![]() ![]() The setting of the 1966 production is China in the wake of World War I, when the United States Asiatic Fleet roamed through the region enforcing the Open Door Policy, designed to keep China free of foreign control (and safeguard American interests) at a time when the only goal shared by squabbling nationalists, communists, and warlords was the immediate removal of all outside presences from their country. Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough tunneled out of a World War II prison camp together in The Great Escape, scoring a major hit in the process, so pairing them again in The Sand Pebbles made excellent sense three years later. Pushed into making a last stand, Jake orders the other crew members to take Shirley to safety while he covers their getaway. Nationalist troops, incensed by the San Pablo 's defiance of the blockade, storm the mission and kill both Jameson and Collins. Jake wants to desert, but neutrality is no longer possible. But Jameson and Shirley declare themselves stateless and rebuke the captain for interfering in China's affairs. After a bloody fight, the San Pablo breaks through a Chinese blockade and reaches the mission. Marines in Shanghai, Captain Collins decides to give his humiliated ship and disgraced crew a chance for glory by heading for Jameson's mission and a rescue attempt. When word arrives that full-scale fighting has led to the landing of U. The captain takes advantage of the rising tide and moves his ship into deep water. The crew agrees that Jake should be tried, and when Captain Collins refuses the demand and orders the crew to fire on the Chinese the men nearly mutiny. They then brand Jake as the murderer and demand that the San Pablo hand him over for trial. When Jake visits the bereaved woman, the Chinese beat him and put Maily to death. But the icy waters precipitate pneumonia and he dies in Maily's room. While the San Pablo is forced to remain in a state of siege, Frenchy swims ashore each night to visit his pregnant wife. Later, Frenchy buys Maily's freedom and takes her as his common-law wife because they cannot legally marry. Unable to bear his friend's agonized screams, Jake grabs a gun and puts a bullet into Po-han's head. In an attempt to draw the San Pablo 's fire, the Chinese capture Jake's coolie assistant, Po-han, and torture him by slashing his chest with a knife. Jameson, a missionary, and Shirley Eckert, a schoolteacher whom Jake met earlier. When Chiang Kai-shek moves against the feudal war lords, the United States decides to treat the upheaval as a civil war, and the San Pablo is ordered to confine its function to protection of American civilians in the area. Although Jake's independent nature is regarded with suspicion by most of the men, he wins the friendship of Frenchy, a sailor in love with an English-educated Chinese girl, Maily, who has been sold into enforced prostitution. The newest member of the crew, who call themselves "sand pebbles," is Jake Holman, a machinist with 8 years previous Navy duty. gunboat San Pablo is patroling the Yangtze River. We watch Margot go from snobby heel to sympathetic victim, and Eve from naïve innocent to conniving bitch.In 1926, as strong feelings of nationalism are sweeping through China and the followers of Chiang Kai-shek, as well as the war lords and communists, are demanding that all foreigners leave Chinese soil, the U. But by the time the film’s third act arrives, we have totally different sentiments for the film’s characters, and that is the true brilliance of the script. ![]() We dive into this idea in one long extended flashback, where voiceovers from various characters unravel the story in a way that we think we know who we’re rooting for. How clever that the scene featured both at the beginning and the end is an award ceremony, where the person giving the acceptance speech may actually be hated by all those she’s then thanking. It was one of three phenomenal examples of fractured narratives in 1950, joining Sunset Boulevard and Rashomon… Eve begins with its ending, then loops back around to that same scene at the end. Blogger Jason Fraley wrote: “All About Eve revolutionized the sort of non-linear, fractured narrative structure to which we’ve become so accustomed. It’s more than just the spoken words that shine, however: All About Eve is also masterfully structured as a story. ![]() The future meets the past-90 years in the past-a.Short-term movie, long-term appreciation."Fasten your seatbelts-it's going to be a bumpy r. ![]()
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