ON THE BEACH
US, 1960, 130 minutes, Black and white.
Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Anthony Perkins, Fred Astaire, Donna Anderson, John Meillon.
Directed by Stanley Kramer.
On the Beach is based on Neville Shute's novel about the results of nuclear warfare and the death of the world. Originally it was much longer, but the final version is moving and frightening at times, strange also for an Australian audience as it is filmed so close to home and the significance is pointed. The film, in its situations, is rather low-key, a strange mixture of ordinary living with the prospect of death soon to come in the ba ground. The film questions values and ambitions of the world confronted by destruction. The acting is good. Melbourne looks convincing for the end of the world, especially in the final shots of its empty streets. Directed by Stanley Kramer in the years of - The Defiant Ones; Inherit the Wind, Judgement at Nuremburg.
1. The significance of the title and the end of the world?
2. What were audience expectations at the opening: a submarine emerging from the water to a dying world? How plausible was the story with Australia as the last nation to die?
3. Were the Australian locations well used - Melbourne, Williamstown docks, Frankston, Port Philip Bay, Philip Island etc?
4. What impact did the theme make? Was it frightening? How did the knowledge that everyone was to die change the perspective of life and values?
5. Each of the principal characters could be considered in the light of the previous question -
- Dwight - one of the last Americans alive, his responsibility for his submarine and men, the effect of the deaths of his family and country, finding friends in Melbourne, significance of his relationship with Moira, his mission to America, fear, returning to die?
- Moira - her reaction to the situation, growing relationship to Dwight, final separation?
- Peter and Mary - their relationship (especially the sequences on the beach and at home); a young couple with a normal, happy future simply cut off, the pills, final recollection of their married happiness?
- Julian - as a person, scientist, reaction to the situation, effectiveness in his job, recklessness, his chosen way of death?
6. What impact did the return to San Francisco make – seeing the dead city, possibility that someone was still alive, irony of the signals, speech of the American sailor?
7. How was life in these final months presented? Bikies in the Melbourne streets, parties, recklessness and deaths in speed racing, lining up for pills, Salvation Army rallies? what would your reaction be in these circumstances? What values would seem important?
8. What was the visual and emotional impact of the final sequence with the empty Melbourne streets?
9. Do you think this was an effective anti-nuclear war film?
