Sands of Iwo Jima 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Sands of Iwo Jima 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 19, 2025

Allan Dwan's "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critic Steve Mitchell and critic and author Steven Jay Rubin; archival program on the making of the film with Leonard Maltin; and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

"You gotta learn right and you gotta learn fast. Before I'm through with you, you're gonna move like one man and think like one man. If you don't, you'll be dead."

Two things separate Allan Dwan’s Sands of Iwo Jima from all other WWII films. The first pertains to its pursuit of realism. Sands of Iwo Jima is the first big war film to demonstrate effectively how to blend archival footage and original content. While the bulk of its archival footage has rougher quality, the editing is outstanding, so at times it can be quite difficult to tell where the acting ends and the real misery begins. Cornel Wilde’s Beach Red brilliantly does the same, and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, while conceived and shot differently, borrows a lot from it. The second pertains to the type of characterizations that Sands of Iwo Jima legitimized. John Wayne’s character, Sgt. John Stryker, is not only an imperfect war hero, but also one of the roughest war heroes to be followed closely by a film camera. And yet, the more his imperfections and roughness are exposed, the easier it becomes to like him. Because of its effectiveness, variations of this development were consequently introduced in numerous other great war films. For example, Robert Aldrich directed several great war films in which he perfected the imperfect hero, arguably the best of which is Attack!.

A closer examination of the narrative construction in Sands of Iwo Jima can reveal something else that is very interesting and worth highlighting, too. In Sands of Iwo Jima, war is not the grandiose event that virtually all classic war films shot before and after it depict. It produces spectacular battles, but they are components of a death game where men simply try to exterminate each other. In other words, the good-versus-evil theme that always elevates war into a grandiose event populated with heroes and monsters in the classic war films is missing.

The entire first half of Sands of Iwo Jima works with material that emphasizes this reframing of war. In New Zealand, Stryker constantly bombards his men with simple truths about survival, not the politics and morality of the men who start a war, and teaches them what it takes to become a real Marine. It is a bruising education, at times borderline abusive, but it provides the knowledge a Marine, any man, must have to stay alive in a time of war. During breaks, Stryker then drinks hard to numb the pain that his wife has caused him after replacing him with another man.

Wayne earned his first Oscar nomination for playing Stryker, and his success was well-deserved. (Interestingly, Wayne was not Dwan’s first choice to play Stryker. Apparently, Dwan was prepared to cast Kirk Douglas for the part). Despite never serving in the U.S. military, he looks and sounds like a real Marine who has fought and survived a real war. Wayne is surrounded by several terrific supporting actors, too. For example, John Agar is brilliant as a veteran soldier who openly despises Stryker’s rough leadership and cynical philosophy of life.

Dwan’s director of photography was Reggie Lanning, a hard-working man who was frequently hired to lense B-grade westerns and horror films.

Kino Lorber’s combo pack release introduces a 4K restoration of Sands of Iwo Jima sourced from the original camera negative, recently completed on behalf of Paramount Pictures.

Sands of Iwo Jima 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kino Lorber's release of Sands of Iwo Jima is a 4K Blu-ray/Blu-ray combo pack. The 4K Blu-ray is Region-Free. However, the Blu-ray is Region-A "locked".

Please note that some of the screencaptures included with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray disc and downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

Screencaptures #1-29 are from the Blu-ray.
Screencaptures #32-40 are from the 4K Blu-ray.

Sands of Iwo Jima made its high-definition debut with this Blu-ray release, produced by Olive Films, in 2014. I have it in my library and think that it offers a somewhat dated but still very nice organic presentation of the film. This combo pack introduces a 4K restoration sourced from the film's original camera negative, which was finalized at Paramount Pictures. In native 4K, the 4K restoration can be viewed with Dolby Vision and HDR grades. I chose to view it with HDR.

