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The Sand Pebbles (1966)

Rate: 7
Viewed: 10/08, 3/24

10/08: Well, Steve McQueen's acting career had been validated after being rewarded with an Oscar nomination for his work in The Sand Pebbles.

Unfortunately, it's not the best performance of his career. What Steve McQueen did in Papillon still blows the doors off of the other one. Yet it's a nice subdued job, allowing me to enjoy the three-hour confusing, murky picture.

I've tried hard to understand what it's saying. Apparently, there's a job to be done, and outside of it, there's a life. So, it's hard to tell what's more important in the face of military matters.

The acting is good, especially from Mako, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen, and, of course...the greatest of them all, Steve McQueen.

All in all, I'll need to see The Sand Pebbles again later to make more sense out of it.

3/24: Trying The Sand Pebbles again, I have to say it isn't a great movie, and thus, I'm downgrading the rating from '8' to '7'.

Yes, it's quality filmmaking from start to finish, but the stories are all over the place. That's the problem. Director Robert Wise needs to stick with a dominant theme. That way, I can understand why I'm sitting through this three-hour film. There are two nice aspects: it was shot on location in Taiwan and Hong Kong and the wonderful cinematography by Joseph MacDonald.

I won't say the performance have gone wasted, but they don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Steve McQueen may be Oscar-nominated; it's rather ordinary. He's been better in other films such as Papillon, The Great Escape, and Junior Bonner. On the other hand, Richard Attenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice Bergen, and Mako are fine.

All in all, The Sand Pebbles got overnominated to death only because it looked and felt like a quality film, but really, it's hurt the most by Robert Wise's meandering direction.

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