Sands of Iwo Jima

A hardened Marine sergeant (John Wayne) pushes a group of young recruits until they’re ready to fight.

Sands of Iwo Jima is a fairly solid war picture notable for star John Wayne’s first and only Oscar nomination until his win twenty years later for True Grit.

The film features some great battle scenes and a choice role for Wayne, as a battle hardened marine who rides a group of new recruits, knowing full well it’s his job to make sure they perform on the battlefield, and if it means they hate him, so be it. Wayne brings his usual swagger to the part, but also a welcome restraint, particularly in the dramatic scenes, that serves the story well. Granted, it helps that Wayne’s character doesn’t have a love interest, so the required range is somewhat limited.

The film’s biggest problem lies in the supporting cast. With the exception of Forrest Tucker and John Agar, they’re practically interchangeable. Most of this is the script’s fault, as it fails to really flesh out any of the characters save John Agar’s and Tucker’s, but part of the blame has to go on the performers who fail to register a lasting impression, which in turn hurts the film later when characters start dropping on the battlefield. Any sense of drama is lost as the audience is too busy trying to remember which character it was that died.

Sands of Iwo Jima proved to be so popular that Wayne starred in what amounted to a quasi-remake two years later called Flying Leathernecks, which subbed pilots for marines, but carried over the same problems with the supporting cast.