On the Beach (1959)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

An apocalyptic movie without any special effects! Relies for its drama on how characters face the inevitable nuclear contamination, a silent invisible killer. Stars make everything work. Anthony Perkins especially good. Movie's final shots are very effective. (viewed 1/17)

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.

In this, my 65th year of life today, I have have enjoyed so many great and memorable films. But in all that time, this wonderful B&W classic remains my single favorite. It's one of those gems that once you see it you can never forget it, and how many movies can you say that about today? This truly inspired piece of filmmaking was remarkable from the start. The amazing ensemble cast, starring the wonderful Gregory Peck in one the best roles of his life, to a memorable and stunning Ava Gardner in the sunset of her career in a role she was born to play, and the dark horse in this remarkable drama, Fred Astaire, in a nuanced performance that should have won him the Oscar. While never really known as a dramatic actor, more as a song and dance man, this was the shining, glorious moment of his entire serious movie career. Add to this splendid line-up the always underrated Tony Perkins as the young Lieutenant, and you have pure screen magic. Under the subtle guiding hand of Stanley Kramer and based upon the riveting novel by Neville Shute, this masterpiece of a post-Apocalyptic future remains a film for the ages. WATCH IT.

My buddy did not want to watch with me my DVD of the 1959 film On the Beach, because it is a depressing end of the world drama, as absolutely no one survives a third world war, yes, humanity is extinguished.Yet in essence, upon death, the world ends for many people every day. Before you pass on you may provide for remaining friends or family, and you feel consoled by anticipating their remembrance of you. Except you simultaneously realize that eventually they will all die too, and memories will fade among their descendants.Look at world history - countless civilizations have been eliminated although monuments and numerous artifacts are extant. The movie merely speeds up this process because all remaining life soon perishes, so no one is left to take notice of these losses.Succeeding motion pictures have depicted world wide cataclysms where select individuals endure. On the Beach distinguishes itself by sparing us violent death scenes, while recognizing our mutual fate is to finally give up the ghost. Rather than loot or savage others, most people faced their own demise privately by reflecting on the meaning of one's life. This is not defeatist: when dying from an incurable disease such as radioactive poisoning, you must prepare for departure.I found myself contemplating how lead actors Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner have in real life died, so fiction became fact since their personal world actually did expire. This is the root of the sorrow I felt, and why On the Beach is paradoxically an authentic characterization, despite we the living temporarily overcoming its premise of annihilation. Sorrow is also a cause for belief in a Supreme Being who we desperately wish to save us. In the film, worshipers and non-worshipers alike fall, paralleling what occurs in reality. But if you maintain faith in an afterlife, take comfort as your being on earth concludes.On the Beach provides an invaluable commentary on our tenuous existence in this sometimes wonderful but always deadly world that sooner or later will end for all of us.