Watching the movie today for the umptieth time,I find myself fascinated by Crenna's role.I know and understand where Holman comes from,but Collins is a complete mystery to me.Why did he sacrific himself in the end?Why did he take the last mission to retrieve the last americans?Was it his sense of duty or something else?
shareAs many IMDB posts have noticed, among the things that make "The Sand Pebbles" special is that all of the major characters are multi-dimensional -- none is totally-good nor is totally-evil.
Perhaps Richard Crenna's Captain Collins is the best example. At the end, someone has to make the Chinese soldiers believe that the landing party is still in courtyard, while they are actually trying to escape with Shirley out a back exit. To his credit, Collins assumes the role of covering their retreat with the BAR and buying valuable minutes (later taken up by Holman), rather than ordering one of the enlisted men to do so.
Why did he take up the last mission in the first place? Some viewers will ascribe it to his sense of duty. Others may ascribe it to erasing the infamous stain that will be created once it becomes public that the crew of the San Pablo came within a hair of mutinying against its captain (+ its executive officer and its senior petty officers). While the crew hung their heads in shame when they realized what they had done to their proud captain, Collins naturally felt the shame even more personally -- locking himself in his cabin and contemplating suicide (until the XO informed him of the dire developing situation).
And of course, some viewers will ascribe Collins' last mission to BOTH a sense of duty + a sense of pennance ("If the San Pablo dies, she dies clean. I owe it the San Pablo and the crew.")
Thanks jquark.Kind of like suicide in the line of duty huh?Make me wonder why Collins didn't leave Holman behind.His disdain for poor Holman was apparent.
shareHolman 'shook up' the ship! I think the Cap'n had become just as lax as the crew. He saw this in himself when Holman 'showed up' the operations of the ship.
He was 'skating', not really doing his job was 'embarrased' when he was confronted with it.
At least that's my take...
Because the world is rushing toward entropy. What's your excuse?
That's an interesting view of Collins.I've always felt that he was by the book.Holman definitly didn't "fit in".So Collins never understood him.They were like night and day.You can see Collins almost confused by Holman's acts of compassion.So should he admire him or dislike him for being difficult?
shareI think The Cap may have been a by the book guy before this duty. I think 'it' just got into him as it did the crew.
Almost like Collins saw in Holman the man he used to be.
But I do think the Cap had become 'comfortable' and didn't want anyone to 'make waves'. It took the conflict in China and Holman to make him 'alive" again.
I hope that made sense!
Because the world is rushing toward entropy. What's your excuse?
jquark,
Do you think that part of the Cap's reasoning was to gain some semblance of dignity for the ship? The crew, the XO the Cap, the ship and the US itself had been 'shamed'... The Chinese really had won a battle when the crew 'mutanied'...
I mean, this was a Fighting ship dammit! And all the Cap could do was keep her from fulfilling her role, and his. A man can only take so much...
Because the world is rushing toward entropy. What's your excuse?
Well, on the face of it, Captain Collins knowingly undertook a high-risk, low-return rescue mission:
1) He's breaking his naval orders to do so.
2) There are (only) two missionaries at China Lights. At the time of the Captain's decision, he doesn't know if they're still alive, and even if they are, whether they will still be alive by the time the ship can fight its way to them and send a rescue party. And if the missionaries decide to escape from China Lights before the rescue party gets there, the men will have no way to tell where they went, how to find them, and certainly won't have time to hunt for them.
As the viewers learn, it turns out that Jameson doesn't even want to be "rescued".
3) The San Pablo had no intelligence info on the strength or number of Chinese soldiers manning the blockading junks. Collins will be risking the lives of his crew, and a gunboat in trying to run the blockade -- not to mention shedding Chinese blood.
The crew have little or no training in this type of warfare (grappled ships and subsequent hand-to-hand fighting pretty much faded away after the Napoleonic Wars), and the San Pablo apparently has only one BAR.
