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Sands of Iwo Jima

Sands of Iwo Jima

War · Drama · 1950

Haunted by personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker is hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker's rigid form of discipline.

Movie details

Sands of Iwo Jima

“A great human story... makes a mighty motion picture!”

1950 War · Drama 1h 40m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.0 / 10

11.9K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

100 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

75 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Haunted by personal demons, Marine Sgt. John Stryker is hated and feared by his men, who see him as a cold-hearted sadist. But when their boots hit the beaches, they begin to understand the reason for Stryker's rigid form of discipline.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Sands of Iwo Jima?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Allan Dwan

Written by

Harry Brown · James Edward Grant

John Wayne

John Wayne

Sgt. John M. Stryker

John Agar

John Agar

PFC Peter T. 'Pete' Conway

Adele Mara

Adele Mara

Allison Bromley

Forrest Tucker

Forrest Tucker

PFC Al J. Thomas

Wally Cassell

Wally Cassell

PFC Benny A. Regazzi

James Brown

James Brown

PFC Charlie Bass

Richard Webb

Richard Webb

PFC Dan 'Handsome' Shipley

Court is in session

Put Sands of Iwo Jima on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.