MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Up 593 this week

The Sand Pebbles (1966)

7.6
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.6/10 from 7,332 users  
Reviews: 86 user | 26 critic

Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat U.S.S. San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution-torn 1926 China. His iconoclasm and... See full summary »

Director:

Writers:

(novel), (screenplay)
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 2309 titles created 5 months ago
 
a list of 1623 titles created 5 months ago
 
a list of 3111 titles created 16 May 2011
 
a list of 1285 titles created 12 Nov 2011
 
a list of 420 titles created 2 months ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: The Sand Pebbles (1966)

The Sand Pebbles (1966) on IMDb 7.6/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of The Sand Pebbles.
Nominated for 8 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 10 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

Life of a Russian doctor/poet who, although married, falls for a political activist's wife and experiences hardships during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Director: David Lean
Stars: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

Director: Fred Zinnemann
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

Three WWII veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.

Director: William Wyler
Stars: Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Dana Andrews
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7/10 X  

A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.

Director: Peter Weir
Stars: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Director: Victor Fleming
Stars: Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil, Vivien Leigh
Casablanca (1942)
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.7/10 X  

Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

Director: Michael Curtiz
Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
Cold Mountain (2003)
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.

Director: Anthony Minghella
Stars: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger
The Beguiled (1971)
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

While imprisoned in a Confederate girls boarding school, a Union soldier cons his way into each of the lonely women's hearts.

Director: Don Siegel
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Geraldine Page, Elizabeth Hartman
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Adventure | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's position in 18th Century aristocracy.

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

At the close of WWII, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.

Director: Anthony Minghella
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.6/10 X  

The Minivers, an English "middle-class" family experience life in the first months of World War II. While dodging bombs, the Miniver's son courts Lady Beldon's granddaughter. A rose is ... See full summary »

Director: William Wyler
Stars: Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright
Drama | Romance | War
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.9/10 X  

When a US Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardizes the ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny.

Director: Edward Dmytryk
Stars: Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
...
...
...
Emmanuelle Arsan ...
Maily (as Marayat Andriane)
...
Larry Gates ...
Jameson
Charles Robinson ...
Ensign Bordelles
...
Stawski
Ford Rainey ...
Harris
...
Bronson
...
Joe Di Reda ...
Shanahan (as Joseph di Reda)
Richard Loo ...
Major Chin
Barney Phillips ...
Franks
Edit

Storyline

Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat U.S.S. 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. Written by Martin H. Booda <booda@datasync.com>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

china | gunboat | missionary | chinese | battle | See more »

Taglines:

THE STORY OF MEN...men who disturbed the sleeping dragon of China as the world watched in terror! See more »


Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence and sexual material | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

|

Release Date:

20 December 1966 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

El Yang-Tsé en llamas  »

Filming Locations:

 »

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (BBFC submission before censorship) | (roadshow)

Sound Mix:

(70 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System)| (35 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

The steam engine was located in California and renovated for the film. The whole engine room was built around it, on a sound stage. See more »

Goofs

During the battle scene at the blockade, Holman is send forward on the port (left) side with two men manning a BAR position. When the main battery on San Pablo fires and hits the mast of a junk, a group of men back aft near midships who are part of the boarding party are seen laughing, Holman being one of them. See more »

Quotes

Po-han: Dead stim!
See more »

Crazy Credits

There is a credit for 'Diversions by Irving Schwartz' in tribute to a mysterious, unknown correspondent whose letters proved a morale booster to cast and crew during trying location work in Hong Kong and Taiwan. See more »

Connections

Featured in The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon (1994) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
Great Movie!
12 August 2002 | by (Farmington Hills, MI) – See all my reviews

This is just one exceptional movie. One of my all time classics.

An examination of the little-known or understood tensions and political ramifications of being aboard an American gunboat, in the 1920's, in the China backwater.

The atmosphere and the story are superb.

Steve McQueen has never been better as Jake Holman, a hard-nosed American sailor, with his own code of right and wrong. His character absolutely dominates the movie. This is the type of character he was born to play.

Richard Crenna's ship Captain was perfect: smug, self-involved, deluded about his patriotism, but a decent man caught in a confusing, thankless, possibly deadly situation.

The rest of the cast in this is tremendous, especially Richard Attenborough, Candace Bergen, Simon Oakland, and Mako.

An absolutely superior film!


21 of 27 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
I can't stand people my age. huggin_possums
Am I the only one to find it sooo boring? Epapadaki
Remake needed? bhague-2
the sand pebbles rhdado2002
I like this movie. jakholman
Original Roadshow version coming to DVD in June 2007! haristas
Discuss The Sand Pebbles (1966) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?