Editing Sands of Iwo Jima

{{short description|1949 film}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = Sands of Iwo Jima
| image          = Sands of Iwo Jima poster.jpg
| caption        = Original [[film poster]]
| director       = [[Allan Dwan]]
| producer     = [[Herbert Yates]]
| writer         = {{ubl|[[Harry Brown (writer)|Harry Brown]]|[[James Edward Grant]]}}
| narrator       = [[Arthur Franz]]
| starring       = {{ubl|[[John Wayne]]|[[John Agar]]|[[Forrest Tucker]]|[[Adele Mara]]}}
| music          = [[Victor Young]]
| cinematography = Reggie Lanning
| editing        = [[Richard L. Van Enger]]
| studio        = Republic Pictures 
| distributor    = [[Republic Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1949|12|14|San Francisco, premiere}}
| runtime        = {{ubl|100 minutes|109 minutes}}
| country        = United States
| language       = English
|budget = $1,397,558<ref name="republic">{{cite book|title=Republic Confidential Volume 1 The Studio|first=Jack|last=Mathis|year=1999|publisher=Jack Mathis Advertising|page=432}}</ref>
| gross          = $4 million (US/Canada rentals)<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety193-1954-01#page/n301/mode/2up|title=All-Time Top Grossers|page=10|magazine=Variety|date=January 13, 1954|access-date=February 27, 2018}}</ref> or $4,227,407 (as at 27 March 1953)<ref name="republic"/>
}}

'''''Sands of Iwo Jima''''' is a 1949 [[war film]] starring [[John Wayne]] that follows a group of [[United States Marine Corps|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 (writer)|Harry Brown]] and [[James Edward Grant]], and directed by [[Allan Dwan]]. The picture was a [[Republic Pictures]] production.

''Sands of Iwo Jima'' was [[nominate]]d for [[Academy Awards]] for [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor in a Leading Role]] (John Wayne), [[Academy Award for Best Film Editing|Best Film Editing]], [[Academy Award for Best Sound|Best Sound Recording]] ([[Daniel J. Bloomberg]]) and [[Academy Award for Best Story|Best Writing, Motion Picture Story]].<ref name="Oscars1950">{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1950 |title=The 22nd Academy Awards (1950) Nominees and Winners |access-date=2011-08-18|work=oscars.org}}</ref>

==Plot==
[[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 [[Private first class|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 [[Battle of Tarawa|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 (military)|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&nbsp;— 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 of duty|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 [[Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima|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.

==Cast==
[[File:Major General Graves B. Erskine and John Wayne on Set of Sands of Iwo Jima, 1949.jpg|thumb|left|[[John Wayne]] speaks to the film's technical advisors [[Battle of Tarawa|Tarawa]] veteran and [[Medal of Honor]] recipient, Colonel [[David M. Shoup]] ({{small|center}}), and [[Battle of Iwo Jima]] commander, General [[Graves B. Erskine]] ({{small|right}}).]]
{{Div col}}
* [[John Wayne]] as [[Sergeant|Sgt.]] John M. Stryker
* [[John Agar]] as [[Private First Class|PFC]] Peter T. "Pete" Conway
* [[Adele Mara]] as Allison Bromley
* [[Forrest Tucker]] as PFC Al J. Thomas
* [[Wally Cassell]] as PFC Benny A. Regazzi
* [[James Brown (Rin Tin Tin)|James Brown]] as PFC Charlie Bass
* [[Richard Webb (actor)|Richard Webb]] as PFC "Handsome" Dan Shipley
* [[Arthur Franz]] as [[Corporal]] Robert C. Dunne/Narrator
* [[Julie Bishop (actress)|Julie Bishop]] as Mary (the [[bargirl]])
* [[James Holden (actor)|James Holden]] as PFC "Farmer" Soames
* Peter Coe as PFC George Hellenopolis
* [[Richard Jaeckel]] as PFC Frank Flynn
* [[William Murphy (actor)|William Murphy]] as PFC Eddie Flynn
* [[Martin Milner]] as Pvt Mike McHugh
* [[George Tyne]] as PFC Hart S. Harris
* [[Hal Baylor]] as Pvt J.E. "Ski" Choynski (credited as Hal Fieberling)
*Leonard Gumley as Pvt Sid Stein
* [[Ira Hayes]] as himself raising the flag
* [[John Bradley (United States Navy)|John Bradley]] as himself raising the flag
* [[Rene Gagnon]] as himself raising the flag
*[[William Edwin Self|William Self]] as Pvt L.D. Fowler Jr.
*[[John McGuire (actor)|John McGuire]] as Captain Joyce
{{div col end}}

