MovieChat Forums > The Sand Pebbles (1966) Discussion > I like this movie.

I like this movie.

posted 15 years ago by jakholman
6 replies | jump to latest

When I was a kid back in the 80s, I saw a preview for the Sand Pebbles on PBS. I remember thinking that all the different things they showed in the minute or so preview, like the fight between Pohan & the sailor, the battle at the boom, the exotic country, & the muntinous crew. I had to watch it when it came on, boy I was not disappointed at all. One of my favorite lines is when Holman says "Get this, the cap't says us sand pebbles gotta keep changin cause we aint made out of brass."
Does anyone have thoughts about their first viewing of the Sand Pebbles? Favorite lines?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] jakholman 15 years ago

Hey SGTSaunders62, I was just watching COMBAT! on dvd, that series reminds me of another Mcqueen movie.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Homang-come-down 12 years ago

Great to hear from another Sand Pebbles fan.

[–] goaddict 14 years ago

First time i watched this movie i was very young, that young that i couldn't understand it completely and didn't know the title, actors or anything. I remembered it was really long, and seemed very powerful. After almost 10 years i was looking over McQueen's films and when i saw the title and the picture i immediately thought of it. I got it as fast as i could and when i watched it the second time i fell in love with it. There are a lot of movies i find good, outstanding, brilliant, but just this one i really love.

[–] Homang-come-down 13 years ago

I watched this over and over again as a kid and preteen and have no doubt that this film influenced my decision to apply to the Foreign Service. (I decided against that career in the end, after having passed both oral and written exams, but I did end up in a similar field.) Without question this is the greatest "China expat" movie ever made, by which I mean a film that will have the ring of truth to all that have lived in China for a time, regardless of century.

Virtually any Westerner who has lived there, and perhaps any Westerner who has lived in a non-Western country, will have little trouble believing that this story was inspired by McKenna's real life experiences on a gunboat in China in the 1930s. Passion like that can't be faked.

And neither can a performance like Steve McQueen's - the erstwhile bad boy Marine who went AWOL from time to time.

Favorite lines?

Can you guess?

Well, apart from that one, I tend to have "main stim stop wow" ringing in my ears from time to time.

And, "Well, shoot something."

And the poignant, "I was home. What happened? What the hell happened?"