There Is Still Time.. Until There Isn’t

Got my own copy of On The Beach to watch.
I don’t know why a melodrama about an isolated community waiting for inevitable oblivion to overwhelm them would be appealing to me.
No idea at all.

As the movie moves toward its conclusion there are related scenes set in front of the Melbourne Library.
(And if you don’t know, it is set in Melbourne)

I’ve reflected on the final image before, but the progression really stood out to me this time.
They don’t involve the central characters, but clearly present the broad experience they all go through.

And while the final implied message of the filmmaker is plain, the meaning of the message as it is displayed in the film is never really explored.
So many characters faced with finality, so little expression of spirituality. And this in a movie that is over sixty years old.

The message of the film seems clearly to avoid human created destruction of humanity, because that is humanity’s only hope.
Humanity is its own saviour.

And while we should care for creation and life, the message of that banner is that we are not our own Saviours.
And even if we feel like we’re in situations of being an isolated community waiting for inevitable oblivion, we’re not. There is a power that can bring life to circumstances that have no visible prospect of hope.
There Is Still Time.. And there is a hope beyond this fading world.