Results for Sands of Iwo Jima
On this page:
 
Movies:

Sands of Iwo Jima

DVD Release

  • Release Date: 1998
  • cc
  • Original theatrical version
  • Digitally remastered
  • "The Making of Sands of Iwo Jima" hosted by Leonard Maltin
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Spanish language track
  • English captioning, French and Spanish subtitles

  • Rating: StarStarStarStar
  • Genre: War
  • Movie Type: War Drama, Combat Films
  • Themes: Military Life, Great Battles
  • Director: Allan Dwan
  • Main Cast: John Wayne, John Agar, Adele Mara, Forrest Tucker, Wally Cassell, Arthur Franz
  • Release Year: 1949
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 109 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: NR

Plot

From director Allan Dwan, Sands of Iwo Jima is a drama set during the Second World War and follows John Stryker (John Wayne), a relentlessly tough Marine sergeant as he trains a squad of naïve, rebellious recruits at a New Zealand military station in 1943. Recently left by his wife, Stryker has become exceedingly bitter and tough, leading his contemporaries to question his behavior and his men to dislike him for his harsh training methods. The wisdom of Stryker's ways, however, is demonstrated when they fight in the legendary battle of Iwo Jima. Using footage of real WWII battles, the Sands of Iwo Jima features John Wayne's first Academy Award-nominated performance, though Broderick Crawford ultimately won the 1950 Best Actor prize. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Review

The Sands of Iwo Jima is one of the most popular, entertaining World War II pictures ever made. The venerable director Allan Dwan impressively juggles combat footage from World War II with a surprise finale and the time-tested scenario of the hardened vet (John Wayne) molding his naive young troops. Dwan had worked as a director since the birth of the industry; though his output since the development of talkies had been spotty, Sands received a strong response from audiences, and became his biggest hit since 1922's Robin Hood. Wayne's solid, Oscar-nominated performance no doubt had much to do with the film's success. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide

Cast


Julie Bishop - Mary; Richard Webb - Private First Class Dan Shipley; James Brown - Pfc. Charlie Bass; James Holden - Pfc. Soames; Peter Coe - Private First Class Georgie; Richard Jaeckel - Pfc. Frank Flynn; Bill Murphy - Pfc. Eddie Flynn; George Tyne - Pfc. Harris; Hal Fieberling - Pvt. "Ski" Choynski; John McGuire - Capt.Joyce; Martin Milner - Pvt. Mike McHugh; Leonard Gumley - Pvt. Sid Stein; Bill Self - Pvt. L.D. Fowler, Jr.; H. Hayes Bradley; Capt. Harold G. Schrier, U.S.M.C. - Himself; David Clarke - Wounded Marine; Col. D.M. Shoup, U.S.M.C. - Himself; Bruce Edwards - Marine; The Three Living Survivors of the Fla - g Raising: Pfc. Rene A. Gagnon Pfc.; Dorothy Ford - Tall Girl; Don Haggerty - Colonel; Gil Herman - Marine; I. Stanford Jolley - Forrestal; Lt.Col. H.P. Crowe, U.S.M.C. - Himself; Dick Wessel - Grenade Instructor; Dick Jones - Scared Marine; John Whitney - Lt. Thompson

Credit

Allan Dwan - Director; Harry Brown - Screenwriter; Harry Brown - Short Story Author; Edmund Grainger - Producer; James Edward Grant - Screenwriter; Reggie Lanning - Cinematographer; James Sullivan - Art Director; Richard Van Enger - Editor; Victor Young - Composer (Music Score)

Similar Movies

Back to Bataan; Bataan; Battleground; The Big Red One; Destination Tokyo; Guadalcanal Diary; Heartbreak Ridge; Objective, Burma!; Sergeant York; Wake Island; Tell It to the Marines; Never So Few
 
 
Wikipedia: Sands of Iwo Jima
Sands of Iwo Jima
Sands_of_Iwo_Jima_poster.jpg
Original movie poster
Directed by Allan Dwan
Produced by Edmund Grainger
Written by Harry Brown,
James Edward Grant
Starring John Wayne,
John Agar,
Forrest Tucker
Music by Victor Young
Running time 100 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

Sands of Iwo Jima is a 1949 war film which follows a group of Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. It stars John Wayne, John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker. The movie was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant and directed by Allan Dwan. It was produced by Republic Pictures.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (John Wayne), Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Recording and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.

