To savour the classic movie beach scene you have to go back more than fifty years to clock Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster rolling around in the surf in From Here To Eternity. He played a US sergeant enjoying some extra-marital naughties with his superior officer's roving wife (Kerr). Filmed on Hawaii, the on-screen chemistry between the two leads spilled over into their private lives when they became romantically involved. That sand does get everywhere, though...<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/From-Here-To-Eternity-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"From Here To Eternity"},{"captionHeading":"Dr No","caption":"
Every Bond fan of a certain age experienced a flutter when a dripping Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress) emerged from an azure-blue sea in THAT bikini and carrying a evil looking knife. She was a seashell collector (yes, really) who happened upon Sean Connery's 007 as he cased the Caribbean Crab Key base of the evil doctor. In 2003, the scene topped Channel 4's list of 10 sexiest scenes of film history and the bikini was later auctioned for $60,000. You could even forgive Bond for his blue towelling shorts when he replied to Honey's query: \"What are you doing? Looking for shells? His response?: \"No, I'm just looking!\"<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Dr-No-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Dr. No"},{"captionHeading":"Castaway","caption":"
Life was literally a beach for Oliver Reed and Amanda Donohoe when they wound up on a desert island off New Guinea for the 1986 movie Castaway. Donohoe played Lucy Irvine, a game waitress who answered an advertisement in Time Out for a \"wife for a year on a tropical island\". The bad news was that it was Gerald Kingsland, a 49-year-old writer and veteran of five marriages. Irvine was just 24. Even worse was the news that Kingsland was to be played by Oliver Reed. Both a failure as a social experiment and a movie, it is perhaps notable for being the rare shoot where Reed stayed sober. On camera, anyway.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Castaway-Oliver-Reed-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Castaway - Oliver Reed"},{"captionHeading":"Jaws","caption":"
A man-eating Great White Shark ended the beach party in Steven Spielberg's classic 1975 thriller Jaws. No-one quite conveys blind panic like the master...and a shoreline full of terrified bathers was one of the movie's iconic moments. Based on Peter Benchley's novel, it followed Roy Scheider's police chief as he failed to persuade the Amity Island town council not to close the beach thanks to the threat of the shark. In fact, the mass beach exodus on the Fourth of July was triggered by a prank, leaving the coast clear for the killer shark to make mincemeat of another victim elsewhere. It's still not safe to go back in the water...<\/p>","url":"2008/6/25/jaws-2.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Gallery Images"},{"captionHeading":"Atonement","caption":"
It was certainly no beach party for the ragged remnants of the British Expeditionary Force as they waited to be evacuated from Dunkirk during WWII. The 2007 film adaptation of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, featured a four and half minute tracking shot of the battle-weary troops awaiting evacuation (it was actually filmed at Redcar, North Yorkshire). In reality, almost 340,000 troops were picked up by a flotilla of 900 vessels, ranging from destroyers to pleasure cruisers in an operation that led to the phrase \"Dunkirk Spirit\".<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Atonement-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Atonement"},{"captionHeading":"Chariots of Fire","caption":"
As soon as you hear the synthetic twangs of Vangelis' Oscar-winning theme, you can picture slo-mo sprinters Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) hurtling through the surf. The scene was filmed at West Sands, St. Andrews (the last scene of the opening titles crosses the 1st and 18th holes at St. Andrews Golf Course). In a cheeky micky-take, one segment of Monsterpiece Theatre in Sesame Street was called Chariots of Fur and featured Grover and Herry Monster having a race down the beach.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Chariots-of-Fire-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Chariots of Fire"},{"captionHeading":"The Longest Day","caption":"
The three-hour 1962 dramatisation of the D-Day attack by Allied forces on the Normandy beaches featured an all-star cast with each nationality - French, British, American and German - represented by actors from that country. The decision led to some bizarre coincidences with 007 star Sean Connery (Britain) taking up arms against his Bond villains Curd Jurgens (Karl Stromberg) and Gert Frobe (Auric Goldfinger), both of German stock. Richard Todd, who plays Major John Howard, leader of the British Airborne assault on the Pegasus Bridge, took part in the real bridge assault on D-Day.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/LGthe-longest-day.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Longest Day"},{"captionHeading":"Y tu mamá también","caption":"
The mythical beach la Boca del Cielo - literally Heaven's Mouth - is the fabled place where young studs Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) tempt the nubile Luisa (Maribel Verdú), the cheated Spanish wife of Tenoch's cousin Jano. During the trip, she takes the opportunity to sleep with both boys individually until they really reach the coast where she has sex with them together. You really have to see the movie. The final, surf scenes were filmed at Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Y-Tu-Mama-Tambien-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Y Tu Mama Tambien"},{"captionHeading":"The Beach","caption":"
