on the beach movie review

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The continuing relevance of “On the Beach”

By Beverly Gray | August 3, 2015

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“It frightened the hell out of me. I’m still frightened.”

These words mark the reaction of a young Australian named Helen Caldicott to a story of the aftermath of mistaken nuclear war, in which those who never even took sides were faced with the slow advance of deadly nuclear radiation on their shores. On the Beach , first a best-selling novel and then a major Hollywood film, confronts the viewer with a number of questions: How would you behave if—in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse—you knew you only have a few weeks or months left to live? Would you carouse riotously, knowing the end is near? Deny that the entire thing is happening? Hope against all logic for a miraculous reprieve? Try to maintain a core of decency in the face of imminent death? Wish that you had done something long ago to prevent nuclear war in the first place?

The story’s effect on Caldicott, then a 19-year-old Melbourne medical student who’d just learned about genetics and radiation, was profound. She went on to become both a pediatrician and a feisty anti-nuclear activist, an inspiration to others in the non-proliferation community and in the nuclear humanitarian initiative . She is renowned for warning, “It could happen tonight by accident,” and with the onset of nuclear winter, “We’ll all freeze to death in the dark.”

But what about the book itself and the 1959 movie made from it? Recently, after watching a 2013 documentary called Fallout (produced by Rough Trade Pictures in association with Screen Australia and Film Victoria) that ponders these questions, I sat down with Karen Sharpe Kramer, widow of the producer-director of On the Beach . Stanley Kramer was well-known for releasing such “message” films as Judgment at Nuremberg , Inherit the Wind , and Ship of Fools . Of On the Beach he once wrote, “Its subject was as serious and compelling as any ever attempted in a motion picture—the very destruction of mankind and the entire planet.” Kramer died in 2001, but as the Iran nuclear agreement, renewed US-Russian nuclear tensions, and the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings make headlines, his Eisenhower-era movie retains an unfortunate relevance.

A different time—or maybe not so different. Sixty years ago, as the Cold War intensified, the end of the world seemed much too close for comfort. The threat of nuclear destruction, implicit in the newspaper headlines of the day, naturally leached into popular culture. The first filmmakers to incorporate the potential for global apocalypse into their work were the makers of low-budget horror flicks, like 1953’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and 1954’s Godzilla . Such movies both shocked and titillated young audiences by positing that nuclear tests had unleashed huge, fearsome monsters that—metaphorically standing in for the Bomb itself—could not be contained.

While teenagers were at the movies, their parents were building backyard fallout shelters in hopes of surviving the coming nuclear holocaust. Then suddenly a book appeared that spoke on an adult level to the futility of bomb shelters and the era’s duck-and-cover drills. This was On the Beach , published in 1957 by a British-born aeronautical engineer. Nevil Shute, who had once worked on the first British airship, spent much of World War II helping the Royal Navy develop experimental weapons in preparation for the D-Day invasion. By the time Shute transplanted his family to Melbourne, Australia, he had already begun publishing a long string of adventure novels. But in the post-war years, he felt a special need to convince the public of the dangers posed by nuclear proliferation. Through the character of Julian, he acknowledged the complicity of the scientists who had helped create weapons of mass destruction. In many ways, Shute personally identified with Julian, who must admit that “the devices outgrew us, we couldn’t control them. I know. … I helped build them, God help me.”

This dialogue comes from the 1959 film version. Shute’s On the Beach had quickly become a worldwide sensation. In its first six weeks, the American edition of the book sold 100,000 copies, dislodging the steamy Peyton Place from its top spot on the nation’s bestseller lists. Of course a cinematic adaptation was inevitable, and the socially aware Stanley Kramer (whose just-released prior film, The Defiant Ones, had tackled racial prejudice in the Deep South) quickly bought the movie rights. He cast major Hollywood stars in the central roles and moved his company to Melbourne to shoot one of the first feature-length Hollywood movies ever to be made on Australian soil.

The plotline of On the Beach is simple but powerful. Somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, some kind of horrible misunderstanding has launched a nuclear war, quickly wiping out most of the world. As one character in the book puts it: “No, it wasn’t an accident, I didn’t say that. It was carefully planned, down to the tiniest mechanical and emotional detail. But it was a mistake.” Though Australia and a few other countries at the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere have remained untouched, its citizens must now await the coming of the radiation that is sure to kill them all. (In the words of the Daily Telegraph , “a city waits, defeated, for the end of the world, whiling away the remaining hours with suicidal sport.”)

In this highly charged environment, a married American submarine commander (Gregory Peck), posted to Melbourne in the line of duty, is attracted to a beautiful and hedonistic local woman (Ava Gardner). Meanwhile, a young Aussie couple (Anthony Perkins and Donna Anderson) struggle with the realization that when the sickness comes, they may need to kill their infant daughter as well as themselves. As for Julian the scientist (played by an unlikely but mesmerizing Fred Astaire), he tries to cope by way of cynicism and a reckless disregard for life and limb while competing on a local speedway.

Transferring the book to film must have been a challenge in itself; the book begins with the lines: “This is how the world ends; not with a bang, but a whimper.” Consequently, there is not much room for big visuals or special effects; there are no big fiery explosions, and no scenes in which a John-Wayne type can charge up a hill in the face of the enemy. In fact, we see nothing of the millions who would have died of burns, internal injuries, or other unspeakable afflictions from a nuclear war. As modern-day fans of Nevil Shute’s literary work can attest: “For a novel about the complete extermination of life on Earth, On The Beach is surprisingly quiet. The distance from the original war, with its obviously horrific consequences, and the fundamental decency of the characters, shields the reader from the mess. Indeed, when Peter Holmes shouts at his wife the effects of radiation sickness on their baby, it is possibly the most stomach-wrenching part of the book.”

In the film, the most haunting section is similarly quiet, involving the submarine’s voyage to the west coast of the United States in hopes of finding survivors. Stanley Kramer’s direction is at its best in this segment, filmed completely without sound or musical scoring. One by one, each of the crew members takes a turn looking through the periscope at a still and silent San Francisco. On the wharves, on the bridges, not a single sign of life.

