Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

bayshore-2 There have been enough comments on this wonderful film that I will make only a small point.I saw on the beach this week and saw the original a few days later. Remake is a much better film, IMO.Even though you know then end is near and people are showing symptoms that make it clear there isn't much time, the second to the last scene is one of the most powerful moments I have observed in film. Perhaps it is because I am the parent of a two year old daughter but that scene conveys a moment humanity has come to that should never be.I didn't realize the film ran 3 hours because it was so enthralling and alternated so effectively between despair and hope. That is wondrous film making when it is done right.

white-rhys On the Beach, a glorious filmic celebration of Nevil Shute's best known 1957 novel of the same name, righting the wrongs of the 1959 version, telling a story of love and disaster played out as the world slowly dies and hope is expelled. I wish I could write these words, instead …On the Beach is translated into millennium Australia, China and the USA have done the inevitable and bombed each other, the USA have sent their last horse to Australia …. No more plot.The acting is poor, stiff, unengaged, the soundtrack sounds as if it has been borrowed from the 1959 movie, the colorists got a bit over exited and made a somber film brilliant colour, the vision mixer got exited with his fades and mixes and the cinematographers got exited with their spinning shots. The suspense, the romanticism is missing and replaced by hapless Hollywood stories and lines we have all hearted another time.In the three hours it has taken to watch this movie I would suggest reading the book, perhaps as a TV mini series it was worthwhile, challenging, high budget but combined into a film it is poor, long and needs to be consigned to the shelf.

grickards55-1 Quite frankly, I think that this television rethinking of Nevil Shute's superb, and very moving book is, for the most part, awful. The screenplay has, more or less, jettisoned all the tragic components, and appealing characters of Mr Shute's great novel, in favour of bringing the story up to date, so much so, that the producers might as well have commissioned an original story and screenplay. The 1959 version was, for the most part, much more faithful to the original novel than this sorry effort. 'Truth to tell, neither version does justice to the book, although at least Stanley Kramer's version tries it's best to capture the dignity and quiet heroism of the ordinary characters facing a tragic consequence. The only thing in favour of this rethink is that the facts are brought up to date and we are shown how the mob would react to the end of the world but, apart from that, I will stick to the original film version, despite nearly being driven to distraction with umpteen variations of a theme on Waltzing Matilda, and the terrible miscasting of Ava Gardner. And talking of miscasting, this TV version has more than it's fair share of that; Armand Assante, who has as much charm as the holocaust he is involved in, Rachel Ward who seems all at sea with her part and, like Miss Gardner, is totally wrong for the part of Moira and, surprisingly, the usually excellent Bryan Brown is another casualty of the miscasting department. A1, however, are the brilliant special effects; the scene of a devastated San Francisco makes one's jaw drop, the nuclear dust like falling snow, and the dead victims are the only memorable moments, and as for the end, ugh!!!! The scriptwriters should have been shot for writing such dross and slop, the ending in the book is much more powerful. Maybe one day someone will make a remake that does full justice to a magnificent novel that is just as timely today as it was in the late 1950's.

upscale-2 This film is truly remarkable. The acting is wonderful, and the realistic portrayal of the end of humanity will affect you like no other film. The scenes of a destroyed and melted San Francisco and its Golden Gate Bridge in pieces will horrify anyone who has ever lived or visited there. This is a must watch for everyone, especially those who would like to stop the spread of nuclear armaments all over our planet. Buy this film, and keep a copy in your archives. Better yet, tell your congressmen and all politicians to see this film. Hopefully, it will help this horror from ever happening to the world in real life. You will truly never forget this film.