The Sand Pebbles (1966)
Directed by Robert Wise
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.
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What critics compared The Sand Pebbles to
Both screenwriters claim their motivation for Tears of the Sun came from Robert Wises The Sand Pebbles, starring Steve McQueen.
Directed by the ill-advisedly named Antoine Fuqua as a follow up to his popular and award winning Training Day, and derived from a screenplay credited to Alex Lasker and Patrick Cirillo (who apparently found inspiration in the Steve McQueen film The Sand Pebbles), Tears has none of the tension and hopeless-seemingly situations found in that earlier film's one great scene with Cliff Curtis as a mind-fudging gangsta.
To get an idea of just what you're in for with Tears of the Sun, imagine a pinch of Seven Samurai, a few tablespoons full of Saving Private Ryan and a heaping pile of The Sand Pebbles.
…not a bad plot, having been used in such films as Tears of the Sun (2003) and probably most successfully in The Sand Pebbles (1966).
Just like you got for “Ben-Hur,” “The Sand Pebbles,” The Battle of the Bulge” and “Gone with the Wind.”
The always reliable Tom Sizemore ("Saving Private Ryan," "Bringing Out the Dead") delivers a decent take as an airfield mechanic, but the rest of the performers, including Ewen Bremner ("Snatch," "Julien Donkey-Boy") and James King ("Blow," "Happy Campers") as young lovers, Dan Aykroyd ("The House of Mirth," "1941") as a Navy cryptologist and Mako ("Tucker: The Man and His Dreams," "The Sand Pebbles") as the Japanese admiral, don't get enough time or attention to stand out.