Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda

On the Beach has a colorful cast and innovative and revolutionary filmmaking techniques. What is really capturing about the film though is the plot. On the Beach is based off of the book of the same name by Nevil Shute. The novel was published two years before the filming of the movie began.
The major theme of the film is post-nuclear survival. The problem however is what do you do when death is inevitable and a giant cloud of radiation from this war that had nothing to do with you is heading towards your country, the only country left? Many questions were asked by characters of these films- Moral questions, civil questions and questions of life and death. Some would think that civilized living would completely diminish due to a doomed fate but somehow Australia stayed strong in the face of this unfortunate outcome. So why did this happen? Who is to blame? These are two of the most impending and crucial questions. How could this outcome have been prevented? Now we are fortunate enough as a nation to not have had to face any sort of nuclear attack in which some of the results of those attack would still be affecting us today. So the main universal question that many are still asking today is who is to blame? Who started it? This is a very touchy subject even when no bombs were every really exchanged between the United States and the Soviets. The film leans no more towards one way or the other. Americans are however featured in this film and it is a film made by Americans so that adds a little bias in terms of this debate. It is a question however asked by an Australian. Someone outside of the Cold War is reviewing the Cold War. This makes for an interesting perspective, especially the stereotypes that they had of the world and Americans in particular. They were amazed by the amount of alcohol Dwight consumed that had no effect on his behavior at all. This could be saying that Americans are barbaric in their indulgences of the drink or it could be saying that they are stronger than that, more powerful and elusive to any kind of handicap that might come his way.
Some blame the scientists and some blame the Americans. There are many comments to which those involved in the Cold War must stop and think about especially if they encouraged the use of the new weaponry throughout the film. The film puts into display the “results” of such an atomic war and points out that if these countries were so smart to build these bombs why weren’t they doing something better with their time than throwing them at each other? They should have known exactly what was going to happen.
One of the biggest moral issues of the film was the availability of suicide pills so that you and your family members would not have to suffer through radiation poisoning. At the beginning of the film it seemed as though such pills were very difficult to come across but by the end of the film such pills were given out freely. This suggests complete and utter hopelessness. A doomed society cursed by other’s violent intentions. What was interesting to me was never in the film did they discuss the complete annihilation of the human race and how that affects the future of the universe. It is made aware that the entire United States’ population is gone but there is never a discussion of the rest of the world. There was no research into how another dominating race could adapt and rise up in the radiation and no attempt to preserve human life.
People were very discontent and disconnected in their relationships. The young couple and their child were facing the devastating inevitability that their young daughter would never experienced things that they had experienced. The husband and wife grow apart and throughout the movie reflect on how their relationship was not as exciting as it once was. The end of the film however they remember their early experiences together on the beach. An interesting opposite to the young married couple is the older relationship that develops throughout the film between the married American Commander and the extra lonely Australian temptress. Their love is desperate but it seems true enough.
There are many little ironies in this film which make you question a lot of the securities you have in your life. New love is certainly something that many would not think as something they would be looking for in the last months of life. The coke bottle tugging on the window shade is an example of a hopeless and unending chain of disappointments that these people have suffered through, though they find it quite comical that they spent so much time hoping that someone was out there and still alive.
There were a lot of implications of this Atomic war that didn’t just affect those that were involved but the entire world. I think that that was the main focus of the plot. When countries of such intelligence are blinded by their own power and do not realize that the repercussions of their actions directly affect the entire world, devastating changes occur and in this case the end of life. Fingers pointed in every direction but mostly it pointed to those that didn’t have the common sense to stop before they were ahead of themselves. Many blamed the beginning, the scientists who developed the theory and many those that consciously pushed the button. Whatever the reason or whoever the criminal the outcome of this film was dramatic to say the least.
If you had five months before a giant cloud of radiation, that you had nothing to do with, covered you and your family in a devastating sickness…What would you do?