Customer Reviews

On the Beach

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The epigraph at the beginning of the book, "On the Beach" is part of a poem from T.S. Eliot: "this is how the world ends; not with a bang, but a whimper." I read the book first, then watched the movie, and would recommend both to everyone. The movie is a fair portrayal of the book, and the cast is outstanding. Fred Astaire is a real surprise in this, his first dramatic performance. Ava Gardner is beautiful and believable as the drunk, but in denail, Moira. My favorite characters are Tony Perkins and actress who plays his wife. The scene in which Perkins explains to his wife how to use the suicide tablets sent chills up and down my spine. Two things really stand out for me in this movie: The first being the use of "Waltzing Matilda." At times it's played with all the fanfare of a national anthem; at other times, it sounds funereal. The use of "Waltzing Matilda" reaches its climax during a scene in the movie when Moira takes Captain Towers trout fishing, mistakenly thinking they could get away to the mountains for some private time outdoors before the nuclear cloud arrives in Australia and pretty much eliminates humankind. Instead of peace and tranquility, they find drunken revelers...and throughout this revelery, they're singing "Waltzing Matilda." It's funny at first...then increasingly annoying...until one last tenor sings the final verse solo. I don't think I've ever seen a finer scene is a film. The impact of that verse, the way it's tenderly sung, and the shared look between Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck---I will never be able to listen to "Waltzing Matilda" again without tears in my eyes. The second thing is although the subject matter and the tone of the movie are serious, there are a few amusing moments, which for me, make the movie even more realistic. On the Beach is a classic...and anyone who loves film, and worries about the future of our children...should watch and ponder...could this really happen? The answer is a terrifying "yes".

This is the film that for me captures the terror I felt as a child, growing up at the height of the Cold War; it is bleak and intense, with scenes that are forever etched in my mind. It's one of the great films of that era ("Seven Days in May" and "Fail Safe" are others) that I can watch repeatedly, and their power and impact are never diminished.
Based on Nevil Shute's best seller, and brilliantly directed by Stanley Kramer, the use of sound effects combined with Ernest Gold's Oscar nominated score is very effective. Sometimes the simplest noise set against complete silence is ominous, and gives the feeling of the desolation of empty cities.
As time runs out, people try to avoid the "morbid discussion" of what awaits them, and some make the most of those precious days, weeks and months, like the elderly scientist Julian (in an exceptional performance by Fred Astaire), who completes his dream of being a race car driver.

Both strong and tender, Gregory Peck is fabulous as Dwight Towers, the commander of a submarine, who has trouble accepting that he is alive, while his family are victims of the "monstrous war". The woman who falls in love with him is Ava Gardner, who has spent far too much time being consoled by a bottle of brandy. The plot is filled out by Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson, a young couple facing the fact that their baby has no future.
In the late 50s and early 60s, the scenario in this film was all too real; we face other dangers now, but there was something truly chilling about those Cold War years, and this film vividly brings back the memory of them. Total running time is 134 minutes.

I first saw " Onthe Beach" (OTB) after reading the Nevile Shute novel. I remember Pauline Kael saying in one of her more vitupritive reviews, "will anyone in the future remember On the Beach as anything but a bad movie". I was confused. Perhaps my response at the time had been the sentimental attachment of a high-schooler (after all, that "Waltzing Matida" theme can get to you). But now, Pauline, I can answer yer question. OTB is really not about the end of the world...but rather about the end of each of our worlds. "Fail Safe", "Dr Strangelove", etc...these are the movies about the end of the world. But this film is just about the end of one life...A few lives. And how we watch these finalities played out is like a chess game. Sure,there are moments spiced with Kramer's understandable ham-fisted "MESSAGE" about Nuclear War...but also we experience the slight, breathless moments when we know something forever is lost. I liked it a lot then... I like it now, too. Less for its attacks on radioactive death...more, for its reflections of how we may face our own "end". Remember, this film came out at at time when most American films were glamorizing pillow talks and chariot races and west side stories. These films, as well as the exquisite foreign films of the time also hold up...on their own levels. But there is a poignancy, perhaps not then intended, with all the lead actors either dead or retired that gives a new message to the quote from which the novel and film arose: "Here by the Sea, by the tumult river, here on the beach......sorry, misquoted, but intent on making a point. Looking forward to other comments. I believe the quote ends with the phrase, "Life ends not with a bang, but a whimper".

I suspect that the reason so many ... customer reviews of On the Beach are negative is that the expectations of today's audiences, particularly younger audiences, are entirely different from when this movie was released, in 1959.

