Unsentimental Gentleman
IT IS SAID out in Hollywood that,
given a list of ten top directors, any
studio would choose for its next
multi-million dollar spectacular the mild,
soft-spoken, unassuming Robert Wise.
Actors love him because he helps them
to Academy Award performances. Studios
love him because he generally manages to
bring in a picture on time, on
budget, and in a form that earns praise
from the critics and dollars at the box
office. Not only that, Wise is varied. He
seems able to do almost anything, from
the uncompromising realism of I Want to
Live to the operatic West Side Story,
from the superbly manipulated shudders
of The Haunting to the sunny splendors
of The Sound of Music. But whatever
the genre, Wise manages to give it the
style most suited to the material, in
contrast to most directors, who would rather
stamp their pictures with the style most
suited to themselves.
This virtuosity is impressively displayed
in his newest film, The Sand
Pebbles, based on the novel by Richard
McKenna. Set in China in the late
Twenties, it is a vast, wide-ranging adventure
tale, panoramic yet also intimate
as the upsurge of Chinese nationalism is
viewed through the eyes of a handful of
American sailors on a U.S. gunboat assigned
to cruise the Yangtze during this
troubled time.
At the center of the film is Jake Holman,
a "loner," an independent spirit
who has transferred to the tiny San
Pablo from a larger ship because he
wants to run his engine room without
interference. Once aboard, however, he
discovers that in effect the Chinese are
operating the vessel, the crew having
gradually insinuated itself into every
phase of the ship's activities except battle
drill. The officers and his fellow enlisted
men resent Holman's attempts to
do his proper duty as a threat to their
exceedingly comfortable way of life.
But on shore, events in China are posing
a far more formidable threat to their
way of life. The country, divided for
centuries, is being forcibly unified by the
new Nationalist Army; and the leaders
of the new China, joined by the students,
are fanatical in their efforts to drive the
"foreign devils" from their country. As
an understanding missionary explains
the situation to Holman, "What would
you do if Chinese gunboats were sailing
up the Mississippi?"
The missionary, who runs a school far
up the Yangtze, wants no help from the
crew of the San Pablo. A man of peace,
he feels that nationalism can only lead
to wars. When the gunboat arrives under
orders to evacuate him and his staff, he
declares himself a "stateless person" and
refuses to leave. Ironically, in order to
reach the mission, the ship has had to
run a blockade manned by the students
he trained at the school, and its official
protectors. With his protection gone, the
missionary is killed by Nationalist soldiers
and, soon after, so is Holman and most of
the San Pablo's crew.
Obviously, this is not only strange, but
rather strong stuff for a multi-million
dollar spectacular, and a far cry indeed
from the marshmallowy Sound of Music.
But just as, within the limitations of that
film, director Wise was speaking for
human dignity and freedom of the spirit,
in the wider dimensions afforded by The
Sand Pebbles he is able to put forward
some provocative ideas about the nature
of nationalism, American intervention,
and the need for a more basic understanding
among people--ideas that are as
relevant to our role in Vietnam today as
they were to our position in China forty
years ago.
Robert Anderson's brilliantly succinct
script blunts none of this, neither our
untenable position in China in 1926 nor its
implications for Vietnam in 1966. But
the remarkable thing is that he achieves
this with a minimum of harangue. The
missionary is what he is, and he defends
his position only when forced to do so by
the San Pablo's well-meaning but jingoistic
captain. Holman is simply searching
for a decent way of life; and the
tragedy of the film is that when he
finally finds it, it is denied him by the
intolerance of which he was unwittingly
apart.
But action--often bloody, always colorful
--is the essence of this film; and
Wise has been nobly abetted by a script
that keeps hurtling forward for more
than three hours with scarcely a let-up
in pace, by authentic-looking backgrounds
in Taiwan and Hong Kong that
are more than adequate stand-ins for the
Chinese mainland, and by a large and
excellent cast that seems wholly responsive
to what the film is trying to say.
Of the latter, Richard Crenna is outstanding
as the starchy captain. Candice
Bergen attractive as a missionary
teacher, Richard Attenborough effective
as a sailor who falls in love with a Chinese
girl in a house of shame--and all
of them dominated by Steve McQueen,
who is nothing short of wonderful in the
pivotal role of Holman.
-ARTHUR KNIGHT-
Source: Saturday Review - December 24, 1966
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