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Sands of Iwo Jima | |
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Directed by | Allan Dwan |
Written by | |
Produced by | Herbert Yates |
Starring | |
Narrated by | Arthur Franz |
Cinematography | Reggie Lanning |
Edited by | Richard L. Van Enger |
Music by | Victor Young |
Production company | Republic Pictures |
Distributed by | Republic Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $4 million (US/Canada rentals) [1] |
Sands of Iwo Jima is a 1949 war film starring John Wayne that follows a group of United States Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. The film, which also features John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker, was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant, and directed by Allan Dwan. The picture was a Republic Pictures production.
Sands of Iwo Jima was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (John Wayne), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording (Daniel J. Bloomberg) and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story. [2]
Corporal Robert Dunne recounts the story of tough-as-nails career Marine Sergeant John Stryker. Initially he 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 PFC Peter "Pete" Conway, the arrogant, college-educated son of Colonel Sam Conway (whom Stryker served under until the Colonel's death on Guadalcanal, and admired), and PFC Al Thomas who blames Stryker for his demotion.
While the unit is in New Zealand, Conway meets Allison Bromley, and marries her a day before the unit goes to Tarawa. Stryker, whose wife left him years ago and took custody of their son, drinks himself to submission and has to be saved from a naval shore patrol by his men.
When Stryker leads his squad in the invasion of Tarawa, the men begin to appreciate his methods. The platoon commander, Lieutenant Baker, is killed seconds after he lands on the beach, and PFCs "Farmer" Soames and "Ski" Choynski are wounded. The Marines are pinned down by a pillbox. Several more men, including PFC Shipley, are killed before Stryker is able to demolish the pillbox with a satchel charge.
Later on, Thomas stops for coffee when he goes to get ammunition for two comrades. As a result, he returns too late — the two Marines run out of ammunition, and Hellenopolis is killed, while Bass is badly wounded. On their first night, the squad is ordered to dig in and hold their positions. Alone and wounded in no-man's-land, Bass begs for help. Conway considers Stryker brutal and unfeeling when he refuses to disobey orders and go to Bass's rescue.
After the battle, Soames and Bass return, and when Stryker discovers Thomas's dereliction from Bass, he provokes a fistfight with him. A passing officer spots this serious offense, but Thomas claims that Stryker was merely teaching him judo. Later, a guilt-ridden Thomas abjectly apologizes to Stryker for his dereliction of duty.
Back on leave, Stryker reveals a softer side while on leave in Honolulu. He picks up a bargirl and goes with her to her apartment. He becomes suspicious when he hears somebody in the next room, but upon investigation, finds only a hungry baby boy. Stryker gives the woman some money and leaves.
Later, during a training exercise, McHugh, a replacement, 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 in front of the platoon.
Stryker and his squad are deployed to the battle of Iwo Jima where they suffer heavy casualties within the first couple of hours, with McHugh and PFC Harris being killed, and Soames and Frank Flynn being wounded. Stryker's squad is selected to be a part of the 40-man patrol assigned to charge up Mount Suribachi. Conway, who has frequently expressed fears that he is going to die himself, saves Stryker from being killed by a surprise attack, and tells Stryker he is going to name his new baby son Sam, his father's name; Stryker smiles and says a Navy Cross winner's name is good enough for the boy. During the charge up the hill, Eddie Flynn, Stein, and Fowler are all killed.
While the men are resting during a lull in the fighting, and shortly after Stryker says he has never been better, he is suddenly shot dead by a Japanese soldier emerging from a spider hole; that soldier is quickly killed by Bass. The remaining squad members find a letter Stryker wrote but never sent to his son. In it, Stryker expresses emotions he wanted to say to him but never did. Moments later, the surviving squad members witness the iconic flag raising on Iwo Jima. Conway, who has promised to finish Stryker's unfinished letter, echoes Stryker's iconic words "Saddle up", and leads the men back into the war.
The film was based on a screenplay by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant from a story by Harry Brown.
The script is the first known work to use the military idiom "lock and load", an expression meaning "get ready to fight". Although the original use and implied meaning are disputed, it typically described the action of arming an M1 Garand rifle by first locking the bolt back by pulling the charging handle rearward and then loading an 8 round clip into its magazine. [3]
The production used actual combat veterans from Iwo Jima in the film. The three survivors of the five Marines (Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes) and a Navy corpsman (John Bradley)who were credited with raising the second flag on Mount Suribachi during the actual battle appear briefly in the film just before the flag raising scene. Hayes was made the subject of a film biography, The Outsider, and Bradley the subject of a book by his son James, Flags of Our Fathers . Subsequent research has established that the figures identified in the flag raising photograph as Bradley and Gagnon were actually Marine PFC Harold Schultz and Marine Cpl Harold Keller.
Also appearing as themselves are 1st Lt. Harold Schrier, who led the flag-raising patrol up Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima and helped raise the first flag, 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 U.S. Navy Cross. [4] [5] Additionally, "nearly 2,000 Marines were used as extras" during filming. [6]
The cast of John Wayne, John Agar, Forrest Tucker, and Richard Jaeckel would reunite in the 1970 western Chisum .
The movie was made on location in California. Scenes were filmed at the Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton, Leo Carrillo State Beach, Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, Janss Conejo Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Republic Studios and Universal Studios. Actual combat footage from the Pacific War was also used in the film.
The film received four nominations at the 22nd Academy Awards, including John Wayne for Best Actor, his first nomination in the category. [7] It won no awards. A sequel to the film starring Wayne, called Devil Birds, was planned but never materialized. [8] [6]
In the television show King of the Hill (1997–2010), 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.
