Turning Fears into Dollars: Hollywood’s Apocalyptic Movies Such as On the Beach and 2012
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009
by Joel Kontinen
http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/
Political turmoil is a golden opportunity for fiction writers. During the memorable days of the cold war period British popular author Nevil Shute (1899-1960) wrote the best-selling novel On the Beach (1957) that was soon made into a movie starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner.
The previous year had been momentous. The Soviet army had brought down the Hungarian uprising and Great Britain and France had for once sided with the Israelis to protect their strategic interests in the Near East.
When the Cuban Missile Crisis made headlines in the early 1960s, On the Beach was still fresh in mind. Suddenly it seemed that Nevil Shute had to some extent foreseen what was about to happen.
On the Beach described the aftermath of a nuclear exchange. In the story, World War III had come and gone. Europe and America had been destroyed. Only the Australians and the crew of a US navy submarine were left and winds were about to bring the deadly contamination their way.
There was no way of avoiding the unavoidable.
But as we know from history, WW III was averted.
Hollywood has not been reluctant to turn fears into dollars. Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow were more recent films in this category. The latest instalment, i.e. the movie 2012, was inspired by the assumed ending of the Mayan Calendar.
Coming at a time when Iran and North Korea are flexing their nuclear muscles, with NATO bogged down in a seemingly endless conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, fears of global warming and the H1N1 virus taking its toll on both young and old, the timing for a new apocalyptic movie seems to be almost perfect.
However, whereas Nevil Shute's story was nearly plausible, the hype related to the Mayan Calendar and 2012 has a plethora of mythological ingredients, such as Earth's predicted collision with a planet (Niburu) that does not exist and the UFO-connection, have their home in science fiction but not necessarily in reality. (You can read more about the Mayan Calendar here: http://joelkontinen.blogspot.com/2009/11/will-world-end-on-december-21-2012.html .)
While it might suit Hollywood to connect the Mayan Calendar with impending calamities, we would do well to ask ourselves whether such a correlation really exists outside the world of new age ideology that relies on very questionable interpretations of rather old age data.
The feared ending of the Mayan Calendar has recently brought much panic into the blogosphere. However, in times like these it is good to keep in mind that God is watching over His world and He will not let an assumed Mayan prophesy derail His good purpose for mankind.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I love your "bottom line" and I remember seeing "In the Beach" back when it came out I think.... dinosaurs and all... MarijoThanks, Marijo. I wanted to say that He's still got the whole world in His hands, regardless of what Hollywood says.
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