On the Beach (1959)

I recently watched the movie on DVD with my eleven year old grandson who wanted to watch a movie that dealt with nuclear war. Ironically I was his age when the events of the movie were to have taken place. He was every bit as stunned and transfixed as I was when I first saw it. As for me now in my 60s the very overwhelming issues of the survival and/or destruction of humanity from that era actually brought tears to my eyes. Having read the book I must agree the movie was superior in touching the subject of nuclear annihilation.

At first I thought this movie was going to be an anti-war movie with over 2 hrs of propaganda, boy was I wrong! For those a little hard of hearing it may be difficult without closed captions to follow, since there is an Australian accent. First, study up on how the book differs from the movie and you will see that the movie would suffer if it followed the book. Because the movie blames no individual nation the opening viewing was shown in China, Mosco and other nations not friendly with the USA at the time. What I found unique is how I became part of all the characters. I'm still somewhat shocked by watching this film, it grips your humanity like no other film I've ever watched. If you are a husband/wife/parent it will probably rip at your emotions and you will examine yourself and your relationships and start to wonder why you take your loved ones and neighbors for granted. I give this move a STRONG 10 and may buy the DVD, its that good.

I love the book. It is simply told yet deeply moving, and the characters feel like real people we all could know.But the movie, in spite of its skilled cast falls far short. Each of the characters has a unique way of dealing with the crises at hand, which forces their emotions into the background, but only just below the surface. But only the two female leads, Moira and Mary, bring this out in their performances. The male leads are all too uptight, with the emotion which should be boiling just below the surface held too much in check. As the actors themselves are terrific in other roles, I blame the director...But the real failure in this movie is the musical score. It relies nearly entirely on "Waltzing Matilda" and fails miserably to convey any drama or sense of emotion relating to the individual scenes. Worse, it becomes downright annoying by the end.This is a great story, and I hope it gets remade someday because this version was a huge letdown.

Stanley Kramer directed this nuclear holocaust drama set in the near-future and stars Gregory Peck as Lt. Commander Towers of the American submarine U.S.S. Sawfish, which has escaped the nuclear war that has devastated most of the world, and ends up in the last safe place: Australia, where Towers meets Moira Davidson(played by Ava Gardner) with whom he begins a relationship. Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins costar as fellow crew-mates who must also deal with the loss and despair following the war, and the inevitable radioactive fallout that is approaching... Good acting cannot save tedious and uneventful film that talks itself to death, though does attempt to say something meaningful.