I liked what I saw on my system a lot. In fact, I think that the 4K restoration looks equally impressive in 1080p on the Blu-ray, so if you do not have a 4K system and wonder whether you should consider upgrading your original Blu-ray release, the answer is a very enthusiastic yes. I projected the film in 1080p and could not have been any happier with its appearance.

In native 4K, virtually all of the original footage looks sharper and better detailed, revealing superior ranges of shadow and background nuances, too. Depth tends to be quite a bit better as well. The grayscale is excellent. Blacks are rich, but never appearing boosted, and grays and white are nicely balanced. All blacks, grays, and whites look equally healthy. There are no traces of any problematic digital corrections. Obviously, the archival footage retains all native limitations, so you will still see the same softness, fluctuating delineation and clarity, and various surface imperfections. The minor bumps affecting stability are also retained. I tested several areas in native 4K and 1080p to see how the HDR grade handles darker material and some of the inconsistencies in quality that are mentioned above. The original footage can look outstanding, regardless of lighting conditions. However, one can probably successfully argue that the HDR grade tends to exacerbate the transitions between the original and archival footage. Of course, given how the film was shot and edited, this is hardly surprising. Lastly, I did notice a few blemishes during the original footage, which a technician easily could have eliminated. All in all, the 4K restoration is very impressive and looks great in native 4K and 1080p. My score is 4.75/5.00.

Sands of Iwo Jima 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Critiquing the quality of the lossless audio is a tricky business. If you exclude the action footage, all exchanges are predictably easy to follow, and there are no balance issues to report. However, the action footage, which has the archival inserts, reveals plenty of unevenness that can affect clarity, sharpness, depth, and even stability. These are inherited limitations, and they were also retained on the lossless track from the previous Blu-ray release of Sands of Iwo Jima. However, even in these action-heavy areas, now sharpness and clarity appear improved. I even felt that depth is a bit more pronounced. This said, the original soundtrack still has the type of dynamic limitations you would expect from a film that was shot in the late 1940s. Unlike the original Blu-ray release, this release offers optional English SDH subtitles.

Sands of Iwo Jima 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

4K BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this exclusive new commentary was recorded by critic Steve Mitchell and critic and author Steven Jay Rubin (Combat Films: American Realism). As you would expect, the commentators share plenty of factual information about the conception and production of Sands of Iwo Jima, its depiction of various historic events and military strategies/war developments, John Wayne's transformation into the tough Marine Sgt. John Stryker and Oscar award, etc. Clint Eastwood's film Letters from Iwo Jima is mentioned as well.

BLU-RAY DISC

• Commentary - this exclusive new commentary was recorded by critic Steve Mitchell and critic and author Steven Jay Rubin (Combat Films: American Realism). As you would expect, the commentators share plenty of factual information about the conception and production of Sands of Iwo Jima, its depiction of various historic events and military strategies/war developments, John Wayne's transformation into the tough Marine Sgt. John Stryker and Oscar award, etc. Clint Eastwood's film Letters from Iwo Jima is mentioned as well.

• The Making of Sands of Iwo Jima - presented here is an archival program on the making of Sands of Iwo Jima hosted by critic Leonard Maltin. Included in it are clips from interviews with John Agar, Richard Jaeckel, Wally Cassell, and Michael Wayne, amongst others. A the end of the program, there is also some very interesting archival material about the premiere of Sands of Iwo Jima and its reception. In English, not subtitled. (18 min).

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer for Sands of Iwo Jima. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

Sands of Iwo Jima 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The list of great war films that have borrowed something from Allan Dwan's Sands of Iwo Jima is massive. For his performance in it, John Wayne earned his first Oscar nomination, which for my money recognizes one of his most iconic cinematic transformations. Kino Lorber's combo pack introduces a fantastic 4K restoration of Sands of Iwo Jima sourced from the original camera negative, recently completed on behalf of Paramount Pictures. A standalone Blu-ray release of the 4K restoration is available for purchase as well. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.