On the Beach
by Stanley Kramer
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DVD details
Actor: Anthony Perkins, Ava Gardner, Donna Anderson, Fred Astaire, Gregory PeckDirector: Stanley Kramer
Brand: PECK,GREGORY
Cinematographer: Giuseppe Rotunno
Producer: Stanley Kramer
Editor: Frederic Knudtson
Writer: John Paxton
Writer: Nevil Shute
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); French (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC
Running Time: 134 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-02-29
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of On the Beach
DVD Review: Good Peck Film.
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this movie when it was first released. Definitely dated, it has its moments.
Gregory Peck is excellent in the role of a submarine captain, and the rest of the cast is good.
It was one of the best Cold War doomsday thrillers.
The remake is terrible.
Buy this film used.
DVD Review: Maybe in it's Own Time...
Summary: 2 Stars
This may have been an exciting movie in its time, but in today's world it drags on and on and on. And it is more than the lack of graphics that are so common in today's films. It was the humdrum storyline and lackluster dialog. Both were excruciatingly slow and boring. The love connection between Gardner and Peck just wasn't there. Anthony Perkins was okay, but his hysterical, zoned-out wife was too cliche. Old movies always have at least one hysterical female who can't cope with the present situation.
We saw endless shots of huge cities laying barren and empty. Not one car was on the street, not even parked at the curb. Did they all go and park their vehicles in the parking ramp before they died? There were no bodies in the street either. The nuclear devastation in this movie was too clean, which is a horror in itself.
I expected a brisk wind to kick in ten minutes before the movie ended to blow the radiation out to sea, thus sparing those who were still alive (you know how old movies are). It was a nice surprise when that didn't happen, so I give the movie credit for that.
All in all it isn't a real bad movie. It's just awkward and slow. Painfully slow and drawn out.
DVD Review: Gloom and doom
Summary: 4 Stars
Returning to this movie 20 years after last watching it, I was struck by its utter gloominess. You might say given the premise of the movie that mankind (apart from some aussies) has been wiped out and the remainder will likewise be wiped out by the coming cloud of radiation pre-destines the movie to be grim. But I wonder did it necessarily have to be so. I think the most off-putting aspect of the story is the fact that the survivors en masse, faciliated by the Aussie Government, decide to kill themselves by taking tablets (presumably some sort of poison). No opposition to this is noted in the film, which is surprising, as one would expect a large number of people to have opposed what is suicide. Not addressing this issue made the film appear unrealistic. Even now 40 years on, euthanasia is greeted with horror by many. Gregory Peck, the captain of the US sub, is his usual gentlemanly self in the movie whilst the Eva Gardner characther is difficult to feel for. The decision by the US guys to head back to the US in their sub to die at home does not make sense:would they not have died of radiation poisoning before they even reached the US? I have given the film 4 stars because notwithstanding the unremitting gloom, the film resonates and evokes a different time when people were fairly obsessed with thoughts of mutually assured destruction and thus the film documents important aspects of social history.
DVD Review: Pure camp
Summary: 3 Stars
The acting is old school and the movie in it's day was, a had to see. It was made just before the cold war ended and is an insight into the archaic thought process that helped make our country miss a beat with the rest of the world. If you are over 50 ,and a conservative, bye it and put in your worship pile. if you are over 50 and a liberal have a good laugh and resell it. if you are under 50 you had better buy it for self defense from the conservatives and the liberals.DVD Review: If only we could act with such dignity...
Summary: 4 Stars
1959 Cold War film about the end of humanity, based on the classic novel from Neal Shute. Starring Gregory Peck, Fred Astaire and Ava Gardner, this is a nice character study of how people will handle their impending doom - face it square on with acceptance? ignore it completely? drown yourself in alchohol to forget what's coming? All this is represented, and more. It makes me wonder both how I would react. And more interestingly, how today's society would react in comparison to the Australians of 1959. Sadly, I don't think we would quite so stiff-upper-lip as the residents in this movie.
Description of On the Beach
The war is over. Nobody won. Only the inhabitants of Australia and the men of the US submarine Sawfish have escaped the nuclear destruction and radiation. Captain Dwight Towers (Gregory Peck) takes the Sawfish on a mission to see if an approaching radiation cloud has weakened, but returns with grim news: the cloud is lethal. With the days and hours dwindling, each person confronts the grim situation in his or her own way. One (Fred Astaire) realizes a lifetime Grand Prix ambition,another (Ava Gardner) reaches out for a chance at love. The final chapter of human history is coming to a close... From acclaimed director Stanley Kramer (The Defiant Ones, Inheritthe Wind) and screenwriter John Paxton comes this spectacular movie landmarka film masterpiece with a message that will resonate as long as the world has the power to self-destruct at its own fingertips.Stanley Kramer's 1959 antiwar movie looks like everything Kramer did: subtle as a car wreck but undeniably affecting. Gregory Peck plays a submarine commander looking for survivors in Australia after a nuclear holocaust. Ava Gardner is among them and, somewhat improbably under the circumstances, becomes his love interest. Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins are among the characters awaiting death from the gradual spread of radiation from the north. One might scoff at Kramer's implicit finger-wagging about nuclear politics in this mad, mad, mad, mad world, but it is hard to stop watching this compelling drama all the same. --Tom Keogh
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