The intensity of this moment is matched by the film’s final shot. Kramer’s On the Beach opens with a montage of Melbourne’s lively downtown business district: pedestrians and vehicles come and go, while a sidewalk evangelist gathers a crowd under a banner that proclaims “THERE IS STILL TIME … BROTHER.” At the film’s end, after the deadly radiation has made its presence felt, the banner continues to flap in the breeze. But there’s no one to read its message of hope.

The audience take-away. On the Beach , of course, stems from an era when nuclear weapons were primarily in the hands of two world superpowers. Today there seems to be powerful nuclear capability in virtually every global neighborhood. Which makes the message of this novel and this film all the more timely.

“THERE IS STILL TIME … BROTHER” can be taken as the underlying message of On the Beach. Both novel and film are consciously urging the public to avert calamity. One who responded strongly was Caldicott, who vividly remembers the impact the book made on her: “It just penetrated every bone of my body. … That an episode in the Northern Hemisphere could destroy the Southern Hemisphere and everything on it was almost unimaginable.” 

And a young Hollywood actress named Karen Sharpe, who’d been featured in The High and the Mighty , was one of many who fell under the spell of the Stanley Kramer film. She saw it at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, deliberately choosing an afternoon performance to beat the crowds. It didn’t work: the big auditorium was jam-packed. She has never forgotten her first reaction to On the Beach : “It was devastating.”

Seven years later, Karen Sharpe came to know Stanley Kramer; they were married from 1966 until his death in 2001. The two worked together on several of Kramer’s later films, notably Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Still, of the entire Kramer output, On the Beach remains perhaps Karen’s favorite. She staunchly defends Kramer against the complaints made by Nevil Shute at the time of the film’s first screening. Shute had loudly protested that the film was a “bastardization” of his work because of its American cast and what he saw as the soft-peddling of the horrors of radiation sickness, which include nausea, vomiting, fever, skin and hair loss, massive ulcers, blisters, burns, emaciation, destruction of the soft tissues, bone marrow depletion, and ultimately inflammation of the membrane around the heart, leading to a slow, agonizing death.

Shute, who never depicted adultery in any of his novels, seemed particularly outraged that the characters played by Gardner and Peck discreetly consummate their relationship within the film, even though he’s technically a married man. Karen Sharpe Kramer firmly believes in Stanley’s choice: “You never know what people will do in time of disaster. People will cling to life and hope and love as long as they can.” Besides, there’s a practical consideration: “I don’t think you can have a platonic relationship for two solid hours when you have the end of the world. You have to have something to give the audience to really care about those people.” 

Karen also applauds her late husband for his marketing savvy. Hoping to make the greatest possible stir on the global scene, Stanley Kramer scheduled premieres of On the Beach in 18 world capitals —including Tokyo, London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Caracas, and New York City—on the very same day, December 17, 1959. Heads of state attended many of the screenings, along with the movie’s stars. Ava Gardner, for instance, was dispatched to Madrid, while Gregory and Veronique Peck traveled to Moscow, where they watched the film in the company of 1,200 Soviet apparatchiks.

This innovative world premiere helped nudge the United Nations toward considering disarmament talks, while also drumming up business at the box office. It didn’t hurt to have a publicity campaign that featured the tagline, “The Biggest Story of Our Time.” And most print ads of the day were also emblazoned with this imperative: “If you never see another motion picture in your life, you MUST see On the Beach .”    

Critical response to the film was mixed, however, and audiences—at least in the United States—did not turn out in the numbers Kramer had hoped for, despite the packed theatre at Grauman’s. The film recorded a loss at the time of $700,000. Of course the grim subject matter surely kept many moviegoers away. Variety said that “the final impact is as heavy as a leaden shroud. The spectator is left with the sick feeling that he’s had a preview of Armageddon , in which all contestants lost.”

In Australia, however, On the Beach seemed to do better. Partly this relates to the fact that the movie was made on location in Melbourne, with local sights and sounds featured on screen—always enticing to an audience. (Philip Davey has written about the excitement generated by the film’s production in his When Hollywood Came to Melbourne .) Also, On the Beach dealt explicitly with the dilemma of what the Southern Hemisphere would face if the Northern Hemisphere resorted to nuclear war. But there may have been a deeper reason, connected with the differing nature of the two countries: Australia is a land of stoics, with a fatalistic view, based upon the country’s founding as a prison colony, while (most) Americans came here willingly. The two nations have also had different histories and different experiences with their respective vast, untamed continents—as is reflected by each country’s choice of frontier heroes. While American heroes tend to be victorious strivers who subdue the land, nearly every Australian national hero dies, from the fatal Burke and Wills expedition in the outback to Simpson at Gallipoli . We Americans like winners; the Aussies admire the beautiful loser, who retains his humanity, defiance, and sense of life, even in defeat. Consequently, the themes of On the Beach have had a special resonance down-under.

Film critics in the Northern Hemisphere seemed to have missed that point, with a notable exception being Bosley Crowther of the New York Times , who wrote in his 1959 review that “[t]he basic theme of this drama and its major concern is life, the wondrous thing that man’s own vast knowledge and ultimate folly seem about to destroy. And everything done by the characters, every thought they utter and move they make, indicates their fervor, tenacity and courage in the face of doom. … Mr. Kramer and his assistants have most forcibly emphasized this point: Life is a beautiful treasure and man should do all he can to save it from annihilation, while there is still time.”

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Keywords: popular culture Topics: Analysis , Book Review , Nuclear Weapons , Special Topics

This is beautifully written and an accurate analysis of this incredible book. I’ve just finished reading it for the second time and watched the film again last night. Both stay with you for a very long time because you can’t stop thinking about the inevitability of the end. Not pleasant, but the feeling makes you appreciate what you’ve got. As for Peck and Gardner getting it on in the film, I think it’s closer to reality than Shute wanted to go in the book. I admire his restraint, but let’s face it – the human condition in those circumstances will …  Read more »

Beverly Gray

Beverly Gray, who once developed 170 low-budget features for B-movie maven Roger Corman, is the author of Roger Corman: Blood-Sucking Vampires, Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers ,... Read More

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On the Beach review – an achingly beautiful depiction of the end of the world

Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney Theatre Company The Picture of Dorian Gray director Kip Williams has taken a more simple approach with Nevil Shute’s novel and the result is stirring and sad

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I n 1957, Nevil Shute, the British aeronautical engineer, Naval Reserve officer and novelist, wrote of the end of all things as we know it in his novel On the Beach. In his version of Melbourne in 1963, nuclear war has wiped out signs of life in the northern hemisphere, and radiation poisoning is drifting on the wind towards the city. With only a few months to go and no way to save yourself, what matters most? Who do we become when the world changes? Can we stop a catastrophe, or do we lean into it?