The movie is based quite closely on Neville Shute's excellent novel, with just a few differences. The rather strange denial of impending death, shown by most of the characters in the book, has been wisely omitted from the movie. The scientist, John Osborne, has had his name changed to Julian in the film, and is given more depth, beautifully played by Fred Astaire.

I think today's movie goers have difficulty relating to this movie because it is not an action movie and it is not a science fiction movie. Yes, it deals with the last survivors of a nuclear war as they await their own deaths. But the genre of science fiction films requires that the heroes and/or heroines confront the Problem and conquer it, whether that Problem be giant ants, invading Martians, or mutant carnivorous plants. In On the Beach, it is made plain from the beginning of both the book and the movie that there will be no triumph or escape. Instead, the theme is the maintaining of human decency and integrity in the face of imminent death. This is not the sort of stuff for young audiences raised on Bruce Lee movies.

I think it is important, too, that today's young movie-goers watch this movie with the idea firmly in mind that people in 1959 believed that they might very well be the last generation of human beings, before a nuclear holocaust wiped us all out. I was nineteen when I first saw the film, just after its release to theaters and long before the advent of VHS and home video. It was powerful stuff back then, and I don't think there's any doubt that it was an important element in the nuclear disarmament movement.

I highly recommend this movie. The acting and direction are excellent, and it deals with powerful themes. But keep in mind that you'll be watching a film from another era, when books and movies were deliberately slower paced and the depth of characterization was considered to be much more important than fast paced action.

This 1959 B&W film is a faithful adaptation of Nevil Shute's book by the same title. I read the book 25 years ago, loved it, and finally got around to watching this movie recently. I was awestruck.

Although directed by Stanley Kramer, I did not find it to be an over the top anti-war piece. It's a story based in Australia, the last island of life in a post nuclear war world. But even Australia's days are numbered. Melbourne is visited by a surviving U.S. nuclear submarine, in search of surviving population.

The cast is top shelf, including Gregory Peck (the submarine commander), Ava Gardner. Anthony Perkins, and Fred Astaire. There are a few scenes which are among the most moving I have ever seen on film, such as when Peck is trying to relate/supress his feelings to Gardner regarding his now dead family back in the U.S., and when Perkins is explaining the "suicide option" to his wife (w/ baby). Virtuoso writing/directing/acting. There is a little action including an exciting investigative mission back to the U.S., and a road race involving Astaire.

I liked the black and white film, and the 50's feel to this great classic. And there is a clear "Australian" aura that is quite pleasing. Throughout, there is a masterful recurring musical backdrop of "Waltzing Matilda", in variations ranging from the bawling to the sublime. All the while, looms the inevitable ending.

It must be difficult to put a powerful ending on a story such as this, since the outcome would seem to be rather predictable. However, I found the closing minutes to be surprisingly well done, with some superb cinematography. At the end, I was not left in an anti-war rage . . . just sad, reflective, and very pleased with the movie. Highly recommended.

This film left me stunned. The brillance of the performances by actors not in their regular character roles (except perhaps Peck) was gripping: Ava Gardner as the past-her-prime lush, Fred Astaire as the guilt-ridden scientist, Anthony Perkins as a genuinely loving family man. All performances were striking and never over the top. My FAVORITE scene is the one where Peck's character tries desperately to explain to his budding love-interest Moira (played by Ava Garder) how he isn't free to love her because of the love and life he always had planned with his wife and family, who are now all dead. Peck is on the verge of sobbing in this whole scene, which is hard to watch, since we have all come to expect him to be the tower of strength in movies. You never know if he is going to just totally lose it as he is talking, revealing things to Moira that he obviously has never said out loud or even to himself since the bombs fell. It is without a doubt the most moving, raw, HUMAN scene I have ever watched, and is reason enough to watch this film. I have seen many nuclear war films, and "On the Beach" may not be the most gory or realistic, but its importance as a human dramatization and thought provoker cannot be understated.

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.

First, the not so important point. Yes, perhaps this movie is "dated" - in the sense that the Cold War is "over" and that the general consensus seems to be that nuclear war is far less likely today than ever before. Maybe that is true, but nuclear war is not this movie's main focus.

As another reviewer has written, this movie is about how individuals deal differently with an impending and inevitable death. The nuclear element is important in this regard, because clearly the main characters would not react the same way to, say, a terminal illness in which only they would die. It is the reaction to the world as we know it coming to an end which gives this movie it's haunting, timeless intrigue. To frame the content of this movie in any political context is in my opinion a huge mistake which simply distracts from the enjoyment of the film.

