo is called into action and the movie ends fairly climatically.
As with most epic pictures, a lot of interpersonal relationships develop in this movie. The primary one is between McQueen and Candice Bergen who has come to China to help with a Christian mission. There is another relationship between a shipmate named Frenchy and a Chinese girl but the movie stays focussed on Jake Holman and how he changes from a loner to someone who finds himself more and more putting it on the line for someone else. The movie ends with this transformation placed in an ironic perspective.
Some would argue that his performance in "Bullitt" was his best acting. However, "The Sand Pebbles" was Steve McQueen's only Oscar nomination. It is well worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: one of the most underrated movies...
Review: this is a stunning film. With incredible acting, great screenplay, lovely sights of China. This shows Steve McQueen's top notch acting abilities. I can't see anyone else playing the role of Jake Holman except for Steve (they were thinking of Paul Newman to play Holman) Richard Attenborough at his best, newbie Mako did a very great job. I didn't like Bergman so much but there are many scenes in this movie that are just unbelievable. Steve should have won for this, Mako should have won for this. This movie should have won it's oscar!!! VERY UNDERRATED FILM!!
Rating:
Summary: A timeless classic of the time of Old China's awakening.
Review: This film, along with The Great Escape, established Steve McQueen as a major star, but it is much more than a vehicle for McQueen. This is a wonderful story of the intersection between Western culture and Old China, in the period when China was seeking to emerge as a modern nation.This is the story of one Jake Holman, a sailor in the American gunboat navy in China. The Navy's mission is to protect American/Western missionaries, businessmen, their lives and property. Holman serves on the USS San Pablo, known to her crew as the "Sand Pebble." Holman has a passion for engines, and sought to serve on the Sand Pebble on the notion that his engineering expertise would make him valuable and autonomous aboard. Instead, he learns that each American sailor has a Chinese servant who actually performs all of that sailor's routine duties. Holman is thus effectively prevented from performing his engineering role. Nor are the Chinese, untrained in engineering and acting by wrote, able to safely handle the ship's power plant. An undercurrent to the story is Holman's struggle to get control of the management of the ship's antiquated but essential engines. Holman's struggles to establish his place on the ship take place against the panorama of a China seeking to throw off foreign domination and become a modern nation-state. This is the larger story, effectively presented in this excellent film. This film is a reasonably faithful adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name. The cinamatography is superb, and the DVD appears to be a pretty good transfer from the original film. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: "Damn your flag, damn all flags!"
Review: Steve McQueen is the classic American loner, as one observer puts it, "As long as he obeys orders the Navy takes care of him, its a life that appeals to a certain kind of man." It is not so much the Navy that appeals to McQueen's character, Jake Holman, as it is the solitude of the ships engine room, where he is the master and commander. Upon arrival on his new ship, the San Paulo, nicknamed the "Sand Pebble", Holman is in for a surprise. In keeping with the traditions of the 1920's South China Seas US Navy, locals have been brought aboard to do all the work, including in the engine room (South China Sea vets say all with this film is accurate save that key point, the engine room would have been off limits in most cases). The world is changing in many ways. Jake tries to keep his personal world from crashing by helping a fellow sailor who has fallen for a local girl, even though he should know better, and by trying to resist his own temptations to a fresh faced young missionary in the person of Candace Bergen. Richard Crenna is excellent as a prima donna Captain who sees Holman as a threat to his system even before he comes aboard. The political world is also in flux. With the Russian Civil War at an end, revolution is spreading to China as Communists and Nationalists both try to wrest China out of the grip of warlords and foreign powers. The acting by even the most bit players is believable in every nuance and there are simply too many stand-out performances to mention, from Simon Oakland's bullying ship-board nemisis to McQueen to Larry Gates as a frustratingly idealistic missionary. From Action to Romance this movie hits the bullseye every time. This is simply a classic of movie-making regardless of genre, era, or actors. It is top-notch in every respect. Thank goodness for wide-screen DVD, the ONLY way to watch this film. Nowhere is the non wide-screen, "pan and scan" technique more strongly indicted than in "The Sand Pebbles", I've sat through numerous viewings in that format where characters engaged in conversations can't even be seen! Widescreen DVD is the only way to go on this one.
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