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On the Beach

Gregory Peck (Actor), Ava Gardner (Actor), Stanley Kramer (Director) | Rated: Unrated | Format: VHS Tape
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)

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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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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars An Oldie but a Goodie Feb 12 2012
By Wayne G. Daley
Format:DVD
In the days of the Cold War; in the days when there were two super powers in the world; and, in the days when the atomic bomb hung over the heads of the western world we all waited for the day the world would end with radio-activity spreading around the globe. This movie is the story of what that might look like. It is a clasic. It is particularly well done.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely spellbinding. Scared the h_ll out of me, then, and now. Jan 18 2012
By Book N Movie Buff TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
I know there are some scientific discrepancies and that the sub is actually diesel and not nuclear, but I don't care. I'm not anal enough to have those details detract from a first-rate movie. And this is a first-rate movie! It kept me on the edge of my seat again - and I remember those days in which this film was made. Air raid drills and 'what to do in a nuclear explosion' drills. It WAS scary. This film captures that time, and that fear exactly as I recall it! The cast was super - Peck, Gardner, Astair and Perkins very solid in their role, along with the supporting cast as well. This film takes me back to those days - and reminds me how lucky we were that the film didn't become true. It still could. The musical score is a wonderfully haunting score that takes you right in. Altogether, this film is a triumph of film making and a treasure, then, and now.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Worth viewing, even if not realistic July 17 2004
By A Customer
Format:DVD
On the Beach fails the realism test in two ways: scientifically and behaviorally. The first is forgivable; 40+ years ago, there was less understanding of what nuclear war would do the planet. But the second aspect -- human behavior -- is where the story fails. The idea that people would get up, wash and shave and dress, go to their jobs, peacefully obtain their rations of food and so on, with a cloud of certain death getting closer every day... it just doesn't ring true. Looting, pillaging, murder, and general anarchy seem much more likely.
Nevertheless, the movie -- while very melancholy (or depressing, as many reviewers have said), is worth watching. (Especially, as some have noted, for Astaire's performance).
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Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars the ultimate Cold War film
This is the film that for me captures the terror I felt as a child, growing up at the height of the Cold War; it is bleak and intense, with scenes that are forever etched in my... Read more
Published on Jun 20 2004 by Alejandra Vernon
5.0 out of 5 stars The end of the world as we know it...
An unforgettable movie that is as important and as powerful today as when it was first released.

Shute took his title from a stanza from T S Eliot's The Hollow Men:-

In this... Read more

Published on Jun 13 2004 by Steven Cain
5.0 out of 5 stars Still A Good Movie
This movie is now a bit dated but it remains one of my favorites.

Some of the scenes in the movie, including the segment where the US submarine Sawfish visits a vacant and dead... Read more

Published on Feb 17 2004 by J. E. Robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful production on how "it really ends"
To me, the magnificance of the Nevil Shute "On the Beach" novel, and this movie, is that it is an honest, believeable account of the end of the world as seen by the remaining... Read more
Published on Jan 26 2004
4.0 out of 5 stars A Film of the Heart and Mind
Without going deeply into the details of the film, described well elsewhere, I would like to say it is well done in the sense of representing a possible future reality in a down to... Read more
Published on Jan 10 2004
5.0 out of 5 stars ON THE BEACH
This is one of the all time classics in every respect. Some consider the message anti-war. It's not really. Instead, Shute's making a statement of the human condition. Read more
Published on Dec 13 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars Still a powerful film
Some people have said this film is dated, but remember, during the Cold War years of the 50's and 60's and even afterwards the specter of a possible nuclear conflagration between... Read more
Published on Jun 14 2003 by magellan
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie, however depressing it may be
On the Beach is much like the classic From Here to Eternity. Different story, however how an apocalyptic event is unfolding and how it effects these peoples lives is very similar. Read more
Published on Jun 9 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent movie, of it's own era.
I suspect that the reason so many ... customer reviews of On the Beach are negative is that the expectations of today's audiences, particularly younger audiences, are entirely... Read more
Published on Nov 5 2002 by Michael J. Keyes
4.0 out of 5 stars We Own It, So By Golly We're Going To USE It !
I saw this long, depressing -- and excellent -- movie at a university media center a few years ago. That evening's guest star was the man who had provided the sound, including... Read more
Published on Sep 5 2002 by J. Reynolds
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