On The Beach

[RondoHatton]

The most poignant film of the cold war, IMHO, beyond Fail Safe. The end of the world with no Bruckheimer special effects, just character-driven drama about the horror of the inevitable doom. Choke back tears time with this dark weeper. Fred Astaire goes out in, dare I say it, style. Given the circumstance, wouldn't you? Tonight (?) on TCM.

 

[SamMarlowPI]

really really great film...bought it for my mom...can't ever go wrong with Gregory Peck...

 

[imoldfashioned]

This film devestated and terrified me the first time I saw it. I always remember the banner.

 

[RondoHatton]

"There is still time, Brother"?

 

[imoldfashioned]

"There is still time, Brother"?

The very one!

 

[The Captain]

I will never forget the night I watched this film. It was the last night of the films run at a theater in Oceanside, California, and I was one of a handfull of patrons. Within my coat pockets were two bottles of...E & J Gallo's Ripple. Sure, it was a "Bum Wine", but the alcohol content was sufficiently high enough for a "sophisticated" former Marine like me. The "smoking lamp" was still burning brightly back then, and now and then the glow from the tip of a Kool or Pall Mall would pin-point the location of another loner like me.

To make a long story short, I drank both bottles of E & J's best, smoked a bit and cried a lot! Seeing the end of the world, as we know it, is common-place in today's cinema, but back then - with the threat of nuclear war - watching people make up their minds to take their own lives, instead of waiting for the inevitable, was.......hard, to say the least.

I, too, remember the final scene, with the THERE'S STILL TIME BROTHER
banner blowing in the breeze. I can only hope there is.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I'm constantly learning about great flicks on the Lounge, I must check this one out! Thanks....

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I read the book in the 60's and also saw the movie shortly after.

It affected me so deeply that I actually found myself thinking I only had a few weeks to live (me and everybody else) right before I was to start college.

Great movie, good cast. Sad choices for some, going out in style for others.

"This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends ... Not with a bang, but a whimper" (Eliot)

karol