BOOK/MOVIE: The Sand Pebbles (1962/1966)

 

                        “The Sand Pebbles” is based on the novel by Richard McKenna.  It was directed by Robert Wise (“The Desert Rats”, “Run Silent, Run Deep”).  While he was developing it, he took some time off to direct a little movie called “The Sound of Music”.   The movie was filmed in Taiwan (where a planned nine weeks shoot lasted seven months) and Hong Kong (three months).  He wanted Paul Newman as the lead, but had to settle for Steve McQueen.  McQueen was paid $650,000.  I’m not sure he thought it was worth it as he had a horrible experience.  He suffered from an abscessed molar which he refused to have looked at until he got back to an American dentist.   He did not make another movie for two years (“The Thomas Crown Affair”). He received his only Best Actor nomination, losing to Paul Scofield in “A Man for All Seasons”.   The movie was nominated for a total of eight Academy Awards, but won none.  It was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Mako), Art Direction – Color, Cinematography – Color, Film Editing, Sound, and Original Music Score (Jerry Goldsmith).  Richard Attenborough won the Golden Globe for Supporting Actor. 

                        The opening prologue informs that the movie is set in 1926 China.  The country is under the thumbs of warlords and is oppressed by foreign powers.  There are also political factions trying to unite the country.  The little gunboat San Pablo (known to the crew as Sand Pebble) is tasked with patrolling the Yangtze River to show the flag and protect American property and citizens.  Some of those citizens are missionaries who detest the gunboats because they remind the Chinese of foreign oppression.  The San Pablo is docked at Shanghai when a new crewman arrives.  Jake Holman (McQueen) is a machinist’s mate, first class.  He is a sailor, but the only thing he is interested in is engines.  When he comes aboard, the first thing he does in introduce himself to the engine.  “Hello, engine.  I’m Jake Holman.”  He befriends Frenchy Burgoyne (Attenborough), but his anti-military body language puts him on the outs with his by-the-book skipper Lt. Collins (Richard Crenna).  The rest of the crew also are slow to warm to him.  The crew (called the Sand Pebbles) does not officially include the Chinese workers on board.  They are called “coolies” and do most of the work, including taking care of the engine.  Holman butts heads with a coolie named Chien.  Chien is the boss of the coolies running the engine, but Jake plans on running his engine himself.  This rocking the boat makes Jake unpopular with the crew.  Jake takes on Po-Han (Mako) as his apprentice.  They develop a strong bond that will end with one of the more memorable deaths in war movie history. 

                        Life on board the gunboat is good.  They eat well and have the coolies doing all the menial labor.  They go ashore to a bar where they drink and go upstairs with the girls.  Frenchy falls in love with one named Maily (Marayat Andriane).  Jake is in an awkward relationship with a missionary named Shirley Eckert (Candace Bergen in her second movie).  Both these relationships will buck the tide.  Americans are supposed to use, not fall in love with, Chinese women.  Missionaries and sailors are on opposite ends of how America should deal with China.  The two romances are going to be impacted by the increasingly chaotic political situation in China.  Forces loyal to Chiang Kai-shek are attempting to unite the country by eliminating the power of the war lords.  Foreigners make convenient targets.  The San Pablo is a symbol of that colonialism.  The gunboat ends up besieged by Chinese mobs led by young revolutionaries.  Eventually, it goes on a mission to rescue missionaries (including Shirley).

