shocking ending
just like "Sands of Iwa Jima" the end of this one totally caught me off guard...if you've seen it you know what i'm talkin about.
matt.
Reese (played by McQeen) seeing his wound (serious); knew he was "done" (soon to be dead). His squad was being shot to pieces by the german held "pillbox" and to save them he knew someone would have to blow it up with the satchel charge. He picked the charge up and flung himself into the bunker with the charge. A hero? .......To us (the viewer) ........yes. ........................ To Reese, .........the answer was, ......... no. ........He sacrificed nothing, .........he knew he was already dead.
What a movie!!!
Couldn't have done better myself.
Leave it to Steve. Not eveyone could have moved his body after being machine-gunned, btw, especially enough to stand up with the explosive satchel and throw himself into the pill box. (hint: have you ever seen the size of machine gun bullets? They're huge. They can literally tear a man in half (there are stories from survivors of Omaha Beach that can attest to this fact).
So, yeah, Steve knew he was dead, but yeah, it took a super-human effort to do what he did. He was a hero, in every sense of the word.
the only scene from a war film that was cooler was Willem Defoe in "Platoon" in that great helicopter view scene.
share[deleted]
I don't want to sound too picky but machine gun bullets are not "huge" and they do not tear a body in half. If this movie had been real the bullets hitting SM would have been 8mm mauser (as in 8mm wide and about 150 grains...7000 grains to a pound) almost all "combat" handguns use a bigger heavier bullet. It's the bullets speed (and how many hit you) that makes a machine gun seem worse. As for them ripping a body in two, it just doesn't work that way. Most accounts by vets of such accurances are due to grenades etc blowing bodys apart while the machine guns are firing.
Still, I agree that Steve was a John Wayne caliber tough guy.
What's interesting about the ending is (I've heard/read) that there was a different ending for the movie but the production ran out of money and had to come up with something quick. Which is just a fantastic ending.
I've never read what the original ending was - probably something with McQueen living. He had Robert Wise shoot an alternate ending to "The Sand Pebbles" with him getting away with the girl.
Another interesting thing about the ending: watch closely next time - after Corby, Homer and the others react to the explosion and charge forward, the camera pans out but you still see Americans dropping to the ground in front of the pillbox after (apparently) being shot, and at least one guy (Homer?) taking cover and peering intently into the opening of the pillbox. Might it still be in action and Reese have died in vain?
share[deleted]
[deleted]
I think Mcqueen was wisely thinking about Marlon Brando's bloody walk in "On the Waterfront" (1954). The idea is the same except that Brando lived...I think.
Good call McQueen. The best soldier at war film ever.
Steve, what's the name of that book with the still? It'd be interesting to see. Hopefully its not just one of Reese in the little foxhole after he gets shot.
"Congratulations, Major. It appears that at last you have found yourself a real war." Ben Tyreen
This film was shot on a shoestring budget. It's incredible that Don Siegel was able to make the climactic battle scene look so realistic. The fact of the matter is that the crew ran out of film stock and the studio refused to supply them with more, thus the iconic ending which in this viewer's mind, was perfect.
Tough to watch Steve get killed in both "HIFH" as well as "Sand Pebbles", arguably Steve's best performance. The love affair between Steve and a very young Candice Bergen (she was a teenager during filming)is so intense that Steve getting killed when he was so close to finally being happy is very poignant. A much better ending than if he had lived. BTW, "Sand Pebbles" is in this aficionado's Top Ten.
[deleted]