Has Anyone here Seen On the Beach?
By anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
United States
May 12, 2008 11:29pm CST
I very vaguely recall seeing this movie years ago when I was a child and being quite disturbed by it but I didn't remember all the details that well at all. I was on TMC the other night and I recorded it and watched it last night and that creepy feeling hasn't left me since. It was made in 1959 and set in 1964, was directed by Stanley Kramer and starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins. For a review and summary, go here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053137/
It takes place in Australia, the only place where people were still alive following a global nuclear war. Gregory Peck plays an American Naval Submarine Commander whose family was in America and are now dead. The story centers around him and some of the Australians he meets as they all wait for the radiation that has destroyed all life in the rest of the world to come to them. Anthony Perkins is a young Australian sailor with a young wife and infant daughter. His wife, Mary, played by Donna Anderson refuses to face up to what is happening and is about to happen to all of them.
I won't go into all the details of the plot although this is a movie where everyone knows the ending, more or less, but that doesn't stop it from being very poignant and jarring, if that's the right word to describe it. I asked my daughter tonight if she'd ever seen it and when she said she hadn't I said, "Don't.", not because it isn't a good movie, because it is but it really isn't for those who are very sensitive, in my opinion and I definitely wouldn't recommend it for children. If anyone here has seen this movie, how did it affect you and did it make you think - REALLY think - what nuclear war really means? The final scenes, showing empty streets as the music plays ominously before the screen goes black was very profound. We actually could do this to ourselves!
Annie
4 responses
@foundmyangel (607)
• United States
13 May 08
Yes I have seen it but its been along time ago But i do remember the expressions and the things they were thinking while waiting for final devestation. Nuclear war I assume will never happen because it will end life as we know it Period. Even if there were to be survivors why would you want to? I mean for one it would take years for anything to regrow and for new life to start again. Why would you want to live just to watch the rest of life not. Now if you were very young say childs age then maybe you could adapt and make life again and survive the changes that would never be the same again.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
13 May 08
When you say, "Even if there were to be survivors why would you want to?" that made me think of an old episode of the show "Happy Days". I know that's a big stretch from On the Beach to Happy Days but this was about how so many people back in the fifties were building bomb shelters, but in the end the Cunningham's decided against it because they wouldn't want to survive if none of their friends and loved ones did. That's how I would feel too!
Annie
@foundmyangel (607)
• United States
14 May 08
right that is my point what would be the purpose in it? We would loose everything and have nothing to gain by wanting to continue on.
@skinnychick (6905)
• United States
13 May 08
I have not seen this one. I might have to go and rent it or watch out for it on cable. I love old movies I can't believe I haven't seen it.
1 person likes this
@Angelwriter (1954)
• United States
14 May 08
Yes, I have seen it. I have it on DVD. It didn't make me think about nuclear war in general or in real life. I was more concerned with what was happening to those fictional characters. It's a very sad, disturbing movie, but it's also one of my favorites.
@jwfarrimond (4473)
•
13 May 08
Yes, I saw it many years ago. as you say, it is a very sad tear - jerker of a movie and I can never hear the song "Waltzing Matilda" now without being reminded of it. Such powerful images.
1 person likes this




