FAQ

Twenty-seven (27) year-old Laura Reynolds (Elizabeth Taylor), a struggling artist who lives with her nine-year-old son Danny (Morgan Mason) in a modest beach house in Big Sur, has chosen to live a free-spirited life, unencumbered with conventional social and religious regulations. When Danny, whom she homeschools, gets in trouble for the third time, Judge Thompson (Torin Thatcher) orders that he be sent to San Simeon, a Christian school in Monterrey that is headmastered by Episcopalian Reverend Doctor Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton). At first, Edward and Laura's beliefs are diametrically opposed. As they come to know each other, however, they fall in love. The problem is that Edward is already married to Claire (Eva Marie Saint), and their affair forces him to examine his faith, his beliefs, and his goals in life.

The Sandpiper was based on a story idea by Martin Randsohoff (who also produced the movie), screenplay by American screenwriters Michael Wilson and Dalton Trumbo, and adaptation by screenwriting team Irene and Louis Kamp.

Sandpiper refers to a small, long-beaked, long-legged, brown-spotted bird in the family Scolopacidae, often seen running near the water's edge on beaches and tidal mud flats. In the movie, Laura finds a baby sandpiper with a broken wing, which she splints while Edward watches. Throughout the film, the sandpiper lives in her home until near the end of the movie when she opens the porch door and the sandpiper cautiously accepts its freedom. The sandpiper is a metaphor in the movie for freedom and the idea that love can only be gained when the loved one is given that freedom.

Big Sur is a region extending for about 100 miles along the central coast of California, south of San Francisco but north of Los Angeles. Although its northern and southern boundaries are debatable, the area roughly extends from Carmel on the northern end to San Simeon on the southern end, following California State Route 1. The name comes from when the Spanish first settled the area and made Monterey the capital. The vast uninhabited and mountainousness territory south of it was called, "el país grande del sur," or in English, "the big country of the south." Over time it evolved into English as simply Big Sur.

When Reverend comes to visit Laura, she offers him tea or Grappa. He chooses Grappa. Grappa is an Italian brandy made by distilling the skins, pulp, seeds, and stems (i.e., the pomace) left over from winemaking after pressing the grapes. It contains 35% to 60% alcohol by volume (70 to 120 US proof.)

Claire finds out about Edward's affair with Laura, thanks to an off-handed remark made by Ward Hendricks (Robert Webber). Edward promises to end the affair, but Claire decides to separate in order to 'think my way back through 21 years of marriage.' When Edward tells Laura that he told Claire about her, Laura feels betrayed. She later tells Danny that, when the school year is over, they can move to San Francisco or Monterrey and he can go to public school instead of San Simeon, but Danny says that he has made friends at San Simeon and doesn't want to leave. She reluctantly agrees to attend the school's Charter Sunday celebration. Edward provides the sermon and announces that he's resigning his position as headmaster, after which Edward and Laura make their goodbyes. In the final scene, Edward stops on the bluff overlooking the ocean as he drives out of town. Below, on the beach, Laura is painting and Danny is collecting starfish and shells. Laura looks up hopefully, but Edward turns away and sadly walks back to his car.

Including The Sandpiper, Taylor and Burton have starred together in eleven movies. They met in 1963 in Cleopatra (1963) and went on to appear together in The V.I.P.s (1963) (1963), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) (1966), The Taming of The Shrew (1967) ((1967), Doctor Faustus (1967) (1967), The Comedians (1967) (1967), Boom! (1968) (1968), Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) (1969) (uncredited cameo for Taylor), Under Milk Wood (1971) (1972), Hammersmith Is Out (1972) (1972), and Divorce His - Divorce Hers (1973) (1973). They divorced in 1974, remarried and divorced again in 1976, and made no more movies together after that.