Richard Schiekel's Life magazine review, which can be found at thesandpebbles.com, makes the same point. In it, he notes
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anghmho — 14 years ago(April 02, 2012 12:19 PM)
I recommend that you read the book (IF you can find it in your local library; otherwise, used copies are available for peanuts). Then watch the movie again. Maybe that will help it come together for you.
Don't expect the film to contain all the elements of the novel; that would have been impossible. But "The Sand Pebbles" is a terrific film. And the novel is a great book from a very gifted writer who died too soon. By the way, McKenna, the author, was an old salt who served in what before World War 2 used to be called the "Asiatic Fleet" and he did painstaking research, so he knew of what he wrote. -
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rwsmith29456 — 12 years ago(October 19, 2013 02:57 AM)
Fascinating time in history with a lot of personal, cultural and patriotic (both sides) conflicts that get resolved in various ways, with the great performance by McQueen and the rest of the cast. Great movie that many people would find foreign and uninteresting. I'm not one of those people.
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rready4198-693-489748 — 11 years ago(June 11, 2014 06:48 PM)
I believe the American public is so use to "Instant Gratification" and do not like to sit around. I grew up in a time when movies like "The Sand Pebbles," "West Side Story," "Ben-Hur," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Sound of Music," "My Fair Lady," "Ten Commandments," "Camelot," "Cleopatra," "Fiddler On The Roof" and some others were met to be shown in theaters twice a day during the week and maybe three times on Saturday and Sunday. You knew you were going to see an Epic when you went to see them, you knew they were going to be long plus it was by reservation only. They were SPECIAL and that is the way they were treated. The theater was full and everyone had fun. They even had programs you could buy about the movie and I still have the ones I got for "My Fair Lady," "Camelot" and "Fiddler On The Roof."
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rj-27 — 10 years ago(August 20, 2015 10:18 AM)
There are lots of ADD people out there, and more every day.
They are the people who think Fast and Furious is the greatest film of all time.
LOL!
Democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. H.L. Mencken