melodramatic epic

Rating: 6/10 (13 December 2014)

It's 1941 Hawaii. Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) transfers to Schofield Barracks from a bugler company dropping down to Private. Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra) is his only friend. Captain Holmes (Philip Ober) wants Prewitt to box for him but he refuses after injuring his best friend. Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) is the real backbone of the company who tells Prewitt to smarten up. The whole company under Holmes is pressuring Prewitt to fight. Warden starts an affair with Captain Holmes' wife Karen (Deborah Kerr). Prewitt meets hostess Lorene (Donna Reed) at the New Congress Club.
It's a big romance melodrama epic. My biggest problem is that there are too many leads. Montgomery Clift is the supposed lead but he gets overtaken by Burt Lancaster. There is a little too much going on in this movie and feels overcrowded. Lancaster is terrific. Clift is a bit too pensive. He could do better with a more damaged suffering personality. I just think the various story lines keep stepping on each other.