Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
A Film Review by Mark O'Hara
John Wayne Sergeant John M. Stryker John Agar PFC Peter Conway Adele Mara Allison Bromley Forrest Tucker Corporal Al Thomas
SANDS OF IWO JIMA ranks as one of John Wayne's finest films, including his Westerns. It's story follows a tough platoon commander and his men through some of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific theater, including Tarawa and Iwo Jima.
Wayne's performance is a classic. I'm fairly sure it was my 10 year-old daughter's first exposure to Wayne, and I'm glad she saw him in a representative role. When you first see Wayne, he should be doing his best tough-guy act, like he does with Sergeant John M. Stryker. What a hard-as-nails name! (Isn't there a professional wrestler named Sergeant Striker?) To give a fictional character a middle initial is another nod to realism. Anyway, your first time seeing "The Duke" should be when he's unsentimental, doing a difficult job and shunning credit, all the while using his one-of-a-kind talk and walk.
Here his character was more challenging than many of his typical roles. Stryker is hard-nosed almost beyond tolerance, to the point that many of his men complain and begin the rumblings of mutiny. But when we find out that Stryker's wife has left him and taken their child, and that the boy does not write to his father, we see some of the motivation behind his behaviors. We understand better - though not completely - why he goes on drunken binges. Although the subplot concerning Stryker's personal life follows the formula of many war films, it certainly makes for good psychological study, and contributes a freshness to the film.
Two of Stryker's men take his treatment personally. As Corporal Thomas, Forrest Tucker hates Stryker's guts because Stryker beat him in a divisional boxing match some time earlier. The old grudge surfaces until they are, once again, engaged in fisticuffs. Only this time a colonel spots the sergeant beating up on his own man, and we watch one Marine show his loyalty to another Marine, when Thomas claims Stryker was only instructing him in combat judo. In Thomas' confession to Stryker just after their make-up, we see the effects of a very sticky moral situation, a scene that would hold its own with any ethical dilemma I can think of in movies. Pfc. Peter Conway's hatred of Stryker is more complicated. He is a Harvard-educated businessman, an amateur soldier here to fight the war and then return home. When Conrad marries and later receives a letter from his wife, telling of their newborn baby, we see Stryker's jealousy. The only question at this point is how will Conway (played by John Agar) come to terms with his sergeant?
Real footage from Pacific campaigns is used convincingly in the film. When we see flame-throwing tanks igniting the battle-scarred hills of the islands, we form at least an idea of how devastating war can be. The smoothness of the film clips is pleasing too: the battlefields of the movie set match the real battlefields closely. And the difference in film quality is not much. Most remarkable is the planting of the flag atop Mount Suribachi. Director Alan Dwan uses an almost corny method of drawing our attention to the scene immortalized in the Iwo Jima Memorial - Marines struggling to raise the Stars and Stripes. But the effect caps the film nicely.
A recent trend in movie-making takes another look at standard genres and revises their supposed goals. Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN showed us a Western whose hero was a gun-toting murderer. Steven Spielberg made perhaps the finest war movie ever in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. My point is that RYAN has been advertised not as a war movie, but an "anti-war" movie. Taking a look at John Wayne's efforts in SANDS OF IWO JIMA, I cannot see how he or the film praises war. I cannot see, especially with the anti-climatic ending, how this narrative uses war for the mindless support of political causes.
I would recommend anyone watch this John Wayne film. And if you are watching with Wayne first-timers, withhold your comments about this grand old actor, and let them form their own opinions. The man is impressive enough to leave his mark on many generations.
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