SANDS OF IWO JIMA 269
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)
Synopsis
Sands of Iwo Jima is a war film written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant,
directed by Allan Dwan, and starring John Wayne. The film follows a group of
U.S. Marines from training camp to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.
Background
In 1948 Republic Pictures producer Edmund Grainger encountered the phrase
“sands of Iwo Jima” in a newspaper. He recalled Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photo graph
of the flag raising on Mount Suribachi and deci ded to make a movie on the notori-
ously bloody battle (February– March 1945) that took 6,821 American lives and
nearly wiped out the Japa nese defending force of some 20,000 men. Grainger wrote
a 40- page treatment that was developed into a screenplay by Harry Brown, author
of A Walk in the Sun. The script was then refined by James Earl “Jimmy” Grant,
John Wayne’s favorite screenwriter, after Wayne agreed to star in the picture. Ini-
tially slated to star Forrest Tucker and cost a very modest $250,000, the movie’s
bud get was more than doubled after Wayne was hired but to the chagrin of studio
owner Herbert Yates, still went $400,000 over bud get. Upon release, however, it
soon recouped all its costs and made a healthy profit.
Production
Avid to commemorate its pivotal role in securing Amer i ca’s Pacific Theater against
Japan in World War II, anxious also for profile- raising publicity to ward off a con-
gressional attempt to merge it with the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps provided
full support. After vetting and approving the script, the Corps supplied technical
advisors, de mo li tion engineers, an entire regiment (2,000 Marines) as extras, copi-
ous amounts of war matériel (including planes and ships), thousands of feet of
actual combat footage, and the use of the sprawling Marine Corps base at Camp
Pendleton (including Camp Del Mar and El Toro Marine Air Station) in southern
California, assistance that saved Republic huge sums of money and bolstered the
film’s putative authenticity. To re- create reasonable facsimiles of Tarawa and Iwo
Jima, set dressers working for Art Director James Sullivan installed fake palm trees,
gun emplacements, pill boxes, and miles of barbed wire. They also coated the white
sand at Ocean side beach (where the Iwo landing sequence was shot) with oil to
make it resemble the dark volcanic sands of Iwo Jima. At director Allan Dwan’s
request, General Graves B. Erskine (commander of Camp Pendleton) sent his tough-
est drill sergeant to the set to whip the actors into shape. Sands of Iwo Jima was
filmed in July and August 1949.
Plot Summary
At Camp Paekakariki in New Zealand Marine Sergeant John Stryker ( John Wayne)
subjects his rifle squad to a grueling training regimen and is despised for it. His
greatest detractors are Pfc. Pete Conway ( John Agar), a haughty son of the admirable
Col o nel Sam Conway, under whom Stryker served, and Private Al Thomas (Forrest