The Sand Pebbles

1966 · 196 min · ★ 7.2 / 10 · 295 votes

Drama · War

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.

Cast

Steve McQueen · Richard Attenborough · Richard Crenna · Candice Bergen · Mako · Larry Gates · Charles Robinson · Simon Oakland · Ford Rainey · Joe Turkel

Director

Robert Wise