# From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity is a 1953 film set in 1941 Hawaii, in which a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.
    Directed by Fred Zinnemann. Written by Daniel Taradash, based on the novel by James Jones.

## Dialogue

    Pvt. Prewitt: A man don't go his own way, he's nothing.
    Sgt. Warden: Maybe back in the days of the pioneers a man could go his own way, but today you got to play ball.
    Karen: Come back here, Sergeant. I'll tell you the story; you can take it back to the barracks with you. I'd only been married to Dana two years when I found out he was cheating. And by that time I was pregnant. I thought I had something to hope for. I was almost happy the night the pains began. I remember Dana was going to an officers' conference. I told him to get home early, to bring the doctor with him. And maybe he would have... if his "conference" hadn't been with a hat-check girl! He was drunk when he came in at 5 AM. I was lying on the floor. I begged him to go for the doctor, but he fell on the couch and passed out. The baby was born about an hour later. Of course it was dead. It was a boy. But they worked over me at the hospital, they fixed me up fine, they even took my appendix out - they threw that in free.
    Sgt. Warden: Karen...
    Karen: And one more thing: no more children. Sure I went out with men after that. And if I'd ever found one that...
    Sgt. Warden: Karen, listen to me, listen.
    Karen: I know. Until I met you I didn't think it was possible either.
    Karen: [about papers Milton brought to her] Are these really important?
    Sgt. Warden: Yes, but not important they get signed today. Tomorrow's okay.
    [She rips them up]
    Sgt. Warden: I have copies at the office, so it won't be much work to fix 'em up.
    Karen: That's what I like about you, Sergeant: you have confidence. It's also what I dislike about you.
    Sgt. Warden: It's not confidence, ma'am; it's honesty. I just hate to see a beautiful woman going all to waste.
    Karen: Waste, did you say? There's a subject I might tell you something about. I know several kinds of waste, Sergeant. You're probably not even remotely aware of some of them. Would you like to hear? For instance, what about the house without a child? There's one sort for you. Then there's another... You're doing fine, Sergeant. My husband's off somewhere, and it's raining outside, and we're both drinking now. You've probably only got one thing wrong. The lady herself. The lady's not what she seems. She's a... washout, if you know what I mean... and I'm sure you know what I mean!
    Sgt. Warden: You going to cry?
    Karen: Not if I can help it. What are you doing?
    Sgt. Warden: I'm leaving. Isn't that what you want?
    Karen: I don't know, Sergeant. I don't know.
    [He kisses her]
    Karen: Don't try to be gallant, Sergeant. If you think this is a mistake, come right out and say so... Well, I guess it's about time for me to be heading home, isn't it?... Well, isn't it?
    Sgt. Warden: What's the matter? What started all this, anyway? You think I'd be here if I thought it was a mistake? Taking a chance on 20 years in Leavenworth for making dates with the company commander's wife? And her acting like - like Lady Astor's horse, and all because I got here on time!
    Karen: Well, on the other hand, I've got a bathing suit under my dress...
    Sgt. Warden: Me too!
    Karen: I never knew it could be like this! Nobody ever kissed me the way you do.
    Sgt. Warden: Nobody?
    Karen: No, nobody.
    Sgt. Warden: Not even one? Out of all the men you've been kissed by?
    Karen: [giggling] Now that'd take some figuring. How many men do you think there've been?
    Sgt. Warden: I wouldn't know. Can't you give me a rough estimate?
    Karen: Not without an adding machine. Do you have the adding machine with you?
    Sgt. Warden: I forgot to bring it.
    Cpt. Holmes: You know why you were assigned to G Company?
    Pvt. Prewitt: No, sir.
    Cpt. Holmes: I pulled a few strings. I'm the regimental boxing coach, you know.
    Pvt. Prewitt: Yes, sir.
