Great Scenes: Waltzing Matilda Finale

In the 1959 Stanley Kramer film "On the Beach", composer Ernest Gold adapted the music for Waltzing Matilda in a variety of motifs throughout the movie, culminating with a valiant theme as the doomed American submarine crew heads for home. We hear it again as "Taps" in the final apocalyptic scene in the deserted streets of Melbourne, blended with it's ominous companion throughout, the ticking of a watch slowly winding down.

Set five years in "the future" (1964 at the time of it's release), the film tells the story of the survivors of a nuclear war, living out the last months of their lives in Australia, as a cloud of radioactive fallout envelopes the globe. Just three years after the release of this film, we lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis, coming very close to realizing this fictional but prophetic story. Ironically, the stark visual image in the final frame of this film still resonates 50 years later: "There's still time...Brother"

Category:

Music

Tags:

• waltzing matilda
• film

[hammerogod]

The movie is wonderful but it can't touch the book for poignant and meaningful endings and messages.

My heart still misses a beat when I read the last line of the book.

~ She took the cork out of the bottle. It was ten past ten. She said earnestly, "Dwight, if you're on your way already, wait for me."

Then she put the tablets in her mouth and swallowed them down with a mouthful of brandy, sitting behind the wheel of her big car ~

Possibly the saddest ending of any book I have ever read.

[COSMOTOPPER777]

@hammerogod Thanks for that post. I never read the book, but I remember seeing it on the bedside table in my parents bedroom and wondering what it was about (I was 8 years old at the time).

[COSMOTOPPER777]

Folks, this is a music video from a great film. Obviously, the film has something to say about our capacity for self-destruction, and that's fine. But I'd rather not see this thread turned into yet another left-vs-right political pissing match (so I removed a few posts, including my own, that I thought went over the line).

[gclure]

I like the way he just tosses the screwdriver away.

[COSMOTOPPER777]

Okay. I get it. Please don't mock the baby boomers, okay?

[nuggitsme]

COSMOTOPPER777: I agree. That last look skywards by Gregory Peck is quite the most heartbreaking scene I have ever seen (Ava Gardner looking out from the cliff is great too)!

Thank you for the clip!

[robertsgpa]

@gclure

yeah, he was done with the illusion of survival... now he just wanted to hear the music of that race engine as he passed over...

perhaps we can all go that way, experiencing a bit of what made us most happy...

[robertsgpa]

@COSMOTOPPER777

Bravo, you!

A haunting film.  Thanks for letting it stand on its own merit.

[studakota1]

I believe, this movie being available to "the other side" , it had a lot to do with there not being a nuclear war. If so this is a truly great movie...

[1ggoede]

@COSMOTOPPER777

I read the book as a child, saw the movie in high school. Saw the 2000 remake. Any man who does not cry is not much of a man.

[BeerMoneyLive]

brutal....... thanks for posting this!