Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Sand Pebbles tells the story of a Navy mechanic sent to work on a small gunboat in China in the mid-20's. China wasn't the super power it is now and was going through a civil war. Influences from Communist Russia were coming in and the government was using every excuse it could to separate itself from the American forces in the area. McQueen doesn't play the tough guy as much in this one but instead turns in a more human portrayal of a deck plate level sailor dealing with politics he'd rather stay out of. The story has a nice arc to it and despite the long run time, never bores. Definitely one of the better war classics out there.

There has been a lot of controversy lately with the recent war classics released by Fox. This transfer seems to be faithful to the source material and is not bogged down with filtering. The result is a great looking HD presentation with only a few shortcomings. The master looks like it may have been sourced from a couple elements. There are a few moments when scenes appear to be from a print that isn't in quite as good of shape as the rest of the film. This only popped up a few times, but it was noticeable. The image has a very natural film like look that varies in overall detail. Most of the scenes have great dimensionality and depth but fine object details varies significantly from scene to scene. At times fine detail can be gorgeous but the photography style lends to an inconsistent look at times. The most consistently impressive aspect is depth though. Fans of the film will be quite pleased with this presentation; it is by far the best I've seen the film look to date.

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and overall this is an average presentation. Dynamic range isn't too bad but the age of the production and sound design are pretty obvious. My chief complaint would be the obvious strain in dialogue that plagues the soundtrack throughout. Voices sound strained more often than I would prefer and you can hear the breakup from the microphone. The score is also presented on the high side compared with the rest of the track which had me reaching for the remote to adjust more often than I would like. The 5.1 mix does do a pretty good job with the soundstage and the surrounds add a bit to the ambiance but don’t look for an overly enveloping soundfield.

Fox has included the majority of the extras from the DVD release. This includes a feature commentary with the director and a few members of the cast. There is also an isolated score for fans of the music. Films fans have quite a few production features to wade through including retrospectives on McQueen and Wise. There is also a look at the boat and China during those hard times. A trivia track, trailer and radio spots are also included.

The Sand Pebbles is definitely one of the best of the recent war classic releases on Blu-ray. Fox has done a good job with the HD transfer with only a few nitpicks keeping it from top scores. I hope we'll continue to see presentations of older films hold up this well.