Should Have Stayed In The Engine Room

'Hey listen, I just run the engine. All this other is just. . . look-see pigeon. I beg your pardon? To make a show, something for the officers. I don't fool with it.' - Jake Holman (Steve McQueen).

I was surprised to learn The Sand Pebbles was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, and including McQueen for Best Actor . I'd never heard of it, and his character seems pretty similar to most of the other ones I've seen him play. Glib, dedicated to his work, disdainful of authority, tough exterior, but decent enough underneath. Which is fine, I've liked pretty much every movie I've seen him in.

The movie's set in China in 1926, with McQueen playing Jake Holman, the new engineer, for the American gunboat, the San Pablo. Jake's a good engineer, but not much for the military aspects of serving in the Navy. And the San Pablo is simultaneously highly military, and very unmilitary. The captain, Collins (Richard Crenna), insists on regular drills to repel boarders, and expects all the sailors to stand watches, which Jake feels is not an engineer's duty. At the same time, all the scut work on this ship is handled by a horde of Chinese fellows, which Jake also objects to, because he doesn't want them messing with his engines. So there are problems. Plus, this is right about the time the Nationalist and Communist movements are gathering momentum to oust all the foreign powers, though the movie focuses almost entirely on their relations with the U.S. It's a not terribly veiled metaphor for the situation in Vietnam at the time.

The orders for the gunboat are to not open fire unless fired upon first, so they essentially count on intimidation (or goodwill). Which works fine. . . until it doesn't. That's a recurring theme in the movie. Trusting a piece of paper that says you aren't Americans anymore to protect, which works. . . until it doesn't. When the time for shooting starts, counting on superior weapons to carry the day, which works. . . until you run out of ammo before they run out of men.

It's a long movie (3 hours), but it's an interesting one. For the first half of the movie, all the violence is either between Americans (the crew fighting amongst itself, or with other patrons at their favorite dive), or it's instigated by Americans (the fight between Skeet and Po Han, which Jake put in motion).

The attitudes of the sailors towards the Chinese. Jake, for example, doesn't have a real high opinion of them (he calls them slopeheads at least 3 times), but he does become friends with Po Han, though he never says as much. But I don't think that, or the fact Po Han proved he could learn how to run an engine properly, really changed Jake's opion of the Chinese as a whole. Frenchy (Richard Attenborough) falls in love with Mayli, but yeah, I think his affection is confined to her. That relationship in itself is really interesting. She had to get $200 dollars to get out from under Mr. Shu, and Frenchy (with an assist from jake and Po Han) raised it. He did so to set her free, but they end up together, and while he clearly seems to love her, I wonder if she didn't stay with him out of some sense of obligation. He says he paid to set her free, but she might still feel he purchased her. Jake says it's more that she loves him, but sees the difficulty in being with an American sailor who could be transferred or shipped out at any moment, and probably couldn't bring her along.

The whole idea of letting the Chinese handle all the scut stuff on the ship worked great. . . until it didn't. Then we see how slack the sailors have let themselves get about the duties they ought to have been doing instead of standing watch. Without local support, they aren't as effective of a fighting force. The ship starts looking filthy, so do the sailors, and discipline breaks down. It's a nice statement about how hard it is for a foreign power to maintain control without any of the native population on their side.

The sailors look bad then, but when it comes time to fight, they shape up. Everyone is on the same page, even with Holman, who they were ready to throw to the wolves the day before. I'm not sure what to make of them all looking up as the flag is raised over the ship. I suppose there's a sense of pride, but maybe they're remembering all of Collins' speeches about them honoring the flag, and not allowing it to be pulled down in shame, and they wonder if they're being sent into battle out of Collins' love for it. Certainly Holman ought to have those concerns, since he's seen how unsteady Collins is.

If you can spare three hours, I'd definitely recommend it.