Sexuality and homosexuality in the film

yes, let's taint a great movie by bringing in unfounded notions of homosexuality.

bchace, you seriously need to get a job, or a hobby or something. All the garbage in the movies and on TV today and you're analyzing a great movie from 1959 based on a great book from the 1957 for "immoral" content?

i watched it recently & didn't pick up on any gay references

but must say that if i had i wouldn't regard them as "tainting" the movie

homosexuality is not a disease

Tell mama, Tell mama all....

I propose that, in our individiual and collective deliberations about the film, we apply Occam's Razor: perhaps Shute was, or Kramer was, an "ass man"?

I don't see Peter Holmes as being "feminized." Holmes is a new dad, and new dads are often ever so tender with their first child, especially if the child's a girl. Also, the "wrestling" dialogue in the beach sequence probably clues us that Peter's mind is not in the here and now, that he's actually already - as his other action in the film, his attempt to secure the suicide pills before their official issue, fairly shouts at us - wrestling with the larger issue looming over all the characters: inevitable death from either radiation sickness or well-deliberated suicide.

You know, in the comments from so many young people on these boards and in their IMDb reviews I read a lot of gibberish and psychobabble about all sorts of sexual "messages" in films. Methinks our education system would better serve our young, and civilization, if it would return to simply providing students with the tools (the three R's and computer geekology) that every generation needs to get on in life, instead of filling their heads with so much Structuralist and Poststructuralist bosh from Derrida, Foucault, and all the other harebrained French "theorists."

Though this egregious error doesn't appear in this thread I'd like to urge all you young people to learn that "definitely" is NOT spelled "definately." From reading and watching so many dystopian and sci-fi publications and films you know how to spell "infinite" and "infinitely" - so why haven't you learned and why can't you learn to spell "definite" and "definitely"?! - and bothered to grasp that they share the same Latin root: finis.

"There is a lot of overt sexuality in this film...And to think that it was made in 1959 is incredible."

There has always been plenty of sex, by implication, in the movies. It's only that, before the mid 60's or so (with the exception of some pre-Code movies) there was no nudity, or (for that matter) direct displays of the deed being done.


"This is our hill, and these are our beans!" Lt. Frank Drebin

There's 2 or 3 gay people here who couldn't detect a gay message...so I'm going to go ahead and give them the benefit of the doubt despite the fact I've never seen the movie. I've actually heard of it and something made me think of it so I checked it out. I've never heard of anything homoerotic/homowhatever in this movie.

I remember a teacher (I think it was one of my science teachers) telling me about this movie I think in Middle School. He gave out the ending :\ :D.

I just watched “On the Beach” again and have to disagree with bchace’s analysis.

Bchase, you’re right that there are overt sexual references, but this directness is simply an extension of the film’s larger theme that these characters are facing their own mortality and direct emotional expression is all they have left. To see their need for companionship, intimacy and connection as only “sex and peace” is an over simplification. I’m surprised that you didn’t also trivialize their drinking (there’s lots of that too) into “just wanting to get drunk” without recognizing it as a symptom of the denial they all engage in.

Also, as a gay man, I agree with other posters who also didn’t see any implied homosexuality. The cliché of the 1950’s is that they were very repressive, and controversial topics like homosexuality could only be expressed euphemistically. But this ignores plenty of films which contained explicit characters. Just see 1958’s “Long Hot Summer” in which Richard Anderson plays a fairly explicit gay character. Then there’s a favorite noir, 1955’s “The Big Combo”, in which Fante and Mingo are gay lovers. If you want to see a classic example of a man being feminized by overbearing women, check out Fritz Lang’s 1945 “Scarlet Street” and how Edward G. Robinson is belittled by his wife and the femme fatale.

But back to On the Beach. I hadn’t seen it in many years, so it was great to see that it’s still as strong as I remembered it, and in our post 9/11 era, more relevant than ever. I especially like Julian’s speech on the confused cause of the war, that it was all a mistake, a matter of human error.

Great cast, great writing, great directing. The performances are consistently low key and all the more powerful, as if the director is always telling them “less is more”. There are moments when I wish the musical score had been as restrained, but that’s a minor point.

Yellow M&M


you need to get a LIFE pal! you're probably too young to realize that this was considered the greatest anti- nuke film of the fifties. did you even bother to read the book? yes, the character of Moira was understood to be promiscuous, but finds moral redemption from the love and feeling of self worth that captain towers is able to restore in her. you are right that there are many levels going on here. manly how each person comes to terms with there moral choices and ultimate dignity in facing death. ( which we all must do one day). as to the feminization of peter by Stanley Kramer, you must come from another planet! your reference to peter calling his wife charlie, is merely an australian slang term for an attractive girl. if you as astute as you imply, you'll notice later on that the ship's crew, in watching Moira walking toward the ship yell out "get a load of the charlie wheeler" i would strongly suggest that you study world war II naval history and than grow up.