The Sound of Music was an interim film for Wise, produced to mollify the studio while he developed the difficult film The Sand Pebbles (1966), starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, and Candice Bergen. The Sand Pebbles, Wise's critically acclaimed film epic, was a parable of the Vietnam War, with an antiwar Director and message. McQueen received his only Oscar nomination for his performance in the film. Set in the late 1920s in China, this was an early entry in a series of Vietnam war era films (Catch-22, M*A*S*H), which, though set in other periods of wartime, nevertheless sounded with its depictions of gunboat diplomacy what would come to be recognized as timeless themes. Wise would later speak of The Sand Pebbles as the film he most wanted to direct, even though he had already explored such antiwar themes in earlier films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Excellent reviews for The Sand Pebbles marked Wise's last "creative peak" in his long career. Star! (1968), with Julie Andrews in the lead as Gertrude Lawrence, failed at the box office, although it was consistent with Wise's other successful films that portrayed a strong woman "whose life choices invite melodramatic relationships." Andrews was cast against type, but Wise, as the film's Director, took responsibility for the film's shortcomings.