From Here to Eternity (1953)

Star Rating: 3
Length of Film: 118 minutes
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Philip Ober, Mickey Shaughnessy, Harry Ballaver, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden, John Dennis, Merle Travis, Tim Ryan, Arthur Keegan, & Barbara Morrison
Oscars: Buddy Adler (best picture), Fred Zinnemann (director), Daniel Taradash (screenplay), Frank Sinatra (actor in support role), Burnett Guffrey (photography), william A. Lyon (editing), John P. Livadary (sound)
Oscar Nomination: Montgomery Clift (actor), Burt Lancaster (actor), Deborah Kerr (actress), Jean Louis (costume design, BW), Morris Stoloff & George Duning (music)

                            Sgt. Milton Warden- Burt Lancaster

    Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt-             Montgomery Clift















            Pvt. Angelo Maggio- Frank Sinatra

 





Karen Holmes- Deborah Kerr

                                      Alma 'Lorene' Burke- Donna Reed

Sgt. 'Fatso' Judson- Ernest Borgnine










From Here to Eternity is a movie based on James Jone's best seller about life on the U. S. Army base in 1941, right before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This movie has the following themes: adultery, prostitution, corruption, bullying, and murder.

The movie starts out with Sgt. Prewitt arriving at the Army base, led by Capt. Holmes, who knows about Prewitt's background in boxing. See...there's a competition among the regimental boxing club, with a competition nearing on December 15. Prewitt refuses, so Holmes decide to make his life a living hell. Sgt. Warden works in the office with Holmes, and has a crush on his wife, Karen. He acts on his feeling and they have an affair together. The iconic beach scene is supposed to be the highlight of the movie. Netflix advertises it as "one of the hottest love scenes in screen history". Let me straighten things out. THEY DO NOT HAVE SEX. They roll around in the sand, fully clothed, just kissing. It was HIGHLY disappointing.

I am so happy that Frank Sinatra won an Oscar. He played his role perfectly! He was the guy that took the newbie under his wing, introduced him to a "members only" club, where Prewitt met his girl.  Pvt. Maggio is a loud mouthed, prideful man, that smarted off to the wrong individual, Sgt. Judson. To make a long story short, Maggio got himself thrown in jail with Judson as Sergent of the Guard. UH OH!

The "members only" club, is a gentlemen's club, where women will be the man's girl for the night. Prewitt saw Lorene from afar and immediately fell for her, and vice versa, except their relationship...well, they're not on the same page. Here's a quote from Alma(Lorene), a very selfish, 'I'm better than you' comment, which made my jaw drop.

Alma: Prew, it's true we love each other now, we need each other, but back in the States it might be different.
Prewitt: That ain't the real reason.
Alma: You're right, it's not.
Prewitt: What is the real reason?
Alma: I - I won't marry you because I don't want to be the wife of a soldier.
Prewitt: Well, that... would be about the best I could ever do for you.
Alma: Because nobody's going to stop me from my plan. Nobody, nothing. Because I want to be proper!
Prewitt: Proper.
Alma: Yes, proper! In another year I'll have enough money saved. Then I'm going to go back to my home town in Oregon, and I'm going to build a house for my mother and myself, and join the country club and take up golf. Then I'll meet the proper man with the proper position, to make a proper wife, and can run a proper home and raise proper children. And I'll be HAPPY because when you're PROPER you're SAFE!
Prewitt: You've got guts, honey. I hope you can pull that off.
Alma: I do mean it when I say I need you. 'Cause I'm lonely. You think I'm lying, don't you?
Prewitt: Nobody ever lies about being lonely.

A lot of stuff happens in the movie, but I'm not going to tell you on my blog, you're going to have to watch the movie. I will tell you what pissed me off. From the quotes above, I took it as Alma turned down Prewitt's engagement. Well...in the end, she and Karen are on a boat, traveling to the mainland, and she tells Karen about her fiancé, how "he was an Army Air Corps pilot killed in a B-17 during the attack. He was awarded the Silver Star, they sent it to his mother. She wrote me. She wanted me to have it. They are very fine people, Southern people. He was named after a general. Robert E. Lee... Prewitt."

First off...Prewitt was not a pilot, two...Prewitts parents died, and that's why he joined the armed forces, so mom wouldn't have been able to write back to Alma, giving the silver star to her. I don't know if Alma was just trying to impress this stranger (Karen Holmes), or if screenplay just lacked on the specific details, either way I ended the movie feeling indifferent.

Frank Sinatra and Montgomery Clift make the movie. The relationship between them is so special, that they go to EXTREME lengths to save and protect one another. I hated both of the female castmates, they were both bitches and very spoiled, and not likeable. They walked all over their men, and got away with inappropriate behavior; one's a adulter and the other is a prostitute.

Like always, make your own opinion, and enjoy the show.