Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Beach Themes and Motifs

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Endings in the Cinema

  • 208 Accesses

Abstract

Along with representative examples for each category, this chapter looks in detail at the most significant examples of the range of themes and motifs in beach endings: death; war; hallucination, breakdown and insanity; the family and childhood; mourning and solitary reflection; home movies (i.e. those featuring beach scenes); fantasy; apocalypse and post-apocalypse; paradise and lost paradise; ceremonies, reunions and farewells.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Booker, Christopher. 2004. The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, James with Ron Powers. 2000. Flags of Our Fathers. London: Pimlico.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, Peter. 1984. Reading for the Plot: Design and Intention in Narrative. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chibnall, Steve. 2003. Get Carter. London: I.B. Tauris.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Corbin, Alain. 1994. The Lure of the Sea: The Discovery of the Seaside in the Western World, 1750–1840. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Maupassant, Guy. [1883] 1971. The Model. In Selected Short Stories. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, Wheeler Winston. 2006. Visions of Paradise: Images of Eden in the Cinema. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Du Maurier, Daphne. [1951] 1952. My Cousin Rachel. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durgnat, Raymond. 1967. Georges Franju. London: Studio Vista.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell, Henry. [1960] 1990. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? London: Xanadu Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleming, Andrew. 2003. Director’s commentary on The In-Laws. Warner Home Video (UK) Ltd. Region 2 DVD. Z1.24668.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, Graham. 2004. Birth. Sight & Sound (NS) 14 (12, December): 38–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garland, Alex. [1996] 1997. The Beach. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, Kathy Merlock. 1993. Frankie and Annette at the Beach: The Beach Locale in American Movies and Its Dominance in the 1960s. In Beyond the Stars: Studies in Popular American Film. Vol. 4: Locales in Popular American Film, ed. Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller, 121–135. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, Philip. 2002. The Son’s Room. Sight & Sound (NS) 12 (3, March): 56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kermode, Mark. 2003. The Shawshank Redemption. London: British Film Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C.S. [1950] 1959. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, C.S. [1952] 1995. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. London: Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macnab, Geoffrey. 2001. Possible Worlds. Sight & Sound (NS) 11 (8, August): 56–57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, Thomas. [1955] 1972. Death in Venice. English translation (1928) by H.T. Lowe-Porter of Der Tod in Venedig (1912). Harmondsworth: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, Cormac. [2006] 2010. The Road. London: Picador.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEwan, Ian. [2007] 2008. On Chesil Beach. London: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, Elaine. [1972] 1985. The Descent of Woman. London: Souvenir Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neale, Steve. 1982. “Chariots of Fire”, Images of Men. Screen 23 (3–4, September/October): 47–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paterson, Lucille. 2009. Key Moments in Australian Cinema: Romper Stomper. Senses of Cinema 32 (September). http://sensesofcinema.com/2009/key-moments-in-australian-cinema-issue-70-march-2014/romper-stomper-geoffrey-wright-1992/ (consulted 2-6-2015).

  • Pinkerton, Nick. 2019. Memoir of War. Sight & Sound (NS) 26 (6, June): 67–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Redmond, Sean. 2013. Death and Life at the Cinematic Beach. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 27 (5): 715–728. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2013.824857 (consulted 13-6-2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shute, Nevil. [1957] 1966. On the Beach. London: Pan Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tonetti, Clara. 1983. Luchino Visconti. Boston: Twayne Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, Michael. 2017. Modern Ghost Melodramas: What Lies Beneath. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wintle, Heather. 2013. “Everything Depends on Reaching the Coast”: Intergenerational Coastward Journeys in Contemporary Post-apocalyptic Cinema. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 27 (5): 676–689. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2013.824863 (consulted 13-6-2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London, UK

    Michael Walker

Authors
  1. Michael Walker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Walker, M. (2020). Beach Themes and Motifs. In: Endings in the Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31657-0_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation