USS Charleston - Mankind's Last Hope
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | USS Charleston - Mankind's Last Hope |
| Original title | On the beach |
| Country of production | USA , Australia |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2000 |
| length | 190 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Russell Mulcahy |
| script | David Williamson, Bill Kerby |
| production | John Edwards, Errol Sullivan |
| music | Christopher Gordon |
| camera | Martin McGrath |
| cut | Mark Perry |
| occupation | |
| |
USS Charleston - The Last Hope of Mankind is a dystopian television film by Australian director Russell Mulcahy from 2000. The science fiction drama is a remake of Stanley Kramer's film On the Beach (German version The Last Shore , 1959), which in turn based on the novel of the same name by Nevil Shute . The television film by RTL II was broadcast as a two-part series under the title The Charleston - The Last Rescue .
action
After a nuclear exchange of blows broke out in 2006 in the course of a conflict between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan , in which the United States intervened, the entire northern hemisphere was contaminated with nuclear energy. A nuclear submarine of the US Navy , the USS Charleston , located in the South Pacific and survived the nuclear attack unscathed. The boat was underway for six months. The crew is about to give up hope when a radiation measurement announces the longed-for fallen values. Captain Dwight Towers, commander of the submarine, orders contact to be made with Singapore , New Delhi and "everything that moves". A little later, a message comes from Singapore about a radioactive cloud with extreme radiation values that is moving south. The Australian fleet command orders the Charleston to Melbourne .
In the far north, it is said, people might still survive. Australia, on the other hand, has a maximum of two months.
In the course of worldwide attempts to establish contact, the USS Charleston receives an audio-video file that turns out to be incomplete when downloaded from the Internet. The text excerpt "... don't worry, the whales survived ..." is sent daily from Anchorage , Alaska ; the dispatch is postponed by about a minute every day. This gives hope to the crew of the USS Charleston and the Australian fleet command that there are survivors in Alaska.
After weighing up all the pros and cons, the Commander Dwight Towers and his crew, accompanied by a lieutenant from the Australian Navy and an environmental specialist, decide to make the journey from Melbourne to Anchorage and look for the sender of the email message . One problem here is the duration of the crossing. Since the radioactive cloud of the northern hemisphere mentioned above is moving towards Australia and will also contaminate the Australian continent in about two months, the return of the USS Charleston is only expected shortly before the cloud arrives. That would mean that all crew members would only have a few days left to survive after returning to Australia.
During the crossing from Australia to Alaska, the crew of the USS Charleston carried out several radioactivity measurements, all of which showed an extremely high radiation level. Such a measurement will be taken again upon arrival in Anchorage; the displayed value proves to be normal this time, so no excessive radiation is detected. After a brief euphoria on the part of the crew, a second measurement is carried out at the command of the Dwight Towers commander, which, in contrast to the first measurement, also shows a greatly excessive radiation value in Anchorage. The hope of meeting survivors in a clean environment is thus dashed.
However, the email from Anchorage will continue to be sent, the time of sending has been postponed by around one minute every day during the crossing, as before. While the commander and the first officer in protective suits make their way through Anchorage, the radioactive cloud has moved further towards the southern hemisphere and thus ever closer to Australia. The situation in Australia is becoming more and more anarchic; Looting is taking place, the streets are deserted, and sets with lethal drugs are being distributed in a central square in the city center so that radioactive people can commit suicide painlessly. A banner with the words “There is still time” has been placed on a large building in the city. The number of contaminated people with typical symptoms (vomiting, hair loss, etc.) is increasing.
In the meantime, the Commander of the USS Charleston, Dwight Towers, and his first officer have reached the sender of the email. The email was sent automatically from a solar powered notebook. The news is a report by an environmental reporter, which happened to be filmed at the time of the atomic bombs. It contains a personal message from the reporter to her life partner, which she still wanted to send. The reporter died from radiation and is still sitting dead in front of the notebook.
The phenomenon that the message was sent about one minute later every day can be explained by the fact that the sun began to shine on the solar panel about one minute later every day.
Disappointed and horrified, the two make their way back to the submarine. The first officer injured himself on the way and radioactive air penetrated his protective suit. This initially went unnoticed by the rest of the crew; only when symptoms of illness appear during the crossing does it become known.
In a vote among the crew, it is decided to go to San Francisco , the home port of the USS Charleston, again before returning to Melbourne . Once there, the crew found the city in ruins. There are obviously no survivors. A crew member is so desperate that he leaves the submarine through a hatch and is thus consciously exposed to the ionizing radiation . He wants to see his dead relatives again and die in his hometown.
The USS Charleston then makes its way to Melbourne. The situation in Melbourne has also deteriorated. Open violence and theft have become commonplace; the above-mentioned “There is still time” banner was torn down.
Arrived in Melbourne, the Australian lieutenant went to his family; his wife is also seriously ill in the meantime. The commander of the USS Charleston goes to his girlfriend; the environmental specialist races in a Ferrari on a racetrack near Melbourne and kills himself through a provoked head-on collision with an advertising board.
