Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 19-June-11
Spoiler Rating: High

On the Beach (1959)

Among the movie images that haunt me is a view of San Francisco in On the Beach. It consists of a few streets seen from the harbor. No buildings stand out, no nighttime lights twinkle, no UFO or natural disaster ravages the city. What makes the image memorable is that even though it's daytime there is not a single person. The city is dead. You know it must be so (the image arrives in the second half of the picture), but that doesn't make it any less startling. It's the first time when the premise of the movie sinks in, the almost indigestible idea that the human race has been destroyed by nuclear war. The only people left are the inhabitants of Australia and the crew of an American submarine which docked in Melbourne. And their days are numbered since the radiation is headed their way.

Large parts of On the Beach are painful, particularly the final 10 minutes, yet it's a worthwhile movie experience. While other doomsday films from the height of the Cold War usually involve the U.S. President and the war room, this one personalizes the concept by focusing on individuals who didn't take part in the destruction. In addition to the inherent warning (Take note, humans: don't be stupid!), On the Beach addresses the question of what the last members of the race would do with mere weeks left to live. One of the stories features Anthony Perkins as an Australian naval officer whose wife (Donna Anderson) cannot accept the fact that they must euthanize their infant daughter and themselves in the near future. Another haunting image from the movie shows families queuing up for suicide pills, the preferred method of death over succumbing to radiation.

Perkins is assigned to the commander of the American submarine, who is played by Gregory Peck. This is a classic Peck character, i.e., solid and upstanding, so he seems an unlikely partner for a local boozehound (Ava Gardner) when they meet at a dinner party. The two gorgeous, mature actors elevate what might have been a schmaltzy affair into something deeply moving. Gardner is terrified of having nothing meaningful to look back on during her final breaths, but she's equally terrified by the prospect of such an excellent catch. While she works through her fear and low self-esteem, he grapples with the idea of a new love when the loss of his wife and children hasn't settled in yet. Their eventual decision to grab a few days of happiness together seems like a beautiful act of courage.

The San Francisco scene comes about when Peck and his crew sail to investigate a series of unintelligible messages coming over the wireless from California. During the trip Perkins also chooses to be thankful for the happiness he has gleaned after receiving a pep talk from an old cynic (Fred Astaire, an odd casting choice but a good one). With the characters set on appreciating their memories and even making new ones, On the Beach is not a total downer. It even has a funny moment when two old coots in a men's club lament that there aren't enough days left to finish all the wine in the cellar. The movie suggests that some average people would face annihilation with bravery and kindness and by drinking life to the lees.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.