The episode "Call of Silence" (2004) in NCIS's season 2 references the film and a documentary as shared background to Marine history and legacy. The episode shows the NCIS character Timothy McGee watching the documentary To the Shores of Iwo Jima ; the character Anthony DiNozzo approaches and, in furtherance of the character's schtick as an avowed and knowledgeable movie buff, begins talking about the theatrical film Sands of Iwo Jima, some scenes of which were taken from the documentary.
The Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers have a song title "The Sands of Iwo Jima" on their 2004 album The Dirty South . It is sung from the perspective of a young boy who has been exposed to World War 2 through old John Wayne movies. He asks his great-uncle, a World War II veteran, if The Sands of Iwo Jima represents the war properly; the old man smiles, shakes his head and responds, "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima."
Ira Hamilton Hayes was an Akimel O'odham Indigenous American and a United States Marine during World War II. Hayes was an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community, located in Pinal and Maricopa counties in Arizona. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 26, 1942, and, after recruit training, volunteered to become a Paramarine. He fought in the Bougainville and Iwo Jima campaigns in the Pacific War.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is an iconic photograph of six United States Marines raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of the Pacific War. The photograph, taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press on February 23, 1945, was published in Sunday newspapers two days later and reprinted in thousands of publications. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography and was the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial in 1954, dedicated to honor all Marines who died in service since 1775. The memorial, sculpted by Felix de Weldon, is located in Arlington Ridge Park, near the Ord-Weitzel Gate to Arlington National Cemetery and the Netherlands Carillon. The photograph has come to be regarded in the United States as one of the most recognizable images of World War II.
Mount Suribachi is a 169-metre (554 ft)-high mountain on the southwest end of Iwo Jima in the northwest Pacific Ocean under the administration of Ogasawara Subprefecture, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan.
Harlon Henry Block was a United States Marine Corps corporal who was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
René Arthur Gagnon was a United States Marine Corps corporal who participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.
Michael Strank was a United States Marine Corps sergeant who was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. He was one of the Marines who raised the second U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945, as shown in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima by photographer Joe Rosenthal. Of the six Marines depicted in the photo, Strank was the only one to be correctly identified from the beginning; the other five were either assigned the wrong locations, or, were given the names of Marines who were not in the photo.
John Henry "Jack" "Doc" Bradley was a United States Navy Hospital corpsman who was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. During the battle, he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi and raised the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.
Franklin Runyon Sousley was a United States Marine who was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. He was one of the six marines who raised the second of two U.S. flags on top of Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945, as shown in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
James Bradley is an American author from Antigo, Wisconsin, specializing in historical nonfiction chronicling the Pacific theatre of World War II. His father, John Bradley, was involved in the first raising of the American flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.
Flags of Our Fathers is a 2006 American war drama film directed, co-produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by William Broyles Jr. and Paul Haggis. It is based on the 2000 book of the same name written by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima, the five Marines and one Navy corpsman who were involved in raising the flag on Iwo Jima, and the after effects of that event on their lives.
Henry Oliver Hansen was a United States Marine Corps sergeant who was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. He was a member of the patrol that captured Mount Suribachi, where he helped raise the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. He was killed six days later.
Ralph Anthony "Iggy" Ignatowski was a United States Marine Corps private who was captured and killed by the Japanese in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. He was a member of the Marine rifle company platoon who climbed to the top of Mount Suribachi and raised the American flag on February 23, 1945.
Louis R. Lowery was a United States Marine Corps captain. He was the only Marine Corps combat photographer to cover six major campaigns during World War II. He is best known for taking the first photographs of the first American flag that was raised on top of Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima on the morning of February 23, 1945.
Ernest Ivy "Boots" Thomas Jr. was a United States Marine Corps platoon sergeant who was killed in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. He was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism while fighting for and at the base of Mount Suribachi. Two days later he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi where he helped raise the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. He was killed eight days after that.
Harold George Schrier was a United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who served in World War II and the Korean War. In World War II, he was awarded the Navy Cross for leading the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi, where he helped raise the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. In the Korean War, he was wounded in North Korea during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir while commanding a rifle company.
Charles W. Lindberg was a United States Marine Corps corporal who fought in three island campaigns during World War II. During the Battle of Iwo Jima, he was a member of the patrol which captured the top of Mount Suribachi where he helped raise the first U.S. flag on the island on February 23, 1945. Six days later, he was wounded in action.
Raymond E. Jacobs was an American and United States Marine Corps sergeant who served in combat during World War II. Jacobs was a member of the combat patrol that climbed up to the top of Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima and raised the first U.S. Flag on February 23, 1945. Afterwards, he was a news reporter and served during the Korean War as an instructor at Camp Pendleton, California.
Harold Henry Schultz was a United States Marine corporal who was wounded in action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. He was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi and raised the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. He is also one of the six Marines who raised the larger replacement flag on the mountaintop the same day as shown in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
Harold Paul Keller was a United States Marine corporal who was wounded in action during the Bougainville campaign in World War II. During the Battle of Iwo Jima, he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi and raised the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. He is one of the six Marines who raised the larger replacement flag on the mountaintop the same day as shown in the iconic photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
Dave Elliott Severance was a United States Marine Corps colonel. During World War II, he served as the commanding officer of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines and led his company in the battle of Iwo Jima. During the battle, Severance ordered his 3rd Platoon to scale Mount Suribachi and raise the flag at the summit.