Stóra-Sandvík

Background

History & Background

Stóra-Sandvík has long been a coastal stopping place on western Reykjanes, but it gained international film significance in 2005. Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers production used the beach extensively to recreate Iwo Jima. Icelandic contemporary reporting places filming during summer 2005, with the final Icelandic filming day in early September. NAT states that almost one third of the film was shot at Sandvík over just more than a month. The location was also connected with Eastwood's companion film Letters from Iwo Jima, which depicts the battle from the Japanese perspective. Both films were released in 2006. Following the production, restoration work was undertaken so the beach would return to its natural appearance.

Stóra-Sandvík is a wide black-sand cove on the western edge of the Reykjanes Peninsula, south of Hafnaberg and close to the Bridge Between Continents. The dark beach, grassy dunes and open Atlantic horizon make it one of the more distinctive coastal stops on this side of Reykjanes. Nearby, Hafnaberg ends in faulted sea cliffs, while south of the bay lies Stampahraun, created by eruptions along a roughly seven-kilometre crater row around eight centuries ago. Stóra-Sandvík also became one of Iceland's most important major-film locations. During summer 2005, Clint Eastwood and an international production team used the black-sand beach to recreate the volcanic shores of Iwo Jima for Flags of Our Fathers. The location was chosen because its dark sand and stark volcanic setting could convincingly stand in for the Japanese island where one of the defining battles of the Pacific War took place in 1945. The Icelandic production was enormous. Contemporary reporting describes hundreds of people involved, with landing craft, military vehicles, explosions, helicopters and ships used to stage the invasion sequences. The Icelandic Coast Guard supported the shoot, with patrol vessels positioned off Stóra-Sandvík. NAT records that almost one third of Flags of Our Fathers was filmed at Sandvík over just more than a month, while local reporting places the final Icelandic filming day in early September 2005. Sandvík also appears in Eastwood's companion film Letters from Iwo Jima, released later in 2006. That film tells the same battle largely from the Japanese perspective. Sources on Icelandic film locations note that battle material and explosion scenes for the companion production were also filmed at Sandvík, meaning the same Reykjanes beach helped represent Iwo Jima from both sides of the conflict. Today there is little to suggest that such a large Hollywood production occupied the beach. After filming, restoration work was carried out to return the landscape as closely as possible to its original condition. Visitors can therefore experience Stóra-Sandvík again primarily as a wild Atlantic beach — while knowing that the quiet black sand once hosted tanks, landing craft, hundreds of extras and one of the largest film productions undertaken in Iceland at the time. The Atlantic surf can be dangerous. Keep well back from the water in rough conditions, do not treat the beach as a swimming location and avoid damaging dunes or other fragile coastal vegetation.