ON CHESIL BEACH

Name: ON CHESIL BEACH
Item: ON CHESIL BEACH
Author: Admin

"Social and Moral Gibberish"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

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Sex
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What You Need To Know:

ON CHESIL BEACH follows the love story of a young couple, portrayed through flashbacks, on their wedding night. As the chaste couple eats dinner, they experience the anticipation, awkwardness and fear of consummating their marriage. That effort hits a huge snag. This leads to a flashback about how they met, how they fell in love, and how their past lives shaped their character. When the consummation of their marriage fails, it leads to a conversation about what an intimate relationship in marriage should be.

ON CHESIL BEACH sometimes beautifully communicates the emotions of pure, first love and the changes in social mores in the 1960s. The young couple is obviously in love, despite their differences. After the disastrous wedding night, however, the movie argues people should be able to have other partners, even if they’re married. Thus, ON CHESIL BEACH has a Romantic, lawless worldview attacking traditional views of sex and marriage, though one character does uphold the traditional view. Ultimately, despite the movie’s positive depiction of two people falling in love, MOVIEGUIDE® finds the primary message of ON CHESIL BEACH unacceptable.

Content:

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Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong Romantic, politically correct worldview is encouraged in this movie as self-fulfillment is found to be the measure of morality and a justification of unmoral choices, plus divorce is justified, as is the “Sexual Revolution,” which is positively depicted as liberating and more psychologically and socially sound, and the idea of having multiple sex partners, but one character does support the traditional view of marriage;

Foul Language:

Three obscenities and references to male private parts are used several times in one featuring a sex manual scene;

Violence:

A brief fistfight occurs in one scene;

Sex:

Strong and light sexual content includes references to male private parts used several times in one scene featuring a sex manual where a woman is seeking to know what to expect on her wedding night, a group of college students talk about sex in a brief bar scene, sexual tension on a couple’s wedding night is communicated through looks, husband reaches up wife’s skirt on their wedding night and tries to unzip her dress and dresses himself down to only his tux shirt and lies on top of wife, a scene in the 1970s shows two women leaning on ex-husband’s shoulders and alludes to their role as his potential sexual partners, and two flashback scenes imply a father abused his daughter, but nothing is shown;

Nudity:

Husband’s mother is seen naked in their backyard because she’s lost her mind, mother is later seen topless while painting, couples make out in a movie theater as black and white images of naked women flash on the screen, and woman wearing lingerie looks at herself in a mirror;

Alcohol Use:

A man after his wedding night is seen getting drunk in order to forget all that happened (the drunkenness is neither glorified nor condemned) and woman’s father is portrayed once as having a problem with alcohol, but his drunkenness is seen as nefarious;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Smoking in a bar scene by background characters; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Woman’s relationship with her mother is strained (it’s based on success and future prospects rather than a loving and tender relationship), and woman’s alcoholic father has anger issues and is abusive.

More Detail:

ON CHESIL BEACH is a romantic drama, set in England in 1962 on the cusp of the “Sexual Revolution,” about the romance of a chaste couple, whose marriage totally disintegrates on their wedding night. ON CHESIL BEACH is a carefully constructed drama that often captures the softness and delicacy of a first love, but it falls apart during the third act and has a Romantic, politically correct view of marriage and romance that favors the alleged “openness” of the Sexual Revolution, which, in reality, has been a disaster for society, especially for children, teenagers and young adults, as well as the institution of marriage.

Like the author of the novel on which the movie’s based, Director Dominic Cooke centers the story around one scene, the wedding night of Florence and Edward. As the virginal couple eats dinner, they experience the anticipation, tension, awkwardness, and fear of consummating their marriage for the first time. That effort hits a huge snag, which leads to a flashback about how they met, how they fell in love, and how their past lives shaped them into the person they came to be as they begin their honeymoon. When the consummation of their marriage fails, it leads to a conversation about what a sexual relationship in marriage should be.

For the most part, ON CHESIL BEACH is beautifully made except for the third act. Director Dominic Cooke subtly captures the softness and delicacy of a first and pure love through mood, the cinematography, sets, and the visual, dramatic arrangement in each scene. He also displays a skillful use of music, including classical music, rock n’ roll, or no music at all. Though the production is exceptional, the ending leaves viewers wanting more character and plot development, especially when certain choices by the characters appear to come from nowhere and don’t align with what the movie previously reveals. Also, the movie spends lots of time developing Florence and Edward’s past, but the ending, which jumps ahead to 1975, lacks the same heart, nuance and depth.

Most of the movie presents marriage in a traditional manner, as being between one man and wife who commit their lives to one another forever, both body and soul. The young couple is obviously in love, though their families that forged their character are clearly different. After the disastrous wedding night, however, the movie argues that people should be able to have other partners, even if they’re married. This, of course, is social and moral gibberish.

Ultimately, therefore, despite the movie’s positive depiction of two people falling in love and then getting married, ON CHESIL BEACH has a Romantic, lawless worldview attacking traditional views of sex and marriage. Eventually, it extols the “Sexual Revolution” and its destruction of these traditional views, although the movie never gets extremely graphic or lewd. One character in the movie, though, does uphold the traditional view of marriage.

OIN CHESIL BEACH also contains brief foul language and a crude reference to a man’s private parts. Also, there are two scenes where the man’s brain-damaged mother is shown either fully naked or topless. Violence is kept to a minimum, involving one brief fistfight. Finally, there are allusions to the bride having been sexually abused by her father. In fact, it’s partly that abuse that comes between her and her new husband, separating them forever.

Ultimately, MOVIEGUIDE® finds the primary message of ON CHESIL BEACHJ unacceptable. The movie also contains some gratuitous objectionable content.

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What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.