On the Beach
I watched the remake of On the Beach last night. Spoilers ahead ahoy, and I'm not kidding.
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It was a good deal grittier than the original, and Armand Assante (as Captain Dwight Towers) sounded a lot like Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. Other than that... I'm ambivalent about it, and I'm sure Nevil Shute is turning over in his grave. He was upset with the original, in part because of how Dwight's relationship with Moira was portrayed. (in the book, he remained faithful to the memory of his wife.) In the remake, he pretty much hops into bed with Moira as soon as he meets her.
Also--and I know this is unrealistic, since people are what they are--I hated seeing the Aussies attack each other, another reason why I prefer the book and the original version. This was like Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. In the cities, the worst in people came out, while in the country and suburbs they just went about living what was left of their lives.
As for Dwight abandoning his post for Moira... maybe that's what the studio thought the public wanted for the ending, but I liked him better when he was true to the way he viewed his position. I don't remember if it was mentioned in this version, but he'd been given command of the entire US Navy, as little of it as was left. I also preferred the reasoning behind Dwight taking out the Scorpion, ( the original name of his sub)--he couldn't leave a ship under his command unmanned in a foreign country. That was why he took her out that last time--to sail her beyond Australian waters (about 30 miles out) and scuttle her. NOT because the men took a vote and wanted to go home.
And what was up with him injecting his second-in-command directly into his arm when Neil was hooked up to an IV? Wouldn't it have made more sense to administer the drug that way?
At least the Australian accents seemed authentic. In the original version, Julian's (Fred Astaire) and Peter's (Tony Perkins) seem to bounce from British and Aussie back to American as the movie progressed.
I did think the message they received ("don't despair" and 'the whales survived" and the way it was delivered (solar-powered laptop) was clever. And at least Dwight never fired off his warheads.
So all things considered, I prefer the 1959 version to this (I had to watch it after I finished with this one, just to get the taste out of my mouth), and the book to both of them.
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It was a good deal grittier than the original, and Armand Assante (as Captain Dwight Towers) sounded a lot like Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. Other than that... I'm ambivalent about it, and I'm sure Nevil Shute is turning over in his grave. He was upset with the original, in part because of how Dwight's relationship with Moira was portrayed. (in the book, he remained faithful to the memory of his wife.) In the remake, he pretty much hops into bed with Moira as soon as he meets her.
Also--and I know this is unrealistic, since people are what they are--I hated seeing the Aussies attack each other, another reason why I prefer the book and the original version. This was like Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. In the cities, the worst in people came out, while in the country and suburbs they just went about living what was left of their lives.
As for Dwight abandoning his post for Moira... maybe that's what the studio thought the public wanted for the ending, but I liked him better when he was true to the way he viewed his position. I don't remember if it was mentioned in this version, but he'd been given command of the entire US Navy, as little of it as was left. I also preferred the reasoning behind Dwight taking out the Scorpion, ( the original name of his sub)--he couldn't leave a ship under his command unmanned in a foreign country. That was why he took her out that last time--to sail her beyond Australian waters (about 30 miles out) and scuttle her. NOT because the men took a vote and wanted to go home.
And what was up with him injecting his second-in-command directly into his arm when Neil was hooked up to an IV? Wouldn't it have made more sense to administer the drug that way?
At least the Australian accents seemed authentic. In the original version, Julian's (Fred Astaire) and Peter's (Tony Perkins) seem to bounce from British and Aussie back to American as the movie progressed.
I did think the message they received ("don't despair" and 'the whales survived" and the way it was delivered (solar-powered laptop) was clever. And at least Dwight never fired off his warheads.
So all things considered, I prefer the 1959 version to this (I had to watch it after I finished with this one, just to get the taste out of my mouth), and the book to both of them.
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