What Happens When the Entire World is Gone: All Souls Dead, Except in Australia? The Film On the Beach, a Classic, Gives Us Much to Think About.

 

Stanley Kramer’s “On the Beach” was released December 17, 1959. As many Americans were practicing civil defense alerts, building crude bomb shelters, and being reminded by television commercials to “duck and cover” in the event of an enemy attack, the primary message of “On the Beach” was the hauntingly silent end of the film. The last image seen by viewers, was a banner fluttering in the empty streets of Melbourne, Australia that read, “There is still time…Brother” “On the Beach” was perhaps the best film ever produced that personalized the tragedies associated with a nuclear age. The message is as important in 2010 as it was in 1959.

 

Plot and Characters Weave an Unforgettable Story

 

Gregory Peck starred in the film as American submarine commander, Dwight Towers, who finds refuge for his boat in Australia. An atomic war has obliterated all life on the planet except for those living in Australia. But even the land beneath the Southern Cross is not immune. A radiation cloud will soon hit the eastern cities of Australia.

 

Towers falls in love with Moira Davidson, played by Ava Gardner. As in many of her films, Gardner plays a lonely woman, finding solace in a bottle of liquor. Fred Astaire plays Julian Osborne, a scientist whose passion is to race cars. Towers takes his submarine to the Arctic to measure radiation levels. Test results, however, confirm that the levels are increasing. After stopping in San Diego to investigate a random telegraph signal, caused by a coke bottle caught by the strings of a window shade, he leaves the American west coast.

 

Towers returns to Melbourne, Australia where the early effects of radiation sickness are already evident. The Australian government was in the process of distributing pills to the population, suicide pills to avoid the terrible effects of radiation poisoning.

 

The Final Days of Life in the Aftermath of Nuclear Warfare

 

As Moira and Dwight retreat to the countryside, “Waltzing Matilda” is repeatedly heard in the background. Scenes of families picnicking and boy scouts trekking through nature serve as a stark contrast to the certainty that all of these people would soon be dead.

 

“On the Beach” also details the lives of Lieutenant Peter Holmes (Anthony Perkins) and his wife Mary (Donna Anderson). In one of the most poignant scenes, Holmes carries out a tray of tea so that he and Mary could take their pills. The children have already been given their pills. Mary, however, breaks down. The reality of the situation is too much to comprehend.

 

Julian ends his life in his race car, parked in his garage. Turning on the ignition, he dies inhaling the deadly fumes. But the scene that brings out viewers tears the most is that of Moira, standing on a cliff waving to Dwight’s boat as he returns with his crew to die in America. As the submarine departs, the soft strain of “Waltzing Matilda” fills the screen and the film shifts to the empty streets.

 

“On the Beach” is a Timeless Classic Still Significant Today

 

The August 2010 65^th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to remind humanity that nuclear weapons can destroy civilization. As more nations attempt to build such fearsome weapons, the threat becomes greater that at one point they will be used.

 

“On the Beach” is a black and white film without the customary action scenes post modern movie-goers enjoy. The film, however, should be required viewing in every high school followed by discussion. It is a film not only about the perils of modern weapons, but how the lives of everyday people are impacted in the face of eventual death.

Published in Suite101 8/8/2010 M.Streich, copyright