A high-quality film that just didn't click for me

Rating: 6/10 (20 March 2020)

There are a bunch of stories all going on at the same time in From Here to Eternity. It becomes overwhelming at times trying to take it all in at once. It's not that I was confused, or didn't follow any of the stories, because I thought they were all told well. In fact, I think most of this stuff comes together at the end to make a good cohesive film. However, when we're bouncing around getting snippets of each character's story, I started to feel overloaded with the drama and desired a bit more focus. I do think, now that I see how it all links up in the end, I might enjoy it more on a second watch. This is a well-told story, and I have a feeling the novel might be even better because the author would have more pages to tell each story that the director had to condense into 2 hours of film.
The cast of From Here to Eternity is amazing. I was particularly impressed with Montgomery Clift. He brings a lot of heart to the film, and has a challenging part to play. I totally connected with his emotional journey as he resisted the pressure to go back to boxing, even when it meant he would have to endure punishment and ridicule. His choices later in the film all made sense to me, because of this difficult journey. I also thought Frank Sinatra's subplot opposing Ernest Borgnine was powerful. Surprisingly, the romance between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr that leads to the most famous scene in the film, was probably the least interesting aspect to me. Before going in, I thought the entire movie was going to be about them, and by the end I found their story underwhelming. However, it's hard to point to one thing that I found bad about From Here to Eternity. It's a high-quality film, and I think over time it will go up in my estimation. I can certainly see why others love it.