"On the Beach" is beautifully restrained. The way the last survivors of Earth await the arrival of the radioactive fallout is nothing less than stoic. They are like those gentlemen on the Titanic who knew there wasn't room in the boats and continued with their card games or smoked a last cigar as the ship went down.
I first saw this film in 1960, but it has held up well. Stanley Kramer ditched novelist Nevil Shute's scenario about how the war started involving Albania and Egypt etc. In the movie, no one really knows; someone, somewhere made a mistake - it's still relevant.
The film avoids the obvious. Some filmmakers would have shown atomic explosions under the opening titles to bring the audience up to speed, but there is none of that. The film focuses on a small number of people and their reactions to their impending doom.
Apart from anything else, it was fascinating to see Australia on the screen in a big Hollywood movie even if we all die at the end. American stars played the main characters although only Gregory Peck played an American. Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins played Australians with varying degrees of success with the accent.
Ava's character is an Australian version of her Lady Brett Ashley from "The Sun Also Rises", but pre-"Psycho" Tony Perkins along with Donna Anderson as a young married couple bring the tragedy home. Donna Anderson is so convincing that for a long time I thought she was Australian, but she is indeed American and features in "Fallout" a brilliant 2013 documentary about the making of the film.
At the time, Waltzing Matilda was almost the unofficial anthem of Australia. Composer Ernest Gold latched onto it for his score for the film and virtually created a "Symphony on the Theme of Waltzing Matilda". He gave the tune shadings that go from light and jaunty to triumphant and finally mournful. The song may have been overdone in a scene with drunken fishermen, but Gold's score remains as emotive as ever.
Every time I see the film, that ending as Fred steps on the gas in his garage and Ava watches Greg sail away followed by shots of deserted Melbourne streets never fails to put a lump in my throat.
I first saw this film in 1960, but it has held up well. Stanley Kramer ditched novelist Nevil Shute's scenario about how the war started involving Albania and Egypt etc. In the movie, no one really knows; someone, somewhere made a mistake - it's still relevant.
The film avoids the obvious. Some filmmakers would have shown atomic explosions under the opening titles to bring the audience up to speed, but there is none of that. The film focuses on a small number of people and their reactions to their impending doom.
Apart from anything else, it was fascinating to see Australia on the screen in a big Hollywood movie even if we all die at the end. American stars played the main characters although only Gregory Peck played an American. Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins played Australians with varying degrees of success with the accent.
Ava's character is an Australian version of her Lady Brett Ashley from "The Sun Also Rises", but pre-"Psycho" Tony Perkins along with Donna Anderson as a young married couple bring the tragedy home. Donna Anderson is so convincing that for a long time I thought she was Australian, but she is indeed American and features in "Fallout" a brilliant 2013 documentary about the making of the film.
At the time, Waltzing Matilda was almost the unofficial anthem of Australia. Composer Ernest Gold latched onto it for his score for the film and virtually created a "Symphony on the Theme of Waltzing Matilda". He gave the tune shadings that go from light and jaunty to triumphant and finally mournful. The song may have been overdone in a scene with drunken fishermen, but Gold's score remains as emotive as ever.
Every time I see the film, that ending as Fred steps on the gas in his garage and Ava watches Greg sail away followed by shots of deserted Melbourne streets never fails to put a lump in my throat.