                        “The Sand Pebbles” is an epic that does not feel like an epic, aside from the length.  It is set during a conflict (The Northern Expedition 1925-27) that very few Americans were aware of, then and now.  The most the movie cares to do for historical knowledge is to make it clear that things were very messy.  The San Pablo gets caught in the middle of this mess.  There is a debate about how much the movie was a criticism of our involvement in Vietnam.  Although the book came out before we sent troops, director Wise has stated that he was interested in commenting about the war.  Personally, I don’t see a lot in the movie that applies to Vietnam.  Even with a length of three hours, the movie does not spend a lot of time on colonialism.  It also does not hammer the racism theme.  The coolies are exploited and the Chinese are looked down on throughout, but this is not the focus of the film.  Essentially, the movie is the story of two doomed romances set in a tumultuous period of Chinese history.  Frenchy/Maily and Jake/Shirley reflect the two themes of condescension toward the Chinese people and the opposing views of the benefits of colonialism.  Actually, since Jake is apolitical and sympathetic through his relationship with Po-Han, it’s the crew that represents the worst aspects of colonialism.  There is boxing match between Po-Han and Stawski (Simon Oakland) in which the big American bullies the weak Chinaman.  The missionaries, like Jameson, are depicted as very naïve in their belief that the Chinese will make exceptions for the missionaries just because the missionaries hate colonialism and are neutral politically. 

                        There are three main reasons to watch this movie.  First, the acting is stellar from a good cast.  McQueen is excellent as the conflicted and emotionally frigid Holman.  He is more comfortable with machinery than people and McQueen gets this across.  It’s appropriate that there is little chemistry between him and Candace Bergen.  Attenborough is strong as the love-struck Frenchy.  His humanity contrasts well with the racism of the crew.  Crenna is perfect as Collins.  In the book, Collins is a good leader who follows the rules no matter what his better judgment tells him.  Although the movie is a small unit movie, it does not highlight a dysfunctional crew and is not anti-authority.  Mako had his first big role and it is probably his most memorable performance.  In a morose movie, he has the most poignant moment.  The second reason to watch is the setting and sets.  Filming in Taiwan and Hong Kong may have been expensive and problematical, but it results in a beautiful film.  You are transported back to 1920’s China.  The San Pablo is a star in the movie.  The $250,000 spent building a replica of a gunboat was money well spent.  The engine room set is a standout.  Third, although it takes a while to get to it, the movie has one of the best battle scenes in war movie history.  The San Pedro has to break through a boom blocking their path to rescue the missionaries.  The buildup is tense and supported by Jerry Goldsmith’s excellent score.  The action is visceral and realistically messy.  This scene leads directly into the powerful climax at the mission.  This movie finishes very strong.

GRADE  =  B+

THE BOOK:  Spoiler alert – I will be discussing the plot of the book through the end..

                        Richard McKenna served on gunboats in China in the 1930’s.  Gunboats like his had traditionally patrolled the rivers and coastline to protect American interests.  The coolies grudgingly benefited from this and bars and brothels were happy to take American money.  Sailors tended to look down on the Chinese they interacted with and underestimated the anger.  The book, more than the movie, makes this dynamic clear.   The book is able to go into more detail supporting the premise that the crew were ugly Americans.  It is clear in the book that the Sand Pebbles (as the crew was called) wanted to fire on the Chinese regardless of the international repercussions.  Collins is the only one who looks at the big picture.

                        The book begins with Holman arriving at the ship.  “Hello ship”.   He goes to see the engine.  “Hello engine”.  “Jake Holman loved machinery in the way some other men loved God, women, and their country”.   Boy, does the novel back this up!  He is not a fan of the coolie system.  He flashes back to meeting Shirley on the trip.  She is described as not pretty.  Lt. Collins is skeptical of Holman because his record shows he avoids leadership.  Chien runs the engine room and he and Jake take an instant dislike for each other.  Later, in an incident similar to the movie, Chien is mortally wounded trying to fix the engine.  The coolies do not blame Holman, they are upset because they think Chien’s ghost is haunting the engine.

