In 1974, my 6th grade teacher would go on and on about this movie. It only took 48 years to see it-- but I bet I've thought about his description at least once a month over the decades. Coincidentally, it was about the same time that I gained an interest in Australia, which has stuck with me to this day. Was not much of a movie buff until the pandemic hit almost 3 years ago, which has since gave me time to appreciate classic vintage film (thank you TCM). Stanley Kramer, Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner... all these names mean something to me now, and I have perspective. The timing couldn't have been better to see the film December 2022, and I can fully appreciate it for everything that it's about. Great story, and the patience has paid off.

The French title is "le dernier rivage"(the last shore)The intellectuals dismiss this movie in France and I've always thought they were wrong.Ava Gardner had never been better with the eventual exception of Huston's "night of the iguana".My favorite part is the central one:one of the soldiers tries to find the cause for the strange Morse signals.He crosses bleak dead San Francisco harbor (the camera takes prodigious high angle shots of him,making us share his loneliness and his hope against hope)Hope that was to be short-lived!What a symbol,this equivalent of a bottle thrown into the sea!So few special effects,ans so much emotion.Stanley Kramer's peak.

This film has that subdued fifties quality to it. There was a lot of cold war fear and worry about bombs, as well there should be. There still is when we consider the screwballs who seem to have their hands on these weapons. I would hope that this fairly dated film would give us another reminder as to how fragile we really are. Obviously, at some point our species will die out, be it from lack of food, disease, pollutants, or war, but we certainly don't have to accept it and we need to be aware of the most immediate dangers. I had trouble with the characters in the film. I know that some have said, "What are they supposed to do?" I guess, knowing the nature of the beast, there would be a little more panic and a little more looting. We don't need to portray it like "Children of Men" but there would certainly be an element. Just look at natural disasters where a considerably smaller number of people are affected. The acting is good; the plot is interesting. I just had trouble with the stiff upper lip stuff.