One of the last settings shows the last minute that the Australian radio broadcast was broadcast. After the station was switched off, the Australian lieutenant lay in bed with his sick wife and young daughter, and they all took the deadly dose of medication.
reception
The television film, shot in Australia, premiered on May 28, 2000 at prime time at 8 p.m. on the US cable television station Showtime . American critics were divided and criticized the more than three-hour running length of the three-part drama. Stanley Kramer's original film adaptation with Gregory Peck , Ava Gardner , Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins in the leading roles was 134 minutes at the time. Howard Rosenberg , journalist for the Los Angeles headline USS Charleston - Mankind's Last Hope "may not be too long or too gloomy for a story commemorating the death of mankind," while Tom Shales, journalist for the Washington Post , said the TV version was "inferior Copy “of a film that had every right to be left to its own devices. In Germany , the US-American-Australian co-production ran in mid-August 2001 as a two-parter at prime time on RTL , where it attracted 4.38 million viewers in front of the screen. This meant a market share of up to 27.5 percent in the target group of 14 to 49 year olds. Repetitions followed in the years 2003 to 2008, partly also on the private TV channels VOX and RTL II, which belong to the RTL Group .
DVD release
The company MiG / EuroVideo released the film under the title USS Charleston - The Last Rescue of Mankind on September 15, 2011 in Germany on DVD.
Reviews
“Three hours running plus an interlude, 'On the Beach' has the look of a production that was designed as a mini-series. Without a doubt, it is long and gloomy. But maybe not too long or too dark for a story commemorating the death of mankind. "
“Armand Assante and Australia's Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward are the only recognizable faces in the film. The Australian television production, co-produced with Showtime, uses the backdrop from Down Under for a wonderful effect and the underwater scenes are equally effective. Still, the drama doesn't work out completely, either with the characterizations or the overall structure. Its strength comes from the relentless desolation of Shute's vision, which spans this version to (almost) the very end. And the original story, not the remake, deserves most of it. "
“The producers saved a lot of effort in bringing the nuclear doomsday saga back to the screen. This begins with the cast of nobodies, burned-out and flails. Rachel Ward has the biggest name and the brightest presence, but she plays an unsympathetic, dissolute old quackery and does little to rehabilitate her character. Bryan Brown (Ward's husband in real life), an arrogant, selfish scientist, shouts out most of his passages as if that would improve anything. He gives one of the worst and loudest performances of the century (...) The plot accepts detours in order to extend the duration. Maybe one or two of these were in the Shute novel, but they weren't in the '59 movie. "
"The television remake of the Stanley Kramer film The Last Shore (1959) depicts the last hours of humanity and how the survivors come to terms with their fate, with the staging relying on the mobilization of great emotions."
Awards
USS Charleston - Mankind's Last Hope was nominated for a Golden Globe in two categories in 2001 . While Rachel Ward had to admit defeat to British actress Judi Dench ( The Last of the Blonde Bombshells ) as best leading actress in a mini-series or TV film , the production in the category of best mini-series or TV film was defeated by the US American television film Dirty Pictures by Frank Pierson . Russell Mulcahy's directorial work also won the Australian Film Institute award for Best Mini-Series or TV Film. Film composer Christopher Gordon was honored with the Australian Screen Music Award from the Australian Guild of Screen Composers in three categories.
Golden Globe 2001
- nominated in the categories
- Best Mini-Series or TV Movie
- Best Actress in a Mini-Series or TV Movie (Rachel Ward)
Further
Australian Cinematographers Society 2001
- Best Cinematography - TV Movie, TV Drama, and Mini-Series
Australian Film Institute 2000
- Best Mini-Series or TV Movie
- Best production design - television
- nominated in the categories
- Best camera - television
- nominated in the categories
Australian Guild of Screen Composers 2000
- Best Music - Mini-Series or TV Movie
- Best Theme Music - Series (Continuous or Mini-Series)
- Best soundtrack album
Cinema Audio Society 2001
- nominated in the category Best Sound Mixing - TV Movie of the Week or Mini-Series
Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards 2001
- nominated in the category Best Contemporary Make-Up - Television (mini-series or television film)
Motion Picture Sound Editors 2001
- nominated in the categories
- Best Sound Editing - TV Mini-Series (Dialog & ADR)
- Best Sound Editing - TV Mini-Series (Effects & Foley)
Screen Music Awards 2002
- Best Theme Music - Television
literature
- Shute, Nevil: The Last Shore: Roman . Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1989. ISBN 3-499-11968-4
- Shute, Nevil: On the beach . New York: Ballantine Books, 1997. ISBN 0345420195
Web links
- USS Charleston - The last hope of humanity in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- USS Charleston - The last hope of humanity at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Footnotes
- ↑ a b Tom Shales: Showtime's Doom Idea: 'On the Beach' Remake Nukes Original's Integrity . In: The Washington Post, May 28, 2000, Sunday Arts, p. G01
- ↑ The TV market in August: RTL again clearly number 1 among 14 to 49 year olds . In: OTS original text service from September 1, 2001
- ↑ USS Charleston - Mankind's Last Hope. In: OFDb. Retrieved January 31, 2017 .
- ^ Howard Rosenberg: On The Beach Still Hits Home . In: Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2000, Calendar, Part F, p. 1, Entertainment Desk
- ↑ David Bianculli: Update Waters Down 'Beach's' Message . In: [Daily News (New York), May 26, 2006, Television, p. 142
- ↑ USS Charleston - Mankind's Last Hope. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 31, 2017 .