ABSTRACT
Familiar themes is science fiction films, such as radioactive mutations and alien invasions, lingered into the first few years of the 1960s, but the increasingly redundant depiction of such scenarios was quickly losing its box-office appeal. However, alternative scenarios and new applications of the nuclear theme had begun to evolve in Hollywood productions. With the contemporary issues of global fallout, doomsday machines, and mutually assured destruction on the military agenda, many films began questioning the exalted portrayal of military leadership and the feasibility of a survivable nuclear future. Although Stanley Kramer admitted that he ran into more trouble as a "creative producer" from movie industry pressure than from external sources, the production of On the Beach stands as one of the earliest confrontations with the Pentagon over film content. Controversial films incorporated various science fiction gimmicks such as time travel in presenting the postnuclear Earth far in the future.