Plot

Tough-as-nails career Marine Sergeant John Stryker (John Wayne) is greatly disliked by the men of his squad, particularly the combat replacements, for the rigorous training he puts them through. He is especially despised by Private Peter Conway (John Agar), the arrogant, college-educated son of an officer Stryker served under and admired, and Private Al Thomas (Forrest Tucker), who blames him for his demotion. During a training exercise, a recruit drops a live hand grenade. Everybody drops to the ground except Conway, who is distracted reading a letter from his wife. Stryker knocks him down, saving his life, and then proceeds to bawl him out.

When he leads his squad in the invasion of Tarawa, the men begin to appreciate his methods, except Conway, who considers him brutal and unfeeling when he apparently abandons a wounded comrade to the enemy. During the battle, Thomas goofs off when he goes to get ammunition for two comrades, stopping to savor a cup of coffee. As a result, he returns too late - the two Marines, now out of ammunition, are overrun; one is killed, the other badly wounded, by bayonets. When Stryker discovers the truth, he forces Thomas into a fistfight. Stryker is accused by an officer of striking a subordinate but Thomas unexpectedly gets him out of the jam by claiming that he was being taught judo. His conscience ravaging him, Thomas breaks down and abjectly apologizes for his dereliction.

Stryker shows his soft side while on leave in Honolulu. He picks up a bargirl and goes to her apartment. He becomes suspicious when he hears somebody in the next room, but when he investigates, all he finds is a hungry baby boy she is supporting the best way she can. He gives the girl (the widow of a marine) all his money and leaves.

In the next invasion, Stryker's squad is involved in the battle for Iwo Jima, in particular the iconic flag raising on Mount Suribachi. Afterwards, while the men are resting during a lull in the fighting, a sniper kills him. His men find a letter on him, addressed to his son, saying all the things he wanted to say, but never got around to.

Cast

Actual Marines

Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, and John Bradley, the three survivors of the five Marines and one Navy corpsman who raised the second flag on Suribachi during the actual battle, appear briefly in the film just prior to the re-enactment. Hayes was also the subject of a film biography, The Outsider, and Bradley the subject of a book by his son, Flags of Our Fathers.

Also appearing as themselves are 1st Lt. Harold Schrier, who led the flag-raising patrol on Iwo Jima, Col. David M. Shoup, later Commandant of the Marine Corps and recipient of the Medal of Honor at Tarawa, and Lt. Col. Henry P. "Jim" Crowe, commander of the 2nd Battalion 8th Marines at Tarawa, where he earned the Navy Cross.

Cultural references

  • Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers has a song entitled "The Sands of Iwo Jima" on its album The Dirty South. It is sung from the perspective of a young boy who loves John Wayne movies. He asked his great-uncle, a World War II veteran, if The Sands of Iwo Jima represented the war properly; the old man smiled, shook his head and responded "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima."
  • In the television show King of the Hill, this is the favorite film of Cotton Hill, father of main character Hank Hill. Hank recalls that, during his childhood, his father would travel around Texas searching for showings of this film.

Trivia

  • The film has the first recorded use of the phrase "lock and load", twice as a metaphor for "get ready to fight" and once as a humorous invitation to drink alcohol (get loaded}.

See also

External links


 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "Sands of Iwo Jima" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

Movies. Copyright © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Movie Guide ® , a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sands of Iwo Jima" Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!  
Click here to download now. 

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page:   E-mail   print Print  Link  

 

Keep Reading

Mentioned In: