On the Beach, which takes place shortly after a nuclear war has devastated
the Northern Hemisphere, is set mainly in Australia,
untouched by the initial holocaust. The death sentence has been only deferred,
however, for within a few months the radioactive fallout will drift south and
everyone will be dead. Gregory Peck plays an American submarine Captain, Dwight
Towers, who has managed to make
port in Melbourne. He is a very
tightly wound character, still in denial that his wife and children are dead.
The Australian characters include Anthony Perkins, as Royal Australia Navy
Lieutenant Peter Holmes, Donna Anderson as his wife Mary, Fred Astaire in a non
dancing role as nuclear scientist Julian Osborne, and Ava Gardner as Moira
Davidson, Towers’ love interest.
Each, in their own way, are dealing with the end of the world. Julian
Osborne raves about how everybody is going to die after a few drinks at a
party, which depresses Mary Holmes, who still wants to pretend that there’s
still hope. Moira seeks solace in drink and promiscuous sex, though she also
yearns for one great love affair with Towers before the end. Lieutenant Holmes
seems to be taking it as well as anyone could expect, even planning ahead for
the end when he and his family will have to take cyanide rather than face the
lingering, nasty death that radiation sickness brings.
There is a subplot of an expedition on board Towers’ submarine to
investigate, among other things, a mysterious signal coming from San
Diego, a place that should be uninhabitable. But, the
inexorable end arrives and everyone goes to their deaths a little more
decorously than one might expect.
One other nit. None of the actors playing Australians seemed to sound like
Australians, though Perkins gives it a try. This film was released in an era before
Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe and company; though still one would have thought a
greater effort would have been made. Also, could director Stanley Kramer have
used some other music besides Waltzing Matilda in his soundtrack? It’s a lovely
song, but not after a hundred repetitions.
On the Beach was remade a few years back as a miniseries for Showtime. This
version was re-imagined as happening after a future conflict between the US
and China and
was unconvincing in an era when the threat stems from terrorism and not global
thermonuclear holocaust. Still, it had some good performances for Aussie actors
Bryon Brown and Rachel Ward. And this time, civilization went down in an orgy
of riot and destruction before everyone died.