And if they're successful, they may have to fight a 2nd battle on their return trip (the Captain *assumes* that the Chinese will be unable to replace the boom line by daybreak).
On the other hand, I'm reminded of the famous pre-battle cry of a Native American tribe (was it the Lakota?): "Today is a good day to die!" Everyone on the San Pablo knew that they were virtually "Dead men walking".
After the crew's mutiny, they knows that once the ship returns to an American base, the lives of most everyone (excepting perhaps the young ensign and the chief petty officer--who was killed in the battle) will be completely ruined. The ringleaders of the mutiny will be court-martialed, at least for refusal of a lawful order and at worst for inciting a mutiny (which I believe was/is a capital offense). Non-ringleaders may also face charges, and certainly no captain will ever take them aboard their ships. Holman disobeyed numerous orders and was insubordinate. Regardless of the outcome of the trials, Collins' naval career will be finished, as "the captain who lost control of his ship".
Collins feels that the ships name has been disgraced by the chinese blockade of the ship and also of what Holman has been acused of. By going up to China light and by fighting the chinese forces at the boom he feels that he can save the ship from its disgrace.
Also by sacrificing himself he feels that he can regain the trust and loyalty that he lost from his men ealier in the film.
I have always thought of Captain Collins as my favorite person in this film. For the reasons he is career sailor and he is full Jingoism. I can but it into words but to see how he speaks and carries himself made more sense to me than any other person on the ship. Love how he chooses to go save the two people at China Light and he jumps with his sword & colt onto the Chinese Junk in the lead of the bluejackets. That's how Empires are built, fighting for little or nothing. Wish we had more movies about those British, Germany, French, American, etc officers and others who made and held the Empires of the Victoria Age together.
shareCapt. Collins does seem to represent an imperialist ideal of sorts, humane and brave yet patronizing and fatally blinkered. I like the character, and it's clear he means well and is the attacked rather than the attacker. But the nature of the character seems to prompt the filmmaker's apparent allegory, which is that the guy had no business being in China.
A lesser filmmaker would have made Collins a real bad guy, to underscore the point, and keep our sympathy with Holman. But Collins winds up actually being more noble and likeable, despite what he represents. It's hard to come to quick conclusions where this film is concerned.
Collins was pretty much an enigma, in my book. I never could figure his personality out.
shareI disagreed that people fought for little or nothing to build empires. During colonialism, there was a lot of money and fame at stake. Check out the history of the East India Company to see how people got really wealthy building outposts (and eventually empire) in India and the East. Military men (who survived) also did well. Duke Wellington made his name and fortune serving in India, for example.
shareOne thing I don't think has really been addressed is the state of the crew. Whatever Collins' personal motives for ordering the attack/rescue mission, it seems he did it for the sake of the crew more than anything else. They had been put through months in a state of siege, under orders not to fire under any circumstance, bottled up onboard. This is a key aspect of the film that Wise makes overt - the ship functions properly for the first time as a combat unit.
Nothing that happens on Earth is unknown to Santa Claus!
To Collins, he's failed in his duty to both the country and the ship, and only by undertaking a risky, possibly suicidal mission, can he erase the stain on both the ship and his personal reputation. Jameson rightly calls him out on his blind pride at the mission, but Jameson himself is ignoring that now that the bullets are flying, the scrap of paper he has renouncing his citizenship won't save him and that the Chinese soldiers after Collins will only see Jameson himself as just another Yankee intruder. And Collins seemingly wishes to simply go down in a blaze of glory,and is gunned down in short order. He's out to die for the flag. Holman, albeit unwillingly, proves more effectual against the Chinese simply because he DOESN'T want to die at all. But when he does, he dies for Shirley and even Bronson and Crosley.
shareThe Captain tells Shirley that if she's captured she'll be stripped and raped. Later Holman tells Bronson and Crosley to get her out because of what the Chinese will do to her. What makes anyone think Bronson and Crosley wouldn't have raped her themselves?
share"Here, Here" I guess he assumed that they were honorable men!
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