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72% Critic Match
The Sand Pebbles
“This is the heroic story of the men on the U.S.S. San Pablo who disturbed the sleeping dragon of savage China as the threatened world watched in breathless terror.”
7.2 / 10• 1966• 3h 16m•PG-13• English
DramaWar
Storyline
Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and cynical nature soon clash with the 'rice-bowl' system which runs the ship and the uneasy symbiosis between Chinese and foreigner on the river. Hostility towards the gunboat's presence reaches a climax when the boat must crash through a river-boom and rescue missionaries upriver at China Light Mission.
Cast & Crew
Steve McQueen
Jake Holman
Lead
Richard Attenborough
Frenchy Burgoyne
Richard Crenna
Captain Collins
Candice Bergen
Shirley Eckert
Mako
Po-han
Larry Gates
Jameson
Charles Robinson
Ensign Bordelles
Simon Oakland
Stawski
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. Robert Wise's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
4.0
“Every frame feels alive. The Sand Pebbles is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
