On the Beach

Feel-good film of 1959

Rating: 17/20 (Dylan: 8/20)

Plot: The Cold War swings into action and almost immediately ends. Now, thanks to radiation, everybody's going to die. Stupid people. An American submarine reaches Australia where they wait anxiously for news about whether the radiation cloud will reach them. The last men and women on earth confront their impending doom in various ways.

I love it when a movie can be removed far from the context in which it was first seen (1950's Cold War fears) and still retain relevancy. On the Beach has an interesting story and characters anyway, but to me, its greatness is in the many great moments that it has. When Peck's character talks about his family for the first time, the cock-eyed camera visually reminding us what a cock-eyed world we live in, he's acting straight from the heart. Dylan told me while we were watching this that Gregory Peck is the 5th best actor of all time, (Two video game voice actors and Keifer Sutherland are ahead of him.) and he is really good in this, a perfect blend of nearly-submerged melancholy and tired hope. That scene is his best in the film. Every second of the scene in San Francisco is pitch perfect. Each member of the crew takes his turn peeking through the periscope, ending with the rhythmic clang of the periscope's handle and tears in his eyes, is a moving scene, and the submarine drifting away from the guy who decided to stay behind is another memorable, great scene. The Grand Prix race (and the after-effects in Julian's garage) is really well done. The look on Julian's face captures this perfect bittersweetness, such a hopeless fulfillment of a dream. The last image of the movie is also fantastic. Well-acted from top to bottom and shot with some great details (loved the bicycles). That sure was a roomy submarine though, wasn't it? And I could go without hearing "Waltzing Matilda" for a very long time.