Here in 2023, Tommy Murphy (ABC’s Significant Others, Holding the Man) has adapted the novel for the stage in a world that is especially sensitive to how close we are to the end. We have been buffeted by natural disasters brought on by the climate crisis; we have lived the eerie twilight of Covid-19 lockdowns; we are gripped by the horror of Russia-Ukraine war. We know very well the tension between destruction abroad and its delayed impact at home. Murphy’s play is still set in the 1960s, but it is suffused with our own dread and hopelessness; it is a much-needed vessel for our grief.

We first meet Peter (Ben O’Toole) and Mary (Michelle Lim Davidson) who look at the end differently, but for the same reason: they have a baby girl, and the loss of her future is unconscionable. Peter clings to hope that the world will right itself, while Mary is much more pragmatic. This is a welcome update from the novel, which dismisses women as unhelpful to their men in times of crisis, indulging in flights of fancy and denying hard truths. Murphy’s script, which blends lines from the book with a deeper and more nuanced exploration of character, is gripping.

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When Peter, a navy man, is drafted on to the submarine USS Scorpion for fact-finding, a jumbled transmission from Seattle becomes a promise of relief – but Mary can’t escape the practicalities of their fate. Scientist John Osborne (Matthew Backer) is more sceptical, brought onboard by the government to record the nuclear fallout. Later, we see how he’s coping with the promise of death – he’s bought a Ferrari and is planning to race it in an all-amateur Grand Prix that’s more of a death wish.

Dwight (Tai Hara), a captain and one of just a few Americans who escaped their country’s fate, is living in his own devastating denial, where his dead wife and children are still very present. Peter and Mary introduce him to their friend Moira (Contessa Treffone) in hopes of keeping him occupied. She’s a bright and thriving presence; their tender care for each other (Murphy’s script builds in more emotional complexity here too) creates space for them both to find some final moments of grace.

On the Beach is directed by Kip Williams, STC’s artistic director, who is best known for his cine-theatre approach to productions like The Picture of Dorian Gray, which played sell-out return seasons in Australia and is now heading to the West End with Succession’s Sarah Snook in the lead role. There are no cameras or video screens here: instead, Williams’ elegant, achingly beautiful production places people first, showcasing the vulnerability of bodies reaching for each other on an often spare stage.

Michael Hankin’s set design is evocative of time and space rather than demonstrative, and it gives us very real room to absorb the story. Grace Ferguson’s sound design is stirring and sad, and it dances with Damien Cooper’s lights, which capture something about late light, shadows and absence, making it feel all the more potent when our characters reach out for each other. A set piece is wheeled out to stand in as a pier but is later repurposed to represent Peter and Moira’s veranda and, later, the submarine; just like that, new worlds are summoned.

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Sometimes it is the simple theatrical techniques that are the most effective. Large sheets billow in the wind to suggest the threat in the air and it is as moving as poetry. Surprise costume changes and clever choreography transform one character into the ghost of another and it feels like a memory. One final, unexpected image on the stage, which shouldn’t be spoiled, is particularly arresting. Theatre’s aliveness is a gift, and this production of On the Beach is in love with life: the ways we connect, how hard we love, how desperately we try to make something of our time together – even when we know it all ends.

The play finds its way to the novel’s bleak final moments and it’s desperately sad, but it’s not desolate. There is love here, and community and compassion. This production is a hand reaching out for our own, a reminder that we are not yet done and, crucially, we are not alone.

STC’s production of On the Beach is on at the Roslyn Packer Theatre, Sydney until 12 August

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"The Beach" is a seriously confused film that makes three or four passes at being a better one and doesn't complete any of them. Since Leonardo DiCaprio is required to embody all of its shifting moods and aims, it provides him with more of a test than a better film might have; it's like a triathlon where every time he spies the finish line they put him on a bicycle and send him out for another 50 miles.

The early scenes deliberately evoke the opening of " Apocalypse Now ," with its sweaty closeups, its revolving ceiling fans and its voice-overs with DiCaprio trying to sound like Martin Sheen . In a fleabag hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, a fellow traveler ( Robert Carlyle ) tells him of an island paradise, hard to find but worth the trip. Will his journey borrow from a Joseph Conrad novel (Victory, say), as "Apocalypse Now" borrowed from Heart of Darkness? No such luck. DiCaprio's character, named Richard, recruits a French couple in the next room and as they set out for the legendary island, the movie abandons Conrad and "Apocalypse," and borrows instead from "Blue Lagoon" on its way to a pothead version of "Lord of the Flies." This is the kind of movie where the heroes are threatened by heavily armed guards in a marijuana field, and that's less alarming than when they jump off a ledge into a deep pool. Later they'll go swimming in glowing clouds of plankton, and Richard will face a shark in one-on-one combat.

Many of the scenes look, frankly, like time fillers. Richard and his new French friends Francoise ( Virginie Ledoyen ) and Etienne ( Guillaume Canet ) arrive safely at a sort of retro hippie commune where the pot is free, the bongos beat every night and all is blissful on the beach, watched over by the stern eye of Sal ( Tilda Swinton ), the community's leader. It's paradise, Richard tells us--except for his lust for Francoise.

So will this become a love triangle? No, because Francoise, once enjoyed, is forgotten, and besides, Etienne only wants her to be happy. Those French. A later encounter with Sal is more like plumbing than passion, and both sex scenes are arbitrary--they aren't important to the characters or the movie.

