On the Beach
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Movie Reviews of On the Beach
Movie Review: DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN MOVIE OR READ BOOK
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't repeat all the points others have made, just will point out a few observations. In my 58 years I never managed to read the book or see the movie. I picked up the book at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago and then started reading. I found it extremely slow and wordy. Then after I was 3/4 of the way through it, I was watching TV, and the movie version came on! Even though it was midnight, I watched it, and then finished the book. I thought the movie was a lot better than the book since it eliminated much of the unnecessary details and dialogue. What made the movie hard to forget were two scenes which were not in the book: The Salvation-Army type band that played in the crowded town square with the banner overhead reading, "There Is Still Time, Brother", meaning, time to get right with God before you die. Then at the very end of the movie, the camera follows the blowing newspapers through the empty streets, and winds up at the same square, now barren of people. The camera again focuses on the banner, "There Is Still Time, Brother" - a brilliant stroke by the director, meaning, there is still time FOR US to do something about nuclear bombs! Awesome! This movie must have had a lot to do with the ban-the-bomb movement and was therefore extremely influential. Those words still ring in my mind. "There is still time, brother" for both getting right with God and, praying to keep peace in the world.Movie Review: Perfectly Acted, Unforgettable
Summary: 5 Stars
An all-time classic, "On the Beach," is based on a 1957 novel by Nevil Shute, and remains as powerful and as mesmerizing on DVD today as it was when it played in movie theaters across the country more than 40 years ago. The story, which unfolds gradually and hauntingly through the interaction between the characters, depicts our world following a nuclear war in the northern hemisphere. Radiation fallout is spreading across the globe. Those who remain alive must migrate to Australia ahead of the radiation. Once there, they must confront the reality that it is only a matter of time before they, too, will become infected and die. This movie is amazing because it focuses on relationships and self-discoveries, not on cheap special effects. Radiation death is dramatized by showing empty urban streets, not grotesque corpses. The heart and soul of this film provides its audience with intimate snapshots of how a variety of people cope with their fate, and the fate of the planet. The stirring performances by this acclaimed cast are breathtakingly understated, avoiding any hint of melodrama. A delicate rendition of Waltzing Matilda, an Australian national song, is the perfect musical accompaniment to this fabulous film that somehow manages to depict mankind at its ugly, destructive worst as well as at its uplifting and noble best. Utterly unforgettable, it stirs the viewers' humanity to ensure creation survives!Movie Review: The end of the world as we know it...
Summary: 5 Stars
An unforgettable movie that is as important and as powerful today as when it was first released.Shute took his title from a stanza from T S Eliot's The Hollow Men:-
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river...
The tumid (swollen) river is metaphorical, as is the beach, given that Eliot's bleak, desolate landscape is a spiritual one, as in his classic work, The Wasteland.
Shute's movie is utterly compelling all the way through, partly due to the subject matter, helped along by a stunning cast, and very capable production and direction.
The scene in which the Sub arrives in the US to check on the erratic morse signal was actually shot in Australia, as they could not obtain permission to film it in the US.
There was a very creditable 2000 Showtime version with Rachel Ward and Armand Assante, which was truer to the book, although set closer to present time, but the Peck version is still the definitive one.
You cannot top this movie for dramatic content, brilliantly delivered by Peck, Gardner, Perkins and Astaire above all.
Yes, this could still happen, and yes, nuclear deterrence may well have worked so far, but I always remember a line from Bob Dylan's "If God's On Our Side", which goes...
If God's on our side,
He'll stop the next war...
Maybe he did.
Peace y'all.
Movie Review: Doomer Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Long a favorite with fans of post-apocalypse fiction, "On the Beach" asks relevant questions and provokes deep thought about our own feelings on the end of life.
"I didn't do anything. Nobody I know did anything," Moira (Ava Gardner) mourns to Dwight (Gregory Peck), as they await the inevitable arrival of the nuclear radiation that permeates the rest of the world.
Australia was spared the nuclear holocaust, but its residents are living on borrowed time. They ponder why it happened, and marvel that nobody can remember how or why the war got started. "Someone thought they saw something, and pushed the button," a party guest muses. All agree that it doesn't matter now, and set about deciding how they'll meet death. Julian lives his dream of becoming a race car driver; Young husband Peter tries to get the "mercy drug" being distributed for his wife Mary and their infant daughter, and then agonizes over its administration. Dwight mourns his wife and children, lost in America, but finds bittersweet, too-brief love with Moira. His men on the submarine "Sawfish", already sickened, decide to try to make the return journey to America so that they can see home once more before they die.
This film asks powerful questions on every level, and is a must-see. Bring lots of tissues along with the popcorn.
Movie Review: Still a Great Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is now a bit dated but it remains one of my favorites. It has one of Ava Gardner's best performances on screen.
Some of the scenes in the movie, including the segment where the US submarine Sawfish visits a vacant and dead US west coast to investigate a Morse code signal, are among the finest scenes ever shot in a movie.
The movie involves the Captain (Gregory Peck) and crew of the US submarine Sawfish that finds itself in southern waters near Australia after a nuclear war has wiped out the northern hemisphere. Apparently the radiation levels were high enough to kill everyone in the upper half of the globe quickly. Now the winds are driving the radiation into the southern part of the globe but there are a number of months left to live before the radiation reaches Australia.
The movie is about Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) who seems unable or unwilling to accept that his wife and family back in the US are dead, along with Ava Gardner - his female companion in the movie - and locals played by Fred Astaire an amateur race car buff, and Anthony Perkins a member of the Australian navy.
It chronicles their months together until the end comes leaving us with vacant scenes of downtown Melbourne, Australia.
A very powerful movie.