Well, duh!

[rationtin440]

I watched the original "On the Beach" (1959) this afternoon for the first time, and I did not realize that Fred Astaire was in it. A friend of mine told me that it was better than the newer version with Armand Assante. Funny though, it was one of the only movies with Fred Astaire that I've seen where he does not dance or sing.....

[dirtbag]

I've seen that one several times, It should be required for all the Nuke button pushers...
Enjoyable, yet disturbing.

[rationtin440]

Indeed! Although I did see the newer one quite awhile ago, I must say the newer one, to me, was much more sad. Not sure how accurate the spread of radioactive fallout depicted was, but if every bomb was extremely "dirty" who knows? And of course the very last scenes in the newer one don't actually, literally, show the fate of Armand Assante and Rachel Ward, which made me wonder if a sequel might be in the works. Of course from 2000 when it was made until now, I think we'd have heard or seen something about a sequel by this point. Not sure what it would consist of though with 3 of the main characters already gone.

[rationtin440]

I just watched the newer On the Beach (2000) and call me nit-picky, but the 1959 version seemed to have left out just a few details that the newer version found no problem including. For example, those of us who saw the newer one had no problem recognizing the point where Jacqueline Mckenzie needed a serious white cell count ASAP (not that it would have done her any good), whereas the 1959 version did not go into as much detail with the radiation sickness. Other than that, aside from being two of the saddest movies I've ever seen, they seemed fairly straightforward. Not sure how/if our own government would try to ease the suffering of people if life ever imitated art in the U.S., however.

[rationtin440]

I meant to say that I just watched the newer On the Beach again, my puter seems to be skipping words that I type in for some reason.

[Ruleryak]

If you've got a wireless keyboard check the batteries and the placement of the receiver unit. When they die the signal cuts out here and there and bits of what you type wont get through.

[dirtbag]

Just an idle thought, did they even have white cell count tests back then?
I remember lots of stupid things they inflicted on the Army guys, because they didn't know better .

[rationtin440]

Actually dirtbag, I believe it went something like this: when the military did those tests in the desert where they'd set off a nuke and then have the troops march however many miles into the impact area to simulate "mopping up" any survivors, they were careful not to tell the troops of the probable side effects (don't try to have kids for a few decades, you may experience stomach discomfort, severe headache, sore throat.....at first), and blood testing technology was still in the developement stage. Of course for the people in "On the Beach" by the time they started throwing up, the stuff was in the air and there was no place to go. In the newer version, LtCdr. Neill pierced his leg on that rebar at the pier in Alaska, and that offered a direct route into his body of the radiation. About the only thing that a white cell count will do is let the medical folks know that the patient is not suffering from bad food poisoning, but instead radiation damage.

[rationtin440]

Thanks for advice Ruleryak! I don't have a wireless keyboard any more, we just replaced it this weekend and now she's working fine.

[Woodland]

There is a good movie about nuclear testing on US soldiers. "Nightbreaker"with Martin Sheen.Have you seen it? I have seen it only once,many years ago.
"On the Beach" (new) is also my favourite but the ending is very sad almost shocking..
I remember when I was a kid (10-11 year old maybe) my father told me what to do in case of a nuclear attack.He told me for example that if I'm home I should run in the cellar immediatelly and that he had already prepared food and water and there is a green locker and etc. I had a gas mask too.