But then many of the sequences fall under the heading of good ideas at the time. Consider, for example, a strange interlude in which Richard becomes the hero of a video game, stomping through the landscape in computerized graphics. There is an echo here from " Trainspotting ," a better film by the same director, Danny Boyle , in which f/x are used to send the hero on a plunge into the depths of the world's filthiest toilet. There the effects worked as comic exaggeration; here they're just goofy.

What is important, I guess, is Richard's evolution from an American drifter in the Orient into a kind of self-appointed Tarzan, who takes to the jungle and trains himself, well aware that a movie so pointless and meandering will need contrived violence to justify the obligatory ending. In a paroxysm of indecision, the film's conclusion mixes action, existential resignation, the paradise-lost syndrome and memories of happier days, the last possibly put in for studio executives who are convinced that no matter how grim a movie's outcome, it must end on a final upbeat.

Watching "The Beach" is like experiencing a script conference where only sequences are discussed--never the whole film. What is it about, anyway? There are the elements here for a romantic triangle, for a man-against-the-jungle drama, for a microcosm-of-civilization parable or for a cautionary lesson about trying to be innocent in a cruel world. The little society ruled over by Sal is a benevolent dictatorship--you can be happy as long as you follow the rules--and that's material for satire or insight, I guess, although the movie offers none.

There is one extraordinary development. One of the commune guys is bitten by a shark, and when his anguished screams disturb the island idyll of the others, Sal simply has him moved out of earshot. This event suggests the makings of another, darker movie, but it's not allowed to pay off or lead to anything big.

Maybe that's because the whole film is seen so resolutely through Richard's eyes, and the movie doesn't want to insult its target demographic group or dilute DiCaprio's stardom by showing the character as the twit that he is. In a smarter film, Richard would have been revealed as a narcissistic kid out of his depth, and maybe he would have ended up out in the woods where his screams couldn't be heard.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Beach (2000)

Rated R For Violence, Some Strong Sexuality, Language and Drug Content

119 minutes

Leonardo DiCaprio as Richard

Tilda Swinton as Sal

Virginie Ledoyen as Francoise

Guillaume Canet as Etienne

Robert Carlyle as Daffy

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ON THE BEACH

• Post author: eenableadmin
• Post published: August 5, 2019
• Post category: Uncategorized

(director: Stanley Kramer; screenwriters: John Paxton/James Lee Barrett/from the novel by Nevil Shute; cinematographer: Daniel Fapp; editor: Frederic Knudtson; music: Ernest Gold; cast: Gregory Peck (Cmdr. Dwight Lionel Towers), Ava Gardner (Moira Davidson), Fred Astaire (Julian Osborne), Anthony Perkins (Lt. Cmdr. Peter Holmes), Donna Anderson (Mary Holmes), John Tate (Admiral Bridie), Lola Brooks (Lieutenant Hosgood), Guy Doleman (Farrel), John Meillon (Swain), Peter Williams (Professor Jorgenson); Runtime: 135; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Stanley Kramer; MGM/UA Home Entertainment; 1959) “Gloomy doomsday film that is more talky, melodramatic and numbing than imaginative.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Liberal director Stanley Kramer (“Inherit the Wind”/”The Defiant Ones”/”Ship of Fools”) helms this gloomy doomsday film that is more talky, melodramatic and numbing than imaginative. It’s based on the Australian Nevil Shute’s controversial best selling novel. The downbeat screenplay is by John Paxton. It follows a group of characters as they each wait in different ways for their expected death. The 60-year-old Fred Astaire gets his first straight dramatic role after his 26 year film career as a song and dance man, playing a guilt-ridden nuclear scientist. The film made the Australian standard “Waltzing Matilda” its theme song and it gained worldwide popularity; composer Ernest Gold made it effectively chilling and memorable as played throughout the film.

It’s set in Australia in 1964, after a nuclear war between the USSR and the USA (they are the only countries at the time with the nuclear capacity to destroy the world) left Australia as the only safe place in the world. The ‘down under’ residents await their end from the fallout from radiation, which some of the informed citizens think will be in five months. The submarine commander of the US Sawfish, Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), who was submerged under water during the attack, docks outside of Melbourne in the harbor in Williamstown (the film was shot on location in Melbourne). Australian Admiral Bridie (John Tate) assigns the young married Lt. Cmdr. Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) to join the American crew of the submarine on a four month reconnaissance mission. Peter only desires to be home with his delicate anxious wife Mary (Donna Anderson) and their infant daughter Jennifer when the radiation fallout reaches Australia.

Peter invites Dwight to their house gathering in an attempt to keep things normal, and Mary invites their single friend Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner) to keep Towers company (he’s still not over the shock of losing his wife and kids to the disaster). At the party, an inebriated cynical British nuclear scientist and race car driver of Grand Prix pretensions, Julian Osborn (Fred Astaire), gets into a verbal tiff over another guest’s statement blaming the scientists for the nuclear disaster.

Buoyed by Professor Jorgenson’s (Peter Williams) theory that heavy rain and snowfall in the Northern Hemisphere may lessen the threat to the existing survivors, Bridie orders Towers to go north to test the theory. Also on the mission is Osborn, who was a former flame of Moira. Before taking off on the mission, Bridie reveals to Towers that a radio signal has been detected coming from somewhere around San Diego. When arriving there, Towers discovers the signal came from a Coke bottle brushing against a curtain. Meanwhile a bunch of the characters, back in Australia, sensing there’s no hope commit suicide, while party girl Moira drinks to forget her troubles and then falls in love with the reluctant Towers. The bleak message of hopelessness leaves no room for anyone to escape the inevitable consequences of a nuclear war, as the film serves as a dire warning for any country who dares push the button.

Peck had the gravitas for the part, but Gardner and Astaire were embarrassingly miscast–completely out of their element in this serious sci-fi disaster film, whether it was their inability to achieve the right accent or act in a credible manner. For that matter, no one in the film was able to reach for the kind of emotional impact that such an important themed story almost demanded. In the apocalyptic climax, everything becomes leaden and it became difficult to feel anything for the melodramatic doomed characters. The film was a failure for being such heavy going, but nevertheless should be applauded for its effort to at least bring something worthwhile and cerebral to the table about nuclear war and its apparent danger.

REVIEWED ON 3/6/2008 GRADE: C+

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Movie Review

On the beach.

