Nuclear war has devastated the planet. All life in the Northern hemisphere has been extinguished and the last remaining pockets of humanity gather in an idyllic community on the Australian coast to await the radioactive wind sweeping down to wring the last fragile gasps of breath from the world. Humanity is doomed. Finished. The nuclear arms race has reached a final, terrifying climax and do you know what the most startling thing about it is? Just how good an actor Fred Astaire really was...
In this adaptation of Nevil Shute's novel, Astaire throws off the dancing shoes, says "so long" to Ginger Rogers and plays a bewildered, aging scientist using the last days of mankind to live out his boyhood fantasies of life as a race car driver, while ruminating on the self-destructive tendency of our species that has finally driven us to extinction. Disillusioned, sad and yet maybe even revelling in the carefree abandon that imminent death offers, Astaire is undoubtedly the best thing about this movie, which is high praise considering some of the competition. Gregory Peck especially shines as Captain Dwight Towers, leader of an American submarine crew who find their way down under. Towers, forced to leave his wife and child behind in the USA has to face the growing realisation that they are dead and there is nothing he can do to save them. He is ably supported by Ava Gardner as a lonely alcoholic desperate to find love in what time she has left and Anthony Perkins as a committed family man, who must face up to the possibility that he will have to poison his own wife and baby in order to be a 'good father.'
As you can probably guess then, On the Beach is not a cheerful film. In fact, it's harder to imagine a grimmer opus of despair and you definitely have to be in a certain frame of mind in order to watch it. Bar one barnstorming stock car race which sees automobiles careening off the track recklessly, spinning around and exploding, it's a very slow paced movie, so it's a tremendous credit to the writers involved that two hours of people pondering the fragility of life and everything they did not accomplish doesn't get boring. It is still very much a product of the time though and more cynical audiences might find it difficult to believe that society will keep performing everyday functions right up until the end and not degenerate into a chaotic, panicking mess.
That said, On The Beach is still an immensely powerful film. The message resonates even today and in terms of capturing the paranoia and pessimism of the 1950s, it does so with far greater effect than any of the so-called metaphorical science fiction films filled with giant, radioactive ants and rampaging aliens that appeared in cinemas at the same time. The script is terrific and while the pacing may be a bit slow, the cast are all running on full steam throughout. The scene where Perkins explains the effects of radiation poisoning in particular is arguably the most harrowing anti-nuclear message that film has ever provided. And if it makes you shudder watching it in this day and age, imagine what it must have felt like back in 1959, when the shadow of the bomb loomed large overheard.
In this adaptation of Nevil Shute's novel, Astaire throws off the dancing shoes, says "so long" to Ginger Rogers and plays a bewildered, aging scientist using the last days of mankind to live out his boyhood fantasies of life as a race car driver, while ruminating on the self-destructive tendency of our species that has finally driven us to extinction. Disillusioned, sad and yet maybe even revelling in the carefree abandon that imminent death offers, Astaire is undoubtedly the best thing about this movie, which is high praise considering some of the competition. Gregory Peck especially shines as Captain Dwight Towers, leader of an American submarine crew who find their way down under. Towers, forced to leave his wife and child behind in the USA has to face the growing realisation that they are dead and there is nothing he can do to save them. He is ably supported by Ava Gardner as a lonely alcoholic desperate to find love in what time she has left and Anthony Perkins as a committed family man, who must face up to the possibility that he will have to poison his own wife and baby in order to be a 'good father.'
As you can probably guess then, On the Beach is not a cheerful film. In fact, it's harder to imagine a grimmer opus of despair and you definitely have to be in a certain frame of mind in order to watch it. Bar one barnstorming stock car race which sees automobiles careening off the track recklessly, spinning around and exploding, it's a very slow paced movie, so it's a tremendous credit to the writers involved that two hours of people pondering the fragility of life and everything they did not accomplish doesn't get boring. It is still very much a product of the time though and more cynical audiences might find it difficult to believe that society will keep performing everyday functions right up until the end and not degenerate into a chaotic, panicking mess.
That said, On The Beach is still an immensely powerful film. The message resonates even today and in terms of capturing the paranoia and pessimism of the 1950s, it does so with far greater effect than any of the so-called metaphorical science fiction films filled with giant, radioactive ants and rampaging aliens that appeared in cinemas at the same time. The script is terrific and while the pacing may be a bit slow, the cast are all running on full steam throughout. The scene where Perkins explains the effects of radiation poisoning in particular is arguably the most harrowing anti-nuclear message that film has ever provided. And if it makes you shudder watching it in this day and age, imagine what it must have felt like back in 1959, when the shadow of the bomb loomed large overheard.