Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

A dramatization of the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.

Director:

Allan Dwan

Writers:

Harry Brown (screenplay), James Edward Grant (screenplay),

Stars:

John Wayne, John Agar, Adele Mara

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Wayne	...	Sgt. John M. Stryker
John Agar	...	Pfc. Peter Conway
Adele Mara	...	Allison Bromley
Forrest Tucker	...	Pfc. Al Thomas
Wally Cassell	...	Pfc. Benny Regazzi
James Brown	...	Pfc. Charlie Bass
Richard Webb	...	Pfc. 'Handsome' Dan Shipley
Arthur Franz	...	Cpl. Robert Dunne / Narrator
Julie Bishop	...	Mary
James Holden	...	Pfc. Soames
Peter Coe	...	Pfc. George Hellenpolis
Richard Jaeckel	...	Pfc. Frank Flynn
William Murphy	...	Pfc. Eddie Flynn (as Bill Murphy)
George Tyne	...	Pfc. Harris
Hal Baylor	...	Pvt. 'Sky' Choynski (as Hal Fieberling)

Storyline

Marine sergeant John Stryker seems a martinet and a bully as he trains young Marines for combat in the Pacific war. In the end, as survival in the bloody battle of Iwo Jima depends on the lessons Stryker has drilled into them, his troops discover why he was so hard on them.

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Plot Keywords:

battle | iwo jima | combat | sergeant | tarawa | 

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Taglines:

A great human story... makes a mighty motion picture.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | War | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Official Sites:

Universal Studios

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 March 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

Du warst unser Kamerad

Filming Locations:

Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, Oceanside, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Republic Pictures (I)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min 109 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A colorized version of this movie has been made.

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Goofs

Two errors are visible when Stryker is attacked by the Jap: Stryker's positioning and arm movement is not consistent, and the Jap is hit by the handle of the entrenching tool before Conway throws it.

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Quotes

[During the night the squad is guarding a trenchline amid word that the Japanese may launch an attack. From out of the night a faint voice can be heard calling "Corpsman."]
Pfc. Benny Regazzi: [his voice hushed] Stryker!
Sgt. Stryker: [hushed] Get down! Stay down! You have your orders, don't move!
Pfc. Peter Conway: [hushed] There's somebody wounded out there. Let's go get him!
Sgt. Stryker: Stay down, it might be a Jap trick, they pulled it off plenty of times at Guadalcanal.
Pfc. Peter Conway: That doesn't sound like a Jap to me!
Sgt. Stryker: I don't care what it sounds like to you! You stick ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

Historical note_ The first American flag was raised on Mount Suribachi by the late Sgt. 'Ernest I. Thomas Jr', U.S.M.C. on the morning of February 23, 1945.

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Connections

Referenced in Avalon (1990)

User Reviews

Important for John Wayne fans

John Wayne did a bunch of war movies, always playing the heroic soldier. It is ironic then that he was considered medically unfit for service in WWII. Nonetheless, "Sands of Iwo Jima" is certainly the definitive John Wayne war movie. He got his first Oscar nomination for this movie which is enough to make it important just for that (he was only nominated one other time, winning for "True Grit").

The movie plot is just straight formula and has the same collection of ethnic types that you find in every war movie ever made---the fast-talking big city guy, the farm boy, the wisecracking Italian, etc. The battle scenes had to be sanitized for audiences back then and the treatment of the Japanese as the enemy in this movie is outrageously stereotyped by today's standards. Every time the Japanese come on camera the background music turns sinister and the little Japanese actors have an appropriate villainous and fanatical look to them. The only war movie I can think of where the Japanese are humanized in any way is "Bridge on the River Kwai" while there are many movies where the German soldiers and especially General Rommel, are portrayed if not sympathetically, at least respectfully.

Catch the last scene where the three real-life survivors of the Iwo Jima flag raising are given the flag by the Duke to raise on Suribachi. One of the flag-raisers, John Bradley, was so modest about his exploits afterwards that he didn't even have a copy of the famous flag-raising photo hanging up in his home. It wasn't until after he died that his children learned that he had won the Navy Cross for his heroism in the war. The book written by his son, "Flags of Our Fathers" is being made into a movie by Steven Spielberg and is sure to be sensational. No doubt that it will be immediately compared to "Sands of Iwo Jima" which, until "Flags" comes out, is the definitive movie about that battle.