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On The Beach [movie]

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aeronca65t

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
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Two of my racing friends pointed out this one to me: the movie, On The Beach.

You might be asking what does a very serious, sobering movie about nuclear annihilation, On the Beach, has to do with racing. One of the movie's sub-plot deals with a race driver played by Fred Astaire with Ava Gardner & Gregory Peck as spectators. Though set in Australia the race takes place at the recently opened (1959) Riverside Raceway in California. Every corny cliche about racing is thrown at you, but it's fun just to see the track when it was young & to spot all the edit jobs done for the sake of the crashes. See drivers suddenly replaced by dummies (is there a difference?) just before the car is run into or otherwise destroyed. A lot of precious machinery was lost for the cause...& Ava Gardner seems to see every wreck on the track from her one vantage point at Start/Finish.

Looks like at least 3 or 4 guys get killed per lap......worth 3:44 of your time.

 
As did Sinatra!
 
What a bunch of bad drivers. That's one way to win a race though. Did you notice that there was only one car left on the track at the end? BTW, I agree on Ms Gardner.
 
Probably something obvious that I missed in the movie: were those drivers overly aggressive and reckless because they knew they were about to die from radiation soon anyway?
 
NutmegCT said:
Probably something obvious that I missed in the movie: were those drivers overly aggressive and reckless because they knew they were about to die from radiation soon anyway?
Click to expand...
And the winning Fred Astaire chooses to check out in his car too, just not during the race.
 
Supposed to be the last Australian Gran Prix before everyone dies and since Austrailia was the last populated place, it was open to anyone. Since the radiation was supposed to arrive in just a few days no one seemed to be concerned when they went.
Good, but depressing movie reflecting the neclear wars fears of the times.
 
Hilarious. Elimination derby... nobody left. Love how none of the crashes stop (or even slow) the race.
 
There was a 100-4 that surely never survived the movie. Big fire.

Also laughed at the smirk on Astaire's face at the end.
Question: does one need a checked flag when you're the only one left in a race? :playful:
 
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