Saturday, September 7, 2024

On the Beach (1959)

On the Beach (1959)

starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire
directed and produced by Stanley Kramer

Commander Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) and the crew of the of the USS Sawfish, a submarine, survive a nuclear war (Wordle War III) and pull into port in Melbourne, Australia. It doesn't look good for what's left of humanity in the southern hemisphere.

Towers gets involved romantically with Moira Davidson (Ava Gardner). He was married and had two children. They were killed in the nuclear war but he has trouble coming to terms with that fact or opening up to Moira.

Towers and the Sawfish crew travel to Alaska and California in the hopes of finding some survivors but come up empty handed. Radiation from the nuclear war eventually reaches Australia and spreads across the country until overwhelms even Melbourne, the southeastern most major city in the country.

Towers would be content to stay there with Moira but he puts it to a vote and the crew of the Sawfish elect to return to the United States despite knowing what awaits them there.

Thoughts

It was pretty clear that the future was bleak from the beginning of this movie. It wasn't clear exactly where the movie would end. There was more than one moment that I thought might be the end.

I was not terribly impressed with this film. The performances didn't do much for me. The movie felt very episodic. The only part that I found the least bit moving was Towers coming to terms with the loss of his wife and children and learning to accept his feelings for Moira.

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