Still from The Sand Pebbles — The Sand Pebbles (1966) — Robert WisePhotographed by Joseph MacDonald

Robert Wise

The Sand Pebbles

Name: The Sand Pebbles
Genre: Drama, War
Released: 1966
Duration: 196 min

English / 1966 / 3h 16m

Not streamingNot currently on the Criterion Channel.

Drama War

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Synopsis

Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS 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.