On the Beach (film)
"On the Beach" is a 1959 film directed by Stanley Kramer, adapted from Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same name. Set in a post-apocalyptic world following a nuclear war, the film explores the last remnants of humanity in Australia, the only place temporarily shielded from the devastation. The story centers on the USS Sawfish, a nuclear submarine commanded by Dwight Towers, as it embarks on a mission to assess radiation levels and investigate mysterious radio signals from America. The inhabitants of Melbourne confront the grim reality of their imminent extinction and must grapple with harrowing choices regarding their own lives and those of their children.
The film conveys a powerful anti-war message, suggesting that there are no winners in nuclear conflict and highlighting humanity's capacity for self-destruction due to its failure to coexist peacefully. Although it depicts a chilling and somber scenario, the film avoids graphic imagery of destruction, leaving much to the viewers' imagination. Released during the Cold War, "On the Beach" resonated deeply with audiences concerned about nuclear threats, prompting varied reactions from critics and viewers alike, from those who deemed it alarmist to others who saw it as a crucial warning.
On the Beach (film)
Identification Film about an imaginary nuclear holocaust
Date Released in 1959
Director Stanley Kramer
Based on a novel of the same title by Nevil Shute, On the Beach depicts the relationships between an American commander of a nuclear submarine and a group of Australians who await death from drifting radioactive clouds after a nuclear war. It is considered to be the first important film to deal with a nuclear holocaust, and it heightened the Cold War fears of the American public.
Key Figures
Stanley Kramer (1913-2001), film directorNevil Shute (1899-1960), author of the novel,On the Beach
On the Beach is one of Stanley Kramer’s “message movies,” adapted from the 1957 novel by Nevil Shute. Its title comes from a 1925 poem by T. S. Eliot titled The Hollow Men. A nuclear war between the world’s major powers has killed most of the earth’s human population. Only the population of Australia has temporarily escaped annihilation, but radioactive clouds are slowly drifting from the Northern Hemisphere to Australia. An American nuclear submarine, the USS Sawfish, commanded by Commander Dwight Towers (played by Gregory Peck ) sails into Melbourne and is placed under the command of the Royal Australian Navy. The mission of the Sawfish is to check levels of radiation as far north as Alaska and investigate sporadic radio signals coming from San Diego, California. In its journey, the crew finds desolate wastelands, devoid of human presence, and the mysterious radio signals prove not to be of human origin. Presented with the reality of their own impending deaths within a matter of a few months, the residents of Melbourne must each deal with their mortality. Parents not only face the choice of dying from radioactive infection or committing suicide by swallowing cyanide pills but also must deal with the horrific task of killing their infant children to prevent them from the extensive suffering caused by radioactive infection. The film cast also included actors such as Anthony Perkins, Fred Astaire, and Ava Gardner .
Director Kramer paints a chilling scenario of a dying planet and the actions of the people who remain. The movie makes clear that there can be no international reprieve from annihilation, no taking back of past transgressions, and no frantic appeals for mercy; it is simply the end of the human race. The film predicts not the end of all life on Earth but merely the end of the human race. In its extinction, humanity represents a failed experiment in which its inability to coexist brings about its own self-destruction. The film presents a horrific black-and-white apocalyptic vision without showing any physical destruction of cities or fields of rotting corpses; these images are left to the viewer’s imagination.
Impact
On the Beach was released while the Cold War was escalating between the United States and the Soviet Union. It placed before the American public one possible scenario of the harsh consequences of a nuclear war and emphasized that there can be no winners in such a conflict. The American public, already imbued with a fear of nuclear war, viewed this film as a possible harbinger of things to come. In the political spectrum, views of the film differed widely. Senator Wallace Bennett of the Senate Atomic Energy Committee viewed the movie as an unrealistic portrayal of reality, as well as being unscientific and misleading. Conversely, Nobel Peace Prize winner Linus Pauling considered the film as a movie that might save the world.
Bibliography
Engelhardt, Tom. End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation. 2d ed. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998. Explores the way in which Cold War fears were embedded in television and films of the era.
Shute, Nevil. On the Beach. New York: Ballantine Books, 1957. The original novel from which the screenplay for On the Beach was adapted.