10 Memorable Movie Beach Scenes

As summer continues, our weekly Movie Mezzanine list turns its attention to a popular seasonal destination, the beach. No matter where you  are in this world, the beach promises you sand, sunburn and summer lovin’ as soon as your bare feet step onto it. Like all East Coast states, my home state of New Jersey offers beautiful barrier islands for those looking to fry their complexions. I hope you’re lounging on a beach towel right now, and as you go from Crispin Glover to Wesley Snipes, check out our list of 10 memorable movie beach scenes.

10.) Planet of the Apes

Rod Serling’s 1968 adaptation of Pierre Boulle’s novel pits Chuck Heston’s overacting skills against a “buncha damn dirty apes” led by Dr. Zaius. The film’s big beach scene reveal was supposed to be a stunner—he’s on Earth!—but I’ve always found it hilarious. “You blew it up!” screams Heston, followed by a line I quote at least once a year in my writing: “Damn you! Damn you all to HELLLLL!” The disastrous remake (with Helena Bonham Carter playing Michael Jackson) would have worked better with Chuck’s fellow Republican, Ah-nuld Schwarzenegger instead of Marky Mark.

9.) Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Those battling divas, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, were well past their prime when Robert Aldrich plugged them into this fine bit of psychological horror. It’s a Grand Guignol bit of stunt casting, with Joan’s wheelchair-bound Blanche tormented by Davis’ sadistic Baby Jane. (“But ya AHHHHH in that chair, Blanche! Ya AHHHHH!”) You’d have to be Christina Crawford to not feel sorry for poor Joan, at least until you find out the true circumstances of the car accident that broke Blanche’s spine. Aldrich stages this final scene on the beach, with Blanche’s confession followed by Jane’s ice cream cone infused final descent into madness.

8.) Barton Fink

Writer’s block is only one circle of Hell visited by John Turturro’s titular character in the Coens’ third feature. Fink’s hotel is the site of all manner of horrors, the least of which is the décor. Fink is kept company at the Earle Hotel by a scary John Goodman and a picture of a woman on the beach. In the film’s final sequence, Fink wanders onto a beach in L.A. and inexplicably runs into an incarnation of the woman from the picture. Had Barton run into the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand, this scene would have made an equal amount of sense. Nevertheless, it’s a memorable moment.

7.) Girl Happy

I could have chosen any number of Beach Party movies from the 1960’s, from Beach Blanket Bingo to How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. Instead, I’m choosing Girl Happy, home of Elvis Presley’s most euphemistically dirty musical number. At a beach party, Elvis grabs his guitar and sings an atrocious ditty called “Do The Clam.” Preceding 2 Live Crew’s “Pop That Coochie” by 30 years, “Clam” hints at sexual activity while a slew of dancing kids become part of the Rhythmless Nation. Even Elvis’ body appears to be possessed by Pat Boone. The hilarious choreography must be seen to be believed, and watching this clip will cost you every ounce of Soul™ you have.

6.) Blood Beach

Blood Beach has a great title and an awesome poster whose tagline reads “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, you can’t get to it!” No film can live up to that, and Blood Beach doesn’t even try. The premise is ripe for Syfy channel remake: people are being pulled into the sand and eaten by a huge papier-mâché flower. When people aren’t suffering a fate worse than sand in one’s buttcrack, Burt Young earns a paycheck as an inept cop. Memorable scenes include a sand burial gone hilariously awry and a rare heroic moment for an 80’s era monster: the flower saves a woman from being raped by neutering her assailant.

5.) From Here To Eternity

Before it was a drink, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr embodied Sex on the Beach. Their iconic, uber-hot clench, complete with crashing tide and sweeping camera movement, raised the blood pressure of American audiences. It inspired numerous copycats, including two digs at it by Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker.

4.) Apocalypse Now

Robert Duvall’s Lt. Col. Kilgore loves the smell of napalm in the morning. “It smells…like victory!” he tells us. That speech on the beach, where Kilgore endorses both surfing and bombing the jungle (simultaneously!), is one of Duvall’s finest moments onscreen.

3.) Jaws

“That’s some bad hat, Harry!” a jittery Brody (Roy Scheider) tells an old-timer who ranks on him for avoiding the water. As numerous people obstruct Brody’s view with conversation, Spielberg’s camera keeps the background active. Like Brody, we’re looking for the shark; our eyes are drawn to what’s happening in the water. Spielberg ups the ante by sending a bunch of children into the ocean to frolic. Just when we think no director would be sadistic enough to kill a kid, Spielberg feeds one to Bruce the Shark. The shot of Brody’s reaction to this carnage mirrors our own shock.

2.)  8-1/2

If you  like thick women, Fellini’s the director for you. In 8-1/2, the acclaimed director embodies, in the fleshy guise of a woman named Saraghina, a teenage boy’s first true brush with carnality and lust. “La rumba, la rumba!” the teenage boys beg of the literally larger than life prostitute. As Saraghina dances on the beach, Fellini’s camera adores her,  worshipping her the way his young onscreen counterparts do. Saraghina is simultaneously terrifying and sexy, and though some may find her garishly unappealing, I think she deserves all the sexy glory Fellini affords her.

1.) Saving Private Ryan

Spielberg is back, with a far more realistic terror on the beach. The Omaha Beach invasion that opens this film won Spielberg his Oscar, and deservingly so. For 27 unrelenting minutes, Spielberg and his cin-togger Janusz Kaminski bombard us with graphic, horrific images of war. While no movie can accurately create what it’s like to be in battle, this unsparing sequence is as close as we can cinematically come.