US Release Date: 12-17-1959

Directed by: Stanley Kramer

Starring ▸ ▾

• Gregory Peck ,  as
• Cmdr. Dwight Lionel Towers, USS Sawfish
• Ava Gardner ,  as
• Moira Davidson
• Fred Astaire ,  as
• Julian Osborne
• Anthony Perkins ,  as
• Lt. Cmdr. Peter Holmes, Royal Australian Navy
• Donna Anderson ,  as
• Mary Holmes
• John Tate ,  as
• Adm. Bridie
• Harp McGuire ,  as
• Lt. Sunderstrom
• Lola Brooks ,  as
• Lt. Hosgood
• Ken Wayne ,  as
• Guy Doleman ,  as
• Lt. Cmdr. Farrel
• Richard Meikle ,  as
• John Meillon ,  as
• Ralph Swain
• Joe McCormick ,  as
• Lou Vernon ,  as
• Bill Davidson
• Kevin Brennan as

Gregory Peck in On the Beach .

Director Stanley Kramer's On the Beach is a cautionary tale about the last days of mankind after a nuclear war. Made in 1959 but set five years in the future in 1964 it concerns a small group of survivors in Australia and the different ways they choose to meet the end. As the picture opens we learn that scientists estimate that in about five months time clouds of radiation will reach Australia, believed to be the last outpost of humanity. The story is told in a simple, straightforward manner. It is not overly dramatic but neither is it overly inspired either.

On the Beach was shot in black & white as many dramas were at that time. It does feature some nice cinematography, and with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins in the four main roles it boasts plenty of star power. Gregory Peck is the commander of the USS Sawfish a United States Naval Submarine, Anthony Perkins is Lt. Cmdr. Peter Holmes of the Royal Australian Navy. As a last ditch effort to find other survivors or a place where the radiation hasn't reached they set off on a mission all the way up to the arctic circle and back down along the coast of California. One of the best scenes takes place in San Diego. One of the men decides he wants to die at home, so he goes ashore to a deserted town and country.

This movie being more psychological than visually scary, there are no dead or decaying bodies. Instead we just get emptiness and silence.

The always beautiful Ava Gardner plays love interest to Gregory Peck. They make a handsome couple bravely and gallantly facing the end of the world. Fred Astaire is a scientist who fulfills his lifelong dream of competing in a grand prix like car race. He gets one of the movies best lines. 'We're all doomed, you know. The whole, silly, drunken, pathetic lot of us. Doomed by the air we're about to breathe.'

Great cast, but a rather slow and methodical movie that will depress the hell out of you. The final scene will resonate for a while but overall the movie doesn't ring true. There is very little panic. Everyone just seems to gently await their fate with a quiet dignity. Stanley Kramer wanted to see the best in human nature but in reality I think there would be much more chaos and insanity.

Fred Astaire, Gregory Peck, and Ava Gardner in On the Beach .

I've always been fascinated by end of the world stories and this one starts intriguingly. The only known survivors are those people living in Melbourne, Australia, the southernmost major city in the world. There's a ticking clock element to the story due to the scientific prediction that winds will carry the nuclear fallout to the area in just a matter of months. However, after this initial setup the film has little to offer apart from a somber tone and heavy handed anti-nuclear message.

As Patrick wrote, this is a very sedate end of the world. The apocalypse has never been so civilized. Here you have a group of people who literally know the world is coming to an end and even approximately when it's going to happen, but they continue to carry on their lives as normally as possible. They even obey the fishing season, which for some ridiculous reason is still in effect! If you picture Mad Max as one end of the spectrum as to what life is like after a nuclear war in Australia, than this movie is at the exact opposite end of it. Instead of looting or even getting angry, this cast just carries on with their day, gradually growing depressed and deciding how they'd like to end their lives.

The consequences of nuclear war are also not really shown. As Patrick mentioned, San Francisco and San Diego are still intact without a hint of damage. They're just devoid of people. The radiation sickness that several characters are shown to be afflicted with also leaves no mark. Instead of open sores or loss of hair, they just look tired and a little grumpy. The only ramifications we see are psychological and emotional. It's the soap opera version of the end of the world.

At least the star heavy cast does a nice job, despite some of the weakest attempts at Australian accents ever caught on film. They're all so half-hearted, I wonder why they even bothered to try accents at all. Apart from that though, they deliver some solid performances. Astaire, cast against type, is appealing as the scientist. Peck and Gardner make a nice pair of lovers, she finding love and he re-finding it, although their ending is the least satisfying. Anthony Perkins elicits sympathy as the young husband and father with a wife whose sanity is on a knife's edge.

Despite being a film with little action, the filmmakers manage to drag it out to over two depressing hours. By the time it's over you might be ready to line up and take one of the suicide pills they're offering in the film. Although this was the first major Hollywood film to deal with the end of the world from nuclear war, there have been much better ones made since. Despite some nice character moments in this one, you'd be better off watching almost any of the others.

Photos © Copyright United Artists (1959)

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On the Beach Reviews

• 55   Metascore
• 2 hr 13 mins
• Watchlist Where to Watch

After a nuclear holocaust, survivors know that it is only a matter of time for them, but they still track a signal to the Northern Hemisphere, where others might be alive.

Based on Nevil Shute's popular novel, this flawed but moving end-of-the-world drama is set in Australia in 1964, after nuclear war has eliminated life in the northern hemisphere. While the folks down under await the nuclear fallout that will eventually kill them, the US Sawfish, a submarine commanded by Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck), ventures to California, only to learn that the radio signal still being transmitted from San Diego is being produced by a soda bottle--everyone at home is dead (dramatically reinforced by some extraordinary shots of a deserted San Francisco). Back in Australia, the principal characters deal with their imminent deaths in their own way: scientist Julian Osborn (Fred Astaire) enters and wins an auto race, then asphyxiates himself; Australian naval officer Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) and his wife, Mary (Donna Anderson), take their child's and their own lives; good-time girl Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner) tries to drink her fears away, then falls for Towers, who eventually returns with his crew to the US to die at home. Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, this unremittingly bleak message film was intended to have a big impact and premiered simultaneously in 18 cities on all seven continents. And though it occasionally goes over the top with its melodrama and lacks some technical credibility, ON THE BEACH remains a powerful, well-acted, deftly photographed film in the tradition of THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL; FAIL SAFE; DR. STRANGELOVE; and TESTAMENT. Its effective use of "Waltzing Matilda" also contributed to making that most Australian of songs a hit in the US.