Would you take seriously the promise of an idyllic beach made by someone called Daffy? Well, little Len DiCaprio did in director Danny Boyle's adaptation of the Alex Garland novel. He ends up in a Thai island paradise...until Tilda Swinton's bossy hippy leader starts being horrid to him. Not happy with paradise as nature intended, 20th Century Fox bulldozed coconut trees and sand dunes and \"landscaped\" the beach setting of Ko Phi Phi Lee to make it easier on the eye. Four years later, the tsanami restored the beach to its original state. There is, it appears, a God.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/The-Beach-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Beach"},{"captionHeading":"Grease","caption":"
\"Summer loving had me a blast, summer loving happened so fast\". Well it did for seashore-frolicking twosome Danny Zuko (John Travolta) and Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) when they kick off their holiday romance on El Matador Beach, Malibu, California. It could have been worse - Henry \"The Fonz\" Winkler turned down the role because he feared getting typecast while Marie Osmond, a strict Mormon, rejected the part because she didn't like the fact that Sandy had to \"turn bad\" to get the boy. Apparently, Danny's blue windbreaker (pictured) was intended as a nod to Rebel Without a Cause. Cripes!<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Grease-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Grease"},{"captionHeading":"Whale Rider","caption":"
Enchanted cinemagoers were enthralled when \"whale rider\" Paikea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) mounted the seaborne mammal and took to the high seas in the thrilling climax of the Kiwi tearjerker. What they probably didn't know was that she couldn't swim...and most of here aquatic scenes were done by stand-in Waio Parata-Haua. Nevertheless, it didn't stop her picking up a best actress Oscar nomination. The key beach scenes were filmed at Taupo, Waikato, New Zealand, which also played host to, er, the classic comedy Without A Paddle.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Whale-Rider-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Whale Rider"},{"captionHeading":"Saving Private Ryan","caption":"
The twenty-four minute sequence depicting the D-Day Omaha landings has been lauded as one of the best battle scenes ever. Filmed by director Steven Spielberg on Ireland's Ballinesker Beach in County Wexford, it cost more than $6 million and involved 1,500 extras, including more than 20 amputees who were used to portray US soldiers maimed during the landing. Forty barrels of fake blood were used to simulate the effect of blood in the seawater.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Saving-Private-Ryan-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Saving Private Ryan"},{"captionHeading":"Planet of the Apes","caption":"
The 1968 sci-fi classic ended with a terrific twist revealed to the hero - Charlton Heston - on a deserted shore. Heston's character Taylor, a spaceman, had earlier crashlanded with his colleagues on a planet where apes had reversed the anthropological pecking order...and were now in charge. It was only when Heston's character trudged across the sand - filmed at Point Dume on Malibu's Zuma Beach - that he discovered the half-buried Statue of Liberty and realised he was still on Earth.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/The-Planet-of-the-Apes-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"The Planet of the Apes"},{"captionHeading":"Monsieur Hulot's Holiday","caption":"
French director Jacques Tati chose the seaside to introduce his classic comedy character Monsieur Hulot to the world. It follows the adventures of the pipe-smoking, well-meaning but clumsy everyman (played by Tati himself) as he spends the obligatory August break at a beach resort (actually Saint-Marc-sur-Mer in the Loire-Atlantique region). On the upside, his slapstick brushes with inanimate objects - a canoe, cabin full of fireworks, broken-down car - are inspired. On the downside, he did provide the inspiration for Mr Bean.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Monsieur-Hulot-s-Holiday-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Monsieur Hulot´s Holiday"},{"captionHeading":"Cast Away","caption":"
Tom Hanks landed a best actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a FedEx executive who finds himself on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific after his plane crashes. Adapting to the sandy wilderness (actually filmed on a remote island off Fiji) , he is soon drinking coconut water (and storing rain water in the discarded husks), fashioning a shelter out of his liferaft and even tailoring a pair of shorts out of palm leaves. He also starts talking to a volleyball called Wilson. Production was halted for a year so Hanks could lose fifty pounds and grow out his hair for the role.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Castaway-Tom-Hanks-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Castaway - Tom Hanks"},{"captionHeading":"Point Break","caption":"
Beloved of cult film geeks across the world, this half-baked thriller features Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent who goes undercover to infiltrate the local surfing community and identify a bankrobbing gang. Filmed on various Californian beaches (and Hawaii), it reinvented Patrick Swayze's career and has inspired the offbeat Point Break Live!, which each night features a new, unrehearsed \"Keanu\" picked at random from the audience. Apparently, the word f**k is said 105 times during the movie.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/11/Point-Break-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Point Break"},{"captionHeading":"Surf's Up","caption":"
Utilising the newly-minted benefits of computer-generated imagery, this cod documentary took a behind-the-scenes look at the annual Penguin World Surfing Championship, and its newest participant, up-and-comer Cody Maverick (Shia LaBeouf). The movie contained sly digs at other films ranging from Happy Feet to The Big Lebowski. Real-life surfers Kelly Slater and Rob Machado also appeared and provided voices for their penguin counterparts.<\/p>","url":"2008/7/14/Surfs-Up-1.jpg","width":570,"height":364,"alt":"Surf's Up"}];