                        The romance between Frenchy and Maily is fairly close in the movie.  The boxing match between Po-Han and Ski is similar (but even more unrealistic), but the reason is Holman has gotten the crew to agree that if Po-Han wins, the crew will agree to take Po-Han back after Lop Eye had fired him.  Frenchy does win enough money to get Maily.  The auction occurs after the fight.  In the book, Collins’ wants Holman to transfer because he does not like his attitude that the engine is an important job and can’t be left to the coolies.  He does not consider Jake to be a Jonah.  Po-han death is similar, but he was not set up by Lop Eye, he volunteers to go into the city to get milk.  Jake is totally broken up by what he had to do and takes a while to recover.  The incident where a shore party is pelted by a Chinese mob is essentially the same.  The courtship between Jake and Shirley is chaste and ends after an awkward moment of intimacy.  Shirley does plant in Jake’s mind the idea of deserting and going to China Light to run the machinery.  Frenchy’s death is similar, but more poignant.  No one else is involved, Jake simply finds Frenchy dead in an alley.  Maily’s fate is left unclear, but it could not have been good.  The Chinese do not surround the ship and demand Jake because they accuse him of killing Maily.  Their excuse is Jake punched Lop Eye in an incident involving a pig!  The crew is justifiably upset that Jake brought this mess on because of a pig and they do want to turn him over.  The morale was already bad because there is a food boycott.  Jake was already being viewed as a Jonah.  Reading the book gives you a better feel for why the crew is anti-Holman.  Collins refuses to turn over Jake and has a mutiny on his hands.  Collins comes close to committing suicide, but then decides to restore order and regain the ship’s honor by going to China Light to rescue missionaries who don’t want to be rescued.  With the prospect of action, the crew regains its morale.  The fight at the boom is enhanced in the movie.  Jake’s only role is to cut the cable with an axe. He is not armed with a B.A.R. and he does not kill anyone and certainly not Cho-Jen.  Collins leads a small group to China Light where Craddock (Jameson in the movie), Gillespie (not in the movie, possible love interest for Shirley) and Shirley refuse to leave.  They change their minds after a messenger arrives with word that Cho-Jen was killed at the boom and the Chung (a radical group) are coming to execute Craddock.    The Chung arrive and open fire, killing Craddock.  Holman convinces Collins to leave with the others and stays to be killed. 

                        I would recommend the book if you want to understand the movie better.  For instance, Jake is in the navy because he took the fall for alcohol at a high school party and the judge gave him the choice of the military or reform school.  Personal motivations and characters are fleshed out in the book, naturally.  You also understand the political situation better.  The crew is almost a person in itself with Jake being an outsider.  In the book the crew comes off as prejudiced, petty, lazy, and cowardly.  They can’t wait for a war to begin so they can open fire on their tormentors, and yet they are willing to give up Jake to a mob because they are afraid.  They respect Collins, but refuse to follow his orders during a crisis.  McKenna obviously knows his sailor life as the book is full of sailor slang and traditions.  The movie avoids most of this.  He also knows his engines as there is a lot of explanation of the parts of the engine and how it works.  I found those parts very boring.  There are other entire chapters that are tedious. Jake dominates the book (although not as much as the movie), but McKenna makes side trips to China Light to catch up with Shirley.  Cho-Jen, her genius prodigy, has a much bigger role in the book.  There are entire sections that are left out of the movie, for good reason.  Maily, after her “marriage” to Frenchy, lives with Po-Han’s family.  Jake and Frenchy visit several times.  The ship is stuck in Changsa harbor and the Chinese are inflamed by a drought which they blame on foreigners.  Rain ends this anticlimactically.  This is a good example of how a screenwriter can remove unnecessary scenes to tighten the narrative.

                        As usual, I find the movie better than the book.  The screenwriter Robert Anderson (who was nominated for a Golden Globe) had the advantage of the source material.  He was able to lop off some of the branches and trim the tree.  He made some changes to what he kept and those changes were for the better in most cases.  This is true for the Frenchy/Maily arc and the improvements he makes to the boom battle and the climax.   Because of time constraints, Anderson had to abandon the discussions in the book that explained why things were happening.  For box office purposes, this was a necessary decision.  No one watches this movie to learn about the Northern Expedition.  The tightening of the structure has the effect of sharpening the unpredictable nature of the novel.  When you read the book, you are less surprised by major developments like the death of Frenchy.

GRADE  =  B-