life before war

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2011)

Fred Zinnemann's adaptation of James Jones's "From Here to Eternity" casts Montgomery Clift as a rebellious newcomer on a military base in Hawaii on the verge of the Pearl Harbor attack. The tension among the mixture of characters seems to foreshadow America's impending entry into World War II. While the most famous scene is Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's jaunt on the beach, equally important scenes take place in the nightclub: there's the hostility between Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine, but also what we learn about Donna Reed's character. You might say that "FHTE" depicts a microcosm of the United States leading up to WWII: all these different individuals, often hostile towards each other, see only one thing to do once the Japanese forces bomb Pearl Harbor. And the final scene looks like an allegory for everything that has taken place throughout the movie.
All in all, a very fine film.