Messing about on the river

The Sand Pebbles (1966)

Better known for his musicals Robert Wise directs Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough in this epic drama set in Interwar China based on the novel of the same name. A United States gun boat is caught up in the nationalist reunification of China with a story told from the point of view of the ship's new mechanic.

While this film may be about imperialist involvement in China it is hard not to see this as a critique for American involvement in the Vietnam war which was starting to escalate at the time of production. The main themes of the film are colonialism and racism both on a more personal level through the way the crew treats the Chinese they encounter and at a political level. Overall the plot works well in showing the outsiders attitudes to the Chinese but also the ideas of honour and pride that motivate some of their misguided actions, particularly in the last third of the movie. It is also good to see that there is no sugar coating of the Chinese nationalists and communists who oppose the Americans as can often be the case in films on this subject.

Despite a fairly painful production the film is well made and well acted, McQueen picked up his only Oscar nomination for his role in this film. The film is a little slow in places compared to some modern films that have to rush along from action sequence to action sequence but this is not a dull film and I did not feel that it dragged at any point.

4/5 a good film.