But "enjoyment" is really the wrong word here. This movie, perhaps more than any other in my collection (and I have well over 200), may be the most painful and depressing to watch. And it's impact only increased once I got married and had children. The characters are suffering not because of their deaths as much as for those who they love. This emotion is transferred to the viewer with the delicacy of a nine-pound hammer (even if you have seen the movie multiple times).

Ava Gardner and Anthony Perkins may seem to steal the show from the stoic Gregory Peck, but I think this is really a misinterpretation. It is clear that denial is Peck's main weapon against the awful crisis, but he acts his part almost too well - what seems almost like "indifference" to his wife and children's deaths (he is able to smile, occasionally laugh and eventually have an "affair" with Gardner) is simply a defense mechanism which he cannot or dare not control. His is the saddest role, to me. Fred Astaire also turns in a stellar performance as well. Actually, the whole cast is excellent.

This movie may not have the same impact with the "under 40" crowd. I suppose the movie could have been played out similarly had the earth been, say, struck by a meteor - it's dust cloud slowly reigning death over the rest of the planet, but it would not have nearly the eerie, gut-wrenching quality it does as with the nuclear scenario, which has been indelibly imprinted on probably every baby-boomers brain in modern society.

I have many times pulled this movie out to watch it only to change my mind and put it back for another day - it's emotional impact on me has been that strong. That being said, it's a 5-star movie with great acting that should not be missed and that everyone should see at least once.

Stanley Kramer was a hard-hitting, uncompromising producer-director who specialized in "message films." His 1958 blockbuster film "The Defiant Ones" with Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis addressed the race issue in America just one year after President Eisenhower was compelled to send federal troops into Little Rock to enforce the U.S. Supreme Court's school desegregation order. One year later "On the Beach" was released and generated an immediate firestorm of controversy.

The year the film was released, 1959, was the same year that Vice-President Richard Nixon had his famous "Kitchen Debate"in Moscow with Soviet boss Nikita Khrushchev. Just three years later the Cuban Missile Crisis took place, when the world hung on the precipice of a possible nuclear conflict as President John F. Kennedy and Khrushchev stood "eyeball to eyeball."

"On the Beach" was a faithful adaptation by screenwriter John Paxton of a novel by Australian author Nevil Shute. It is 1964 and a nuclear conflict has taken place. All other human life is dead with the exception of those living in Australia, where the extinction of the human race is said to be five months away at the most from the ravages of nuclear fallout, which is making its ugly path Australia's way.

The film covers two basic points: 1) How and why did humankind reach this precipice?; 2) How do people react in the wake of such a unanimous death sentence?

In his first chiefly dramatic role, dancing great Fred Astaire is illuminating as a nuclear scientist who feels waves of guilt over his assistance in helping build awesome tools of destruction, and yet, on the other hand, when confronted at a party to explain what happened and how the cataclysym occurred, he replies by saying that the scientists signed petitions and warned governments about the destruction that would be unleashed if the weapons were ever used. As to how the conflict started, he confesses ignorance, speculating that it was "probably started by some bloke who thought he saw something on a radar screen that wasn't actually there."

Submarine commander Gregory Peck, an American in Australia on naval duty, wants to start a relationship with Ava Gardner, but lives in a world where he is unable to accept that his wife and children in New London, Connecticut are no longer alive. Gardner, on the other hand, is a lonely woman given to acoholic depression who believes that life has passed her by, and hopes to secure one important love attachment with Peck before the end of the world occurs. "I wanted just once to walk on Rue de Rivoli," she tells Peck tearfully in one emotional scene.

Navy lieutenant Anthony Perkins and wife Donna Anderson have a baby daughter and would, ordinarily, look forward to a long and productive family life. Instead Perkins, not wanting to expose wife and daughter to suffering, arranges to receive pills that can induce early death before leaving on an assignment to America on Peck's submarine, not wanting them to suffer unnecessarily in his expected absence. Anderson is in denial, refusing to believe that the prospect for humanity is hopeless. Eventually when the end comes Perkins is there and she feels fulfilled by his love and that she holds for her young daughter.

One unique plot point is the exploration of Peck and crewmates toward possible hope of life. It comes in the form of unexpected and unexplainable morse code sounds from a point in San Diego. When they investigate they learn that the sounds result from a window shade brushing against a Coke bottle, which then pushes against the code machine.

One of the cinematic highlights of the film is the last Australian Grand Prix auto race, in which the drivers throw caution to the winds, many hoping to kill themselves rather than face death through radiation or suicide pills. Astaire, who had never before raced competitively, wins in his prize Ferrari. He shortly thereafter asphyxiates himself in his Ferrari in his garage after placing his winning emblem on his car.

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!