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Film review: on the beach (1959).

Nigel Honeybone 04/15/2017 Uncategorized

The final word on the atomic bomb in the fifties came from Stanley Kramer , whose production of On The Beach (1959) was based on the Nevil Shute novel published in 1957. It’s set in Melbourne in 1964 after an atomic war has destroyed life in every corner of the world except the southernmost states of Australia. As the deadly radioactive shroud moves slowly down from the north, the people of Melbourne attempt to live their lives as normally as possible, despite the ever-present knowledge that they will all soon die hideously of radiation sickness. Also stranded in Melbourne is an American nuclear submarine, and one of the film’s most memorable sequences involves a voyage it makes to California to investigate the source of a radio signal, only to discover that this has been caused by a window shade blowing against a morse code key. The crew realise that, as they feared, America is totally without life.

The US Department of Defense refused to cooperate in the production of the film, denying any access to their nuclear-powered submarines, so the production crew was forced to use a non-nuclear Royal Navy submarine instead, the HMS Andrew. Like the novel, much of the film takes place in Melbourne, close to the southernmost part of the Australian mainland. The beach scenes were filmed at the foreshore of Cowes on Phillip Island, and the car racing sequences were filmed at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, home to the present-day Australian motorcycle Grand Prix, conveniently near Cowes at Phillip Island. Other locations include the Melbourne suburbs of Frankston and Berwick, and some of the streets which were being built at the time were named after people involved in the film, such as Shute Avenue and Kramer Drive.

“In this last of meeting places, We grope together, And avoid speech, Gathered on this beach of the tumid river.”

Four decades later an updated adaptation was produced for television starring Armand Assante , Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward , directed by Russell Mulcahy and written by David Williamson . This newer version ends with a quote from a Walt Whitman poem entitled On The Beach At Night describing how frightening an approaching cloud bank seemed at night, blotting the stars out one by one. As much as it resembles the plot of Shute’s novel, the book gives no reference to the Whitman poem, while the T.S. Eliot poem is presented at the book’s beginning. The remake itself received two Golden Globe award nominations: Best Television Film and Rachel Ward for Best Actress for her role as Moira Davidson. Some critics, however, have called the movie one of the worst remakes of all-time, but that’s another story for another time. Right now I’ll ask you to please join me next week when I have another opportunity to force-feed you more unthinkable realities and unbelievable factoids of the darkest days of cinema, exposing the most daring shriek-and-shudder shock sensations to ever be found in the steaming cesspit known as…Horror News! Toodles!

Tags Anthony Perkins Australia Ava Gardner Donna Anderson Fred Astaire Gregory Peck Nevil Shute On The Beach Stanley Kramer

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Good film although I never want to hear waltzing matilda ever again.

Ha! Waltzing Matilda and Land Down Under both! And I live here, for cryin’ out loud! Unfortunately, Australia as a colony never had many tunes of its own until much later, and the ones we did have were appropriated from Ireland, Scotland, Britain, or some other European nation. Waltzing Matilda was actually based on a Scottish march, with new lyrics by Banjo Patterson (or so I believe).

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Seinfeld’s upcoming Netflix movie about Pop-Tarts to be featured in IndyCar race at Long Beach

FILE - Jerry Seinfeld is shown before the men’s singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships between Casper Ruud, of Norway, and Carlos Alcaraz, of Spain, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, in New York. Seinfeld’s upcoming Netflix comedy will be featured during this weekend’s IndyCar race at Long Beach as rookie Linus Lundqvist will drive a car painted to look like a Pop-Tart in recognition of the movie “Unfrosted.”(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

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Jerry Seinfeld’s upcoming Netflix comedy will be featured during this weekend’s IndyCar race at Long Beach as rookie Linus Lundqvist will drive a car painted to look like a Pop-Tart in recognition of the movie “Unfrosted.”

Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 8 will be painted in the texture of an unfrosted Pop-Tart along with images of Seinfeld and some of the movie cast members. The partnership, which is in collaboration with Ganassi sponsor American Legion, is promoting the May 3 film release.

The movie marks the directorial debut for the comedian.

Seinfeld claimed all the way back in 2018 that he had been “thinking about an invention of the Pop-Tart movie. Imagine the drunk on sugar-power Kellogg’s cereal culture of the mid-60s in Battle Creek, (Michigan) That’s a vibe I could work with.”

The movie, co-written by Seinfeld, stars Seinfeld along with Jim Gaffigan, Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Hugh Grant, James Marsden, Bill Burr, Fred Armisen, Dan Levy and others. “Unfrosted” tells the tale of 1963 Michigan, the year before Pop-Tarts hit grocery store shelves.

“Making a movie about Pop-Tarts has led to so many wonderful, unexpected surprises, and as a car guy, I honestly cannot believe our film’s logo will be on an IndyCar entry this weekend,” Seinfeld said. “I am grateful to Chip Ganassi Racing for making this happen, and honored to be affiliated with The American Legion and the work they do to support American Veterans.”

The American Legion signed off on the promotion as part of its “Be the One” mission that aims to save the lives of veterans by raising awareness, destigmatizing mental-health treatment and educating veterans, service members and their loved ones about what to do when a person appears at risk of suicide. Comedy is often used as a way to alleviate the symptoms that can lead to thoughts of suicide.

“The ability for the American Legion to partner with Jerry Seinfeld, ‘Unfrosted’ and Netflix is an incredible opportunity to expose our organization and the work we do for veterans to an entirely new audience within the entertainment community — and — the general public that are fans of Jerry Seinfeld and his comedy,” said Dean Kessel, chief marketing officer of The American Legion.

“We know that humor can be therapeutic for those battling mental health issues. Partnering with the ‘Unfrosted’ project ties nicely into our ‘Be The One’ platform and our efforts to destigmatize veterans who are seeking help and our prevention of veteran suicide.”