    Cpt. Holmes: I saw your fight with Connors in the Bowl, year before last. You should've won it.
    Pvt. Prewitt: Thank you, sir.
    Cpt. Holmes: Our regiment got beaten in the finals last December, but I mean to win this year. All I've needed is a top middleweight.
    Pvt. Prewitt: I'm sorry, sir. I quit fighting.
    Cpt. Holmes: Quit fighting? When? What for?
    Pvt. Prewitt: Well, over a year ago. Maybe you heard about what happened with Dixie Wells?
    Cpt. Holmes: You mean that fellow that got hurt?
    Pvt. Prewitt: Yes sir.
    Cpt. Holmes: Yes, I heard about that. It's too bad. I can understand how you feel, but those things happen.
    Pvt. Prewitt: That's WHY I decided I would quit, sir.
    Cpt. Holmes: You might as well say stop war because one man got killed!
    Alma: Prew, it's true we love each other now, we need each other, but back in the States it might be different.
    Pvt. Prewitt: That ain't the real reason.
    Alma: You're right, it's not.
    Pvt. Prewitt: What is the real reason?
    Alma: I - I won't marry you because I don't want to be the wife of a soldier.
    Pvt. Prewitt: Well, that... would be about the best I could ever do for you.
    Alma: Because nobody's going to stop me from my plan. Nobody, nothing. Because I want to be proper!
    Pvt. Prewitt: Proper.
    Alma: Yes, proper! In another year I'll have enough money saved. Then I'm going to go back to my home town in Oregon, and I'm going to build a house for my mother and myself, and join the country club and take up golf. Then I'll meet the proper man with the proper position, to make a proper wife, and can run a proper home and raise proper children. And I'll be HAPPY because when you're PROPER you're SAFE!
    Pvt. Prewitt: You've got guts, honey. I hope you can pull that off.
    Alma: I do mean it when I say I need you. 'Cause I'm lonely. You think I'm lying, don't you?
    Pvt. Prewitt: Nobody ever lies about being lonely.
    Karen: Why don't you tell the truth, you just don't want the responsibility. You're probably not even in love with me.
    Sergeant Warden: You're crazy! I wish I didn't love ya; maybe I can enjoy life again.
    Pvt. Maggio: I just hate to see a good guy get it in the gut.
    Cpl. Buckley: You better get used to it, kid. You'll probably see a lot of it before you die.
    Sgt. Karelsen: I'm getting sick and tired watching you being a stooge for Holmes.
    Sgt. Warden: You won't see it much longer. I'm getting sick and tired of it myself. I'm through, Pete. Any day now. And I mean it.
    [Sgt. Karelsen laughs]
    Sgt. Warden: Listen, if Holmes let me, I'd transfer out of here tomorrow. Half a dozen companies in this regiment would grab me, and in grade, too.
    Sgt. Karelsen: Oh, sure. I could be Chief of Staff, too. Only I just can't think of leaving my old buddies.
    Sgt. Warden: Where're you going, Little Sir Echo?
    Sgt. Karelsen: To take my shower, if the stinking First Sergeant has no objections. Where do you think? To the movies in this towel?
    Sgt. Warden: Hurry up. We'll get some beer.
    Sgt. Karelsen: I wouldn't drink with you if it was the last beer in the world.
    Sgt. Warden: I'm buying.
    Sgt. Karelsen: That's different.

## Taglines

* The boldest book of our time... Honestly, fearlessly on the screen!
* Pouring out of impassioned pages...brawling their way to greatness on the screen!

## Cast

* Burt Lancaster - First Sergeant Milton Warden
* Montgomery Clift - Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt
* Deborah Kerr - Karen Holmes
* Donna Reed - Alma 'Lorene' Burke
* Frank Sinatra - Private Angelo Maggio
* Philip Ober - Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes
* Mickey Shaughnessy - Corporal Leva
* Harry Bellaver - Private First Class Mazzioli
* Ernest Borgnine - Staff Sergeant James R. "Fatso" Judson
* Jack Warden - Corporal Buckley
* George Reeves - Sergeant Maylon Stark
* Claude Akins - Sergeant 'Baldy' Dhom

## External links

* From Here to Eternity quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* From Here to Eternity at Rotten Tomatoes