A different kind of war movie

Rating: 9/10 (4 October 2004)

For the first couple acts of "From Here to Eternity," you may wonder, justifiably, what the film is getting at. We all know the planes are on the way, but the film takes its time detailing the alternate drudgery and revelry of Army life in peacetime Hawaii. Company politics, love affairs, drunkenness, grudges--it's not that it's boring, because it's actually pretty effective drama. But it does seem petty given the impending disaster. I kept returning to the same thought--"This is very good, but not all-time great."
Ultimately, though, the point becomes clear. This is not a story about war at all, but about people. It does not treat Pearl Harbor as a monolithic tragedy, but rather a myriad of little individual tragedies, forgotten by history but no less significant.
The time spent on character development pays off. The film's final act is deeply moving, and communicates a profound and lasting statement about war. I was wrong--it IS an all-time great film, and one of the best examples of how a film can be more than the sum of its parts.
It's well-documented, also, that this is one of the great casts of all time.
Oscar nominees Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster are superb in their leading roles as apparent opposites--the rebel and the good soldier--who turn out to be kindred spirits. The young and gangly Frank Sinatra is funny and bursting with energetic charisma in his Oscar-winning character role, and Donna Reed (another Oscar-winner) shows us some stunning moments of desperation and passion. Did I mention Deborah Kerr and Ernest Borgnine?
Highly recommended--9 out of 10.