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The Beach Boys Catch a Wave While Navigating Harmony and Discord in New Doc Trailer

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Jon Blistein

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The harmonies, the rivalries, the innovations, and, of course, the surfing all get their due in the new trailer the upcoming documentary on the Beach Boys , premiering May 24 on Disney+ .

The new clip hits many of the major defining beats of the Beach Boys story: The band’s deep family lore, the way they embodied and helped create the 20th century California dream, the creative competitiveness with the Beatles, and the discord that often lurked beneath some of the most beautiful pop music ever made (like when Brian Wilson ’s dad, Murry, infamously sold the band’s publishing). Additionally, the trailer teases interviews with Janelle Monáe, Ryan Tedder, Don Was, as well as the plethora of archival footage that’ll be featured in the film.

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It also includes interviews with the surviving members of the band, plus lyric and chord sheets, concert photographs, handwritten notes, studio docs, and other ephemera. Plus, the book features contributions from avowed Beach Boys fans like Thom Yorke, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Carly Simon, and more. 

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If You're Not Watching This Matthew McConaughey Film on 4/20, You're Doing It Wrong

It's the most fitting movie for the holiday.

The Big Picture

• The Beach Bum stars Matthew McConaughey as a hedonistic poet, Moondog, in a mix of hilarity and heartbreak.
• McConaughey’s performance as Moondog received critical praise despite mixed reviews of the film.
• The film revolves around Moondog’s arrested development, selfishness, and journey to reconnect with his loved ones.

The Beach Bum is an irreverent stoner comedy written and directed by Harmony Korine , based on a coterie of strange individuals. Both hilarious and heart-wrenching, The Beach Bum is the perfect film to watch on 4/20, as Matthew McConaughey stars as the hedonistic, substance-abusing, nomadic poet named Moondog. Although way past his prime, he is still considered a local legend and languishes in arrested development while attempting to finish his latest book. While the film opened to mixed reviews, McConaughey's performance as the ultimate hippie poet laureate has received almost universal critical praise .

The Beach Bum

The film follows the misadventures of Moondog, a rebellious and lovable rogue who lives life by his own rules in the sun-drenched locales of Florida. As a hedonistic poet, he drifts through a series of escapades surrounded by eccentric characters, embracing a lifestyle of excess, revelry, and profound self-expression.

What Is 'The Beach Bum' About?

The Beach Bum is very much inspired by the Jimmy Buffet song , "How A Pirate Looks at 40." Like the movie, the song is about a man who has grown past his prime, looking back on a colourful life full of wine, women, weed, and song. This is Moondog, a brilliant poet and great man, but now a caricature of his former self ; he might be loveable, but he's really just a child who has now grown old. In the film's opening scenes, he wanders around dressed like a surfer clown, as his genius and habituations have created a wall of drugged-out fuzz so all-enveloping that he drifts through the world, nearly oblivious to other people. He finds a cat and takes it to a bar, has a truly heroic amount of sex with strangers, and while this man seems to be doing a lot, he is most assuredly no longer writing. And yet, while one would hesitate to call this man lonely as he recites old poetry to a bar full of receptive strangers, there is an apparent disconnect between the poet and his audience, as well as his loved ones in the film.

His wife, Minnie ( Isla Fisher ), is disgustingly rich and has been handling Moondog's finances for what seems to be his entire career. Minnie loves her husband and understands his unhinged genius, but spends almost all of her time apart from him. Moondog is a rambling man who has more or less become a part of the scenery of Key West, Florida, which plays into his main flaws: he's supremely self-absorbed and selfish . He doesn't even realize that Minnie has been having a nearly decades-long affair with Lingerie ( Snoop Dog ), a retired singer and part-time drug smuggler.

Matthew McConaughey to Drive 'The Lost Bus' for Blumhouse

Minnie dies of a drug overdose on the eve of their daughter, Heather's ( Stefania LaVie Owen ), wedding, leaving half of her estate to Moondog on the condition that he finishes his book, which will eventually become the poet's masterpiece. While it's a sweet deal, he's resistant to any structure or obligation, and Minnie—knowing this—made the caveat in her will because she knew Moondog he would only squander her wealth without ever producing his great work of art. The aging pirate must now look at himself at 40, peering through the hedonist fog of his life to understand himself and what it was that truly made his work excellent. It's time for the old salty dog to grow up, take the initiative, and, in doing so, reconnect with his art and those most dear to him.

Matthew McConaughey Plays the Ultimate Man-Child In 'The Beach Bum'

Moondog's arrested development is, of course, a product of his maternal relationship . At Heather's wedding, Minnie confesses to her daughter that she used to tell Moondog's mother that she coddled him too much. This checks out, as he's unable to accept a situation where he's not the center of attention . Moondog shows up at his daughter's wedding during the ceremony in disastrous fashion, rolling an elderly woman in a wheelchair off the stage and into the wall, then mauling Heather with kisses. He makes his daughter's special day about him, having fallen so deep into his hedonism that he no longer has the poetic objectivity he once had.

Moondog is not so much observing things as leaning on his past fame so that he can have a good time . He's a fighter out of shape, so self-absorbed that he doesn't notice his wife's affair until the last moments before she dies. Perhaps his lack of responsibility worked for him when he was young, sharper, and better looking, but time moved on, and so did the lives of those around him.

Moondog's daughter loves her father, but she simply cannot be his mother and take care of him after Minnie's death. So, too, was Minnie thrust into the role of mother, taking care of the adult responsibilities of marriage and the household while Moondog did his own thing. This is why Minnie forbids him from using any of the family assets before the completion of his book; little boys do not understand responsibility, which is Minnie's natural gift to Moondog. He will gain some independence through his merits , which includes completing his book .

Matthew McConaughey Plays the Role of a Lifetime in 'The Beach Bum'

There is a passivity to the character of Moondog that is virtually transcendental, an unending and unbreakable belief that everything will work out; this pursuit of life at the cost of trying leads the character through his paces. It's a frame that hangs exceptionally well on the actor, with McConaughey bringing a naturalism to the role that is all too believable . There's something in that familiar drawl of his voice that sounds particularly perfect with a joint hanging out of his mouth. The ease with which McConaughey slinks around the film has a dizzying effect, reflecting the off-balance nature of the character and leaving the audience with a zen-like feeling that is all too compelling. In that same sense, Moondog is easily an extension of the actor's psyche born during his breakthrough role in the coming-of-age stoner comedy, Dazed and Confused .

