| United Artists | Release Date: December 17, 1959 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
5
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Mr. Kramer has brilliantly directed a strong and responsive cast, headed by Gregory Peck as the submarine commander and Ava Gardner as the worldly woman who craves his love. Miss Gardner is remarkably revealing of the pathos of a wasted life. Fred Astaire is also amazing as the cynical scientist, conveying in his self-effacing manner a piercing sense of the irony of his trade.
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Considered to be producer-director Stanley Kramer's most powerful film, containing his strongest message, a stern examination of the last days of mankind. [21 Mar 2004, p.8]
A memorable doomsday drama. [28 Sep 2000, p.13W]
Critics overpraised Stanley Kramer's doomsday drama in a year when they undervalued North by Northwest and Rio Bravo, and it's still dramatically mushy. [16 July 1993, p.3D]
Linus Pauling was quoted as saying, "It may be that some years from now we can look back and say that On the Beach is the movie that saved the world." The greatest ability of the director, Stanley Kramer, may have been for eliciting fatuous endorsements from eminent people.
In retrospect, and viewed as either a once-topical curio or a nostalgic artifact from Hollywood's golden era, On the Beach doesn't seem lousy. It seems naively, even innocently, preachy. [28 May 2000, p.G01]
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