The End of the World Essay -- Movies Films Science Fiction Essays

The End of the World In writing definitively about American films of the nineteen fifties, Douglas Brode refers to the societal hysteria resulting from fear of both the communist threat and the possibility of nuclear war. Accompanying this general state of mind was the emergence of the science fiction film as a major genre. Titles in the genre dealt with fantasy topics ranging from alien invasion (The Thing, 1951, or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956), to biologial "missing links" (The Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954), to the bizarre side-effects of nuclear contamination (The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957), or to actual nuclear war (The World, the Flesh and The Devil, 1959). Another interesting example of this last category is Stanley Kramer's On the Beach, released in the last month of a decade which would be remembered for its omnipresent bomb culture. As the turn of the decade approached, some changes were apparent. At the same time that exchanges between Eisenhower and Khrushchev were bringing new, less frightening discourses to the political arena, Kramer's film in the bomb culture tradition negotiated new approaches to the depiction of the nuclear threat. As is so often the case in genre studies, On the Beach should be considered in terms of how it is representative of the context from which it emerged, but also in terms of what makes it unique. Through such an examination, as well as a survey of the impact that the film had upon its audiences, I hope to discuss On the Beach as integral in a culture of the bomb which spoke proactively and unequivocally against nuclear armament. Bomb Culture & Science Fiction in the Fifties "As the notion of an all-out nuclear confrontation became a viable possibility, w... ...reatly changed from Arnold's day) for their evocation of some part of each of us which reaches toward others in defense against a world which can be truly frightening. On the Beach is much the same. Aesthetically and narratively, it is impressive; it would be difficult not to be moved by the final honest exchange between Admiral Bridie and Lieut. Hosgood; the reflection of the young husband and wife as they recall their first meeting; or the chilling void of a grey, white and black world in which people used to live. Produced as part of the culture under- the-bomb, On the Beach speaks memorably of that specific context; produced as a carefully planned passionate requiem on the potency and vulnerability of human existence, it transcends this context, and reminds us today that no matter what the threat, as long as there is the human spirit, there is "still time."