As Moondog, McConaughey paints a vivid portrait of a child grown old whose unflappable belief in his decadence is nothing short of hilarious and endearing. This film is a love letter to the wild, stoner artists who can find beauty in the chaos and, as a result of that, has created the role of a lifetime for McConaughey.

The Beach Bum is available to watch on Max in the U.S.

Watch on Max

‘The Beach Boys’ Documentary Trailer Brings Never-Before-Seen Footage to Disney+

By Selena Kuznikov

Selena Kuznikov

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Get ready for some fun, fun, fun! Disney+ has released the trailer for its “ The Beach Boys ” documentary, which is set to stream on the platform May 24.

Popular on Variety

Produced by Kennedy/Marshall and White Horse Pictures, “The Beach Boys” is directed by Frank Marshall and Thom Zimny and written by Mark Monroe. The film is produced by Marshall, Irving Azoff, Nicholas Ferrall, Jeanne Elfant Festa and Aly Parker. Nigel Sinclair, Monroe, Tony Rosenthal, Cassidy Hartmann, Glen Zipper, Zimny, Beth Collins, Jimmy Edwards, Susan Genco, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, Bruce Resnikoff, and Ben J. Murphy serve as executive producers.

The official soundtrack, “The Beach Boys: Music From The Documentary,” will be available to stream and download on May 24 via Capitol/UMe.

Watch the trailer below.

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StarTribune

Meet the oscar-winning cinematographer who has changed the way the movies look.

That guy you see wandering around downtown Minneapolis with a camera next week? He may be a two-time Oscar winner for cinematography.

Roger Deakins, who collaborated with Joel and Ethan Coen on the look of many of their movies, including "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men," as well as "1917″ and "Blade Runner 2049″ (both of which earned him Oscars), and wife/collaborator James Deakins will be part of the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival , which runs through April 25 at the Main Cinema.

In addition to hoped-for time to capture some images on the sly, the Deakinses will be part of three public events: a "conversation" with West St. Paul-based photographer Wilson Webb on April 23, as well as a signing of book "Byways" and a screening of "Fargo," with a question-and-answer session, both April 24. "Fargo" earned Roger his second of 16 Oscar nominations. The conversation and screening are sold out but MSPIFF may make more seats available.

In case you can't get to the events, we asked a few questions you may have:

Q : What do you remember about shooting "Fargo" in Minnesota at the end of the mild 1995 winter?

James : It was cold!

Roger : I remember it didn't snow very much that winter. It was very frustrating! We had to keep going north and, at one point, I remember wondering if we had crossed into Canada. But I also remember it being one of the most fun shoots we've ever had.

Q : How do you decide if you want to do a film?

James: It's about the script and the script and the script.

Roger: It helps if you know the director. If it's Denis Villeneuve [for whom Deakins shot "Prisoners" and "2049″], you know what his take is going to be. But I'm interested in stories about people. I love photographing the ocean or whatever, but that's not enough for me. That's not a story. That's not something you want to be the cinematographer on.

Q: Roger is the credited cinematographer on the films but you've collaborated for many, many years. How does that work?

James: We read the script and talk about it, what Roger's thinking about lighting. I go through the work flow with the lab. I talk a lot with the visual effects people because, often, a cinematographer wants to shoot it one way but a visual effects editor is using a blue screen and wants to shoot another way. So we find a compromise that works for everyone. I take a lot of logistical problems off of Roger so he can focus on what he's shooting, while I talk to production about the crane we need next week.

Roger: The thing about cinematography is it's a blend between a creative approach and a technical approach. You can't have one without the other .

Q: So is yours a collaboration within the larger, ultra-collaborative world of putting together a movie?

James : It's not just what we're doing or the actor or director is doing. It's what the third prop person is doing. It's the extras. It's everyone we couldn't make a movie without, everyone putting their all into it and doing their specific jobs.

Q : Is that something people are curious about when you participate in Q-and-As?

James : We get asked how we work together. We get asked about specific shots in movies. We get asked by people who are working their way up, how to deal with specific situations. We get asked our favorite movies.

Q : What are some of your favorites you've worked on?

Roger : The next one.

James : It really is like asking who your favorite child is.

Roger : Although we don't have any kids, so...

Q : If you won't name favorite movies you worked on, do you have favorites by other cinematographers?

Roger : Definitely. I grew up loving movies, so I followed Kazuo Miyagawa, who shot for Kurosawa in Japan and for Kenji Mizoguchi. I love Conrad Hall ["American Beauty"] here in America [Deakins is from England]. We actually got to know Connie well.

Q : Do your movies usually turn out like you expect them to?

Roger : Some turn out better than you imagine. When you work on something, it always feels such a compromise. As soon as you pick up a camera, you've compromised on time, schedules, money, whatever. But after a few years, a film can look better than you thought.

James : When we see the first cut, all we see are: We didn't get that shot or we had to cut that shot. So we're not that happy. But five years later, we happen to see a bit on television and go, "That's not so bad."

Q : If we want to see the image as it was meant to be seen in a film, where in the theater should we sit?

Roger : Right in the middle of the auditorium.

James : In Imax, there are only about five seats in the whole theater that are optimal. It may vary by theater but I know that because we were working on an Imax print and they made sure that was where I sat.

Industry Night with Roger and James Deakins

When: 6 p.m. April 23, Machine Shop, 300 SE 2nd St., Mpls. For information, visit mspfilm.org .

"Byways" book signing with Roger and James Deakins

When: 4:30 p.m. April 24, Pracna, 117 SE. Main St., Mpls. For tickets, visit mspfilm.org .

"Fargo" screening and conversation with Roger and James Deakins

When: 7 p.m. April 24, Main Cinema, 115 SE. Main St., Mpls. For information, visit mspfilm.org .

Interim books editor Chris Hewitt previously worked at the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, where he wrote about movies and theater.

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