Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Finding the beach from From Here to Eternity (1953)

Carlos and I recently went to Oahu, Hawaii for our Honeymoon. We mostly took it easy on our trip but we also had a lot of fun finding filming locations. One of the ones we searched for was the beach in the famous kissing-crashing-waves scene from the film From Here to Eternity (1953).

The famous scene was shot at Halona Cove which is a very small beach in between huge lava rock formations. Right next to the beach is the famous Halona Blowhole. You can find the cove and the blowhole on the Southeast side of Oahu at Hanauma Bay.




When we first encountered Halona Blowhole observation area, I immediately started looking for the beach. I was on the wrong side and couldn't quite make out where it was exactly until Carlos pointed out that the beach was on the other side of the observatory.



There it is!


But geez, it's quite a climb down. I was too nervous to go down the rocks to see the beach up close. I don't know how they even got the film crew down there! You can't bring a boat up to the beach. It's way too narrow and rocky. They had to climb down quite a ways from the main road.




See the road behind Burt Lancaster? On the right is the parking lot and observation pier. We jumped a fence and climbed down all those rocks to get to the beach. It took two visits for me to get the courage to try it. I figured I would regret it if I didn't at least give it a shot.


I get dizzy just looking at this picture!








And here it is! The famous spot on the beach where Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster rolled around in the sand, wrapped in each other's arms and locked in a deep kiss as a big wave washed over them. A couple friends of mine suggested that Carlos and I recreate the scene. There were at least 50 people there swimming and sunning. I would have felt really foolish trying that in front of all those people!








I was so excited to find this beach! It's amazing how familiar the beach seemed even though I had never been there and my only knowledge of it was from the film. As soon as I was on the beach I just knew this is where the famous scene was filmed.






Right here!




Here is a short video I shot on my iPhone of Halona Cove. Enjoy!


Popular Posts

 Twitter   Instagram   Facebook