Oh, There's Still Time Brother

In Stanley Kramer’s film, On the Beach, adapted from Nevil Shute’ novel there is a scene at the end of an empty city street in Sydney, in Australia. In my mind I always see that scene with a Salvation Army band playing There’s Still Time Brother in the background. The film begins at the end of nuclear war where Australia is the only place still inhabited. Basically, it is about knowing the end is coming and how each of the characters played out that time. In the last scene, the radiation has spread to Australia and there is no one left. Actually it is just a scene of the empty street, no Salvation Army band, no background of There’s Still Time Brother.

Debi invited me to join her today for a photo shoot of empty streets. We shot lots of photographs—all without people—but this is the only shot that I actually took of an empty street, sans people and traffic in downtown Houston.

”Oh, there’s still time brother, to love one another, There’s still time brother for you to make a mends.” Someplace in the film a Salvation Army band does play and sing this. It’s just not where I remember it. I like my ending better than Kramer’s even though it really doesn’t make sense because at that point there was no time left.  

 
It was a cold, wet day and we might not have shot a lot of what we went out to shoot but we had a great time. It sure beat last Christmas Day in the Houston Arboretum alone and I got a lot more photographs this time.