It has perhaps aged poorly, but this languidly paced WWII romance remains an iconic, well-acted film, featuring particularly strong performances from Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift.
It has perhaps aged poorly, but this languidly paced WWII romance remains an iconic, well-acted film, featuring particularly strong performances from Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift.
The scene is Schofield Army Barracks in Honolulu, in the languid days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, where James Jones' acclaimed war novel From Here to Eternity brought the aspirations and frustrations of several people sharply into focus. Sergeant Milt Warden (Burt Lancaster) enters into an affair with Karen (Deborah Kerr), the wife of his commanding officer. Private Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is a loner who lives by his own code of ethics and communicates better with
his bugle than he does with words. Prew's best friend is wisecracking Maggio (Frank Sinatra, in an Oscar-winning performance that revived his flagging career), who has been targeted for persecution by sadistic stockade sergeant Fatso Judson (Ernest Borgnine). Rounding out the principals is Alma Lorene (Donna Reed), a "hostess" at the euphemistically named whorehouse The New Congress Club. All these melodramatic joys and sufferings are swept away by the Japanese attack on the morning of December 7. No words could do justice to the film's most famous scene: the nocturnal romantic rendezvous on the beach, with Burt Lancaster's and Deborah Kerr's bodies intertwining as the waves crash over them. If you're able to take your eyes off the principals for a moment or two, keep an eye out for George Reeves; his supporting role was shaved down when, during previews, audiences yelled "There's Superman!" and began to laugh. From Here to Eternity won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and supporting awards to Sinatra and Reed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Rapturously received from the moment it was released in 1953, From Here to Eternity remains, half a century later, a singular cinematic experience, one of the landmarks of American film.
Contemporary audiences may not see why, even in its toned-down simplification of the novel, From Here to Eternity was the most daring movie of 1953, but it remains an acting bonanza.
I have to say that Clift's plot is far less compelling than Lancaster's and something of the zip goes when Frank Sinatra disappears from the action, sent to the stockade. But what a punch this movie still packs.
Director Fred Zinnemann's powerful adaptation of James Jones's bestseller won eight Oscars, upset the military and resurrected the acting career of Frank Sinatra.
"If a man don't go his own way, he's nothin," says Montgomery Clift in the superbly realized melodrama, set at the oubtbreak of WWII, a motto that also sums up director Fred Zinnemann's belief system.
I think the reason that From here to Eternity is such a classic is down to the performances rather than the film itself. The story is actually quite wishy-washy and the characters, excluding Burt Lancaster's Private Robert E. Lee, aren't particularly well written, that is as far as the film is concerned. I feel a lot
was sacrificed in the adaptation of book into film but that said, I never really thought that much of the book anyway. Where the film does improve on the book however, is in the classic scenes - particularly the 'Beach' scene with Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster. Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift are the two shining stars of this film though and the two most convincing performances for sure. I don't think Deborah Kerr was given half the screen time she deserved and the film is all the worse for it. Overrated but still great.
an oldiie but a goodie a real "classic"~!!!
just look at the cast...Burt Lancaster Deborah Kerr Ernest Borgnine Donna Reed Frank Sinatra...wow~!!!
The film (and the book before it) tells the story of bored soldiers stationed in Hawaii in the six months or so before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
the actors all played there parts well in this one.Its a Romantic Masterpiece and more of a chick flick than a war movie in my opinion.
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