1999/2000 Telemovie
American and China have a nuclear war that totally wipes out all life in the Northern Hemisphere. All is lost except an American submarine that comes down under and will be of key importance in perhaps saving a 1000 Australians as the radioactive cloud gradually descends down to the Southern Hemisphere.
Add to this the Aussies knowing that eventually all life on Earth will cease, and add a love triangle and you have one compelling drama.
There are such touching moments in this telemovie, the unwelcome knowledge that as your family start getting radiation poisoning you all have to take a pill or needle to end your life and stop the suffering. Making the most of your life, seeing the beauty which is around you, making the most of every moment. The courage and the pain of deliberately ending your life because you have to - because death is inevitable. It is also a story about hope, and the fact that sometimes hope doesn't work. And when it all comes down to it - where do you want to be and who do you want to be with when you take your little blue pill?
An unsettling subject at the best of times, I found 'On the Beach' especially moving with all that is happening in our world at present, with the war on Iraq.
Quote - ' It took man billions of years to get the technology we have today, and what do we do with that knowledge? We blow ourselves up!"
Isisdownunder April 2003.
Armand Assante as Com. Dwight Towers
Bryan Brown as Dr. Julian Osbourne
Rachael Ward as Moira
Grant Bowler as Lt. Peter Holmes
Jacqueline McKenzie as Mary Holmes
