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

The End of the WorldIn writing definitively about American films of the nineteen fifties, Douglas Brode refers to the societal frenzy 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 fantastic 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 Kramers 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 clipping that exchanges between Eisenhower an d Khrushchev were bringing new, less frightening discourses to the political arena, Kramers 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 call of how it is representative of the scope 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 FiftiesAs the notion of an all-out nuclear confrontation became a viable possibility, w... ...reatly changed from Arnolds day) for their evocation of some part of each of us which reaches toward others in defense against a gentleman which can be truly frightening. On the Beach is much the same. Aesthetically and narratively, it is im pressive it would be difficult not to be moved by the nett 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 abandon 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.