==Production==
===Writing===
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 "[[wikt:lock and load|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 (firearms)|clip]] into its [[Magazine (firearms)|magazine]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Saving Private Ryan: "Lock and Load" | website=Saving Private Ryan Online Encyclopedia | date=2009-04-11 | url=http://www.sproe.com/l/lock-and-load.html | access-date=2021-06-06}}</ref>

===Casting===
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 [[Hospital corpsman|Navy corpsman]] ([[John Bradley (Iwo Jima)|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 United States Marine Corps|Commandant of the Marine Corps]] and recipient of the [[Medal of Honor]] at Tarawa, and Lt. Col. [[Henry Pierson Crowe|Henry P. "Jim" Crowe]], commander of the 2nd Battalion 8th Marines at Tarawa, where he earned the U.S. [[Navy Cross (United States)|Navy Cross]].<ref>{{cite news|author=T. M. P.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9502EFD61E3EE03BBC4950DFB4678382659EDE |title=Movie Review - Sands of Iwo Jima - At the Mayfair |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=1949-12-31 |access-date=2014-02-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zB8J2ho-0k8C&q=%22Sands+of+Iwo+Jima%22+shoup&pg=PA122 |title=Guts & Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film |first=Lawrence H. |last=Suid |page=121 |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |year=2002 |isbn=0813122252 |access-date=2014-02-16}}</ref> Additionally, "nearly 2,000 Marines were used as extras" during filming.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Sands of Iwo Jima |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/23383/sands-of-iwo-jima |access-date=2023-02-13 |website=Turner Classic Movies |language=en}}</ref>

The cast of John Wayne, John Agar, Forrest Tucker, and Richard Jaeckel would reunite in the 1970 western ''[[Chisum]]'' .

===Filming===
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 (California)|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.

==Legacy==
The film received four nominations at the [[22nd Academy Awards]], including John Wayne for Best Actor, his first nomination in the category.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sands of Iwo Jima {{!}} film by Dwan [1949] {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sands-of-Iwo-Jima |access-date=2023-02-13 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> It won no awards. A sequel to the film starring Wayne, called ''Devil Birds'', was planned but never materialized.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 12, 1950 |title=John Wayne Eyes Heavy Schedule Through 1952 |pages=38 |work=St. Petersburg Times |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1pIAAAAIBAJ&dq=%22devil+birds%22+%22john+wayne%22&pg=PA42&article_id=3061,3443360 |access-date=February 13, 2023}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

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 (TV series)|NCIS]]'''s season 2 references the film and a documentary as shared background to [[Marine (military)|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 [[Shtick|schtick]] as an avowed and knowledgeable movie [[Fan (person)|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 (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."

==See also==
* [[John Wayne filmography]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title | id=0041841 | title=Sands of Iwo Jima}}
* {{TCMDb title|id=23383|title=Sands of Iwo Jima}}
* {{AFI film|id=26092|title=Sands of Iwo Jima}}

{{Allan Dwan}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sands Of Iwo Jima}}
[[Category:1949 films]]
[[Category:1940s war drama films]]
[[Category:American war drama films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Battle of Iwo Jima films]]
[[Category:Pacific War films]]
[[Category:Republic Pictures films]]
[[Category:World War II films based on actual events]]
[[Category:Films set in Kiribati]]
[[Category:Films directed by Allan Dwan]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Harry Brown (writer)]]
[[Category:Films scored by Victor Young]]
[[Category:Films about the United States Marine Corps]]
[[Category:1949 drama films]]
[[Category:Films shot in California]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:1940s American films]]
[[Category:English-language war drama films]]