Peacetime army in Hawaii

Rating: 10/10 (19 August 2006)

This film is another reason "Pearl Harbor" seems so silly. "From Here to Eternity" is indeed filled with romance, but "Pearl Harbor" can only be categorized as a chick-flick, schlock fest, mercifully interrupted by a Japanese air raid. Both films have to do with the attack on Pearl Harbor, but, "From Here to Eternity" does it with an unanticipated, left hook. The victims of Pearl Harbor were never prepared. Perhaps the several, very involving plots in the story were contrived to make us unprepared. The attack by Japanese planes on the army barracks is realistic, even on the emotional level. But, the scene that will forever stand out for me is the knife fight between Pruitt(Clift)and Fatso(Borgnine). Shot through a dark, Honolulu alley, with the music of bars and dance halls in the background, and with very little camera action, we can only imagine and wait, mesmerized in anticipation. This scene sold me on film as a valid art form. It illustrates the vastness of technique that is possible within film to portray any given idea. In this duel to the death scenario, the idea was masterfully depicted without the graphics that would predictably be used today as an attempt to enhance the same idea.