From Here to Eternity

Plot synopsis:
In 1941 Hawaii, Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is transferred from the Bugle Corps at Fort Shafter (giving up his corporal stripes) to a rifle outfit, Company "G," at Schofield Barracks on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. When Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes (Philip Ober) learns of his reputation as a talented boxer, he recommends that Prewitt join the regimental boxing club that he heads, and promises that Prewitt will be promoted to corporal or even sergeant, if he helps win the boxing trophy on December 15. For reasons unknown to the regiment Prewitt adamantly refuses. Holmes retaliates by making army life as miserable as possible for Prewitt hoping he will agree to box.Unable to break Prewitt, Holmes orders First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) to prepare court martial papers. Warden, however, knowing of Holmes' unfair treatment and realizing Prewitt is a thirty-year soldier (career soldier), suggests that he try to entice Prewitt to change his mind by doubling up on company punishment. The other non-commissioned officers assist in the conspiracy with brutal hazing rituals. Prewitt is supported only by his friend, Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra).Meanwhile, behind his commander's back, Warden begins an affair with Holmes' neglected wife Karen (Deborah Kerr). Sergeant Maylon Stark (George Reeves) has told Warden of Karen's many affairs with other soldiers at Fort Bliss, including his own. As their relationship develops, Warden asks Karen about her numerous affairs to test her sincerity with him. Karen relates that Holmes had been unfaithful to her most of their marriage. She lost a baby when Holmes came back from one affair drunk, and unable to assist her to the hospital. She then affirms her genuine love for Warden.Prewitt and Maggio spend their liberty time at the New Congress Club, a gentleman's club in downtown Honululu where Prewitt meets, and falls for, Lorene (Donna Reed), a local dancer and call girl. Prewitt confides to Lorene the reason he refuses to box for the company is that he blinded a close friend while sparring. Maggio encounters Sergeant 'Fatso' Judson (Ernest Borgnine), a crass and racist sergeant at the club. When Maggio complains that Judson's piano playing is interfering with his dancing, the two nearly come to blows. Maggio is told that Judson is the Sergeant of the Guard at the stockade.Later, at a tavern called "Choy's," located near the base, Judson sees Maggio holding a photograph of his family. Judson makes an inappropriate comment to Prewitt about Maggio's sister causing Maggio to smash a bar stool on Judson's head. Judson pulls a switchblade on Maggio, but Warden, sitting in a corner, intervenes to save Maggio by telling Judson that killing Maggio would "create two weeks of paperwork" for him. When the brutal Judson advances on Warden with the knife, Warden breaks a beer bottle in two and uses the jagged edge as a weapon. Judson retreats, throws down his knife and goes to the bar for a drink. However, he warns Maggio that sooner or later Maggio would end up in the stockade and he would be there waiting for him.A few days later, Karen tells Warden that if he became an officer, she could divorce Holmes and they could return to the States and marry. Warden is not keen on the idea because of his dislike of officers, but agrees to consider the matter.Prewitt manages a weekend pass, courtesy of Warden, and goes to meet Lorene who is too busy at the club to talk. However, she meets him later at a bar for a drink. He tells Lorene he loves the Army, and shows Lorene his prized possession, a bugle mouthpiece. He tells her, "I played taps last Armistice Day at Arlington National Cemetery. The President was there." Maggio then walks in drunk and in uniform, explaining that he was assigned to for guard duty that night, but deserted his post. Lorene encourages Prewitt to take Maggio back to the base. While Prewitt is calling for a taxi, Military Police arrive and arrest Maggio, and he is sentenced to six months in the stockade for desertion.Matters come to a head for Prewitt when Sergeant Galovitch picks a fight with Prewitt while on yard detail, and the two come to blows. At first, Galovitch repeatedly pummels Prewitt, who initially refuses to fight back, and then resorts to using only body blows. But as Galovitch and others watching continue taunting him, he begins boxing, hitting Galovitch in the face and nearly managing to knock him out before Holmes finally steps in and stops the fight. When Galovitch falsely accuses Prewitt of insubordination, Holmes is about to punish Prewitt again until the man in charge of the detail says that it was Galovitch, not Prewitt, who was spoiling for the fight. Instead of punishing Galovitch, Holmes abruptly lets him off the hook and disperses the crowd. The entire incident is witnessed by the base commander, who orders an investigation by the Inspector General. When Holmes' true intentions are revealed, the general orders a court-martial. When Holmes begs for an alternative, the commanding officer's aide suggests that Holmes resign his commission "for the good of the service" and leave the Army, which the general accepts with dispatch. Holmes' replacement, Captain Ross, orders that Sergeant Galovitch be demoted to private and put in charge of the latrine.One evening, a few weeks later, Maggio manages to escape from the stockade and find Prewitt. He tells of the abuse he endured by Judson, then dies in Prewitt's arms. The next morning, Prewitt plays taps as tears stream down his cheeks. Seeking revenge, Prewitt tracks down Judson in town and invites him into a back alley to talk, then attacks him. The two fight with switchblades, Prewitt using the very same switchblade Judson had pulled on Maggio earlier. Prewitt kills Judson, but not before sustaining a serious stomach wound. Prewitt goes into hiding at Lorene's apartment. Despite Prewitt's AWOL status, his platoon sergeant carries him "present" for three days at Warden's direction. Lorene, whose real name is Alma, tends to Prewitt's wounds.On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Enemy planes also attack nearby Wheeler Air Base as well as the barracks. Warden leads several of his men in battle by climbing to the roofs of the barracks and returns fire against strafing Japanese fighter planes, shooting down at least one of them.That evening, Prewitt, still weak from his unhealed wound, finds out about the attack over the radio, and attempts to return to camp under cover of darkness, despite protests from Lorene to wait until daylight. During the walk back to the barracks, Prewitt is spotted by several jittery sentries. He attempts to run instead of identifying himself and gets shot dead while running across a golf course. Warden arrives on the scene a few minutes later and identifies the body, laments Prewitt's stubbornness and states the irony that because of the attack, the December 15, 1941 boxing tournament is cancelled.Holmes' resignation results in Karen having to return to the States with him. When she finds out that Warden failed to apply for officer status, she realizes they will never be together.At the end, Lorene/Alma and Karen meet for the first and only time on a ship leaving for the mainland. Karen then tosses two leis into the water. She tells Alma, "If the leis go to shore, a person will return to Hawaii. If the leis float out to sea, a person will never return." Alma says she will never return, telling Karen that her fiancé was an Army Air Corps pilot killed in a B-17 during the attack, "he was awarded the Silver Star, they sent it to his mother. She wrote me. She wanted me to have it. They are very fine people, Southern people. He was named after a general. Robert E. Lee Prewitt." Karen recognizes Prewitt's name from conversations with Warden and is aware that Alma is lying about Prewitt's death, but she says nothing. Lorene holds Prewitt's treasured bugle mouth piece.

Tags: revenge, cruelty, murder

Review:
One of the big blockbuster best sellers of the post World War II years is James Jones's From Here to Eternity, a tale of the peacetime army in Hawaii before Pearl Harbor.
His faith in himself and Columbia Pictures and Fred Zinneman's faith in him netted him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, one of eight awards won by From Here to Eternity.By the way Sinatra credited both Lancaster and Clift in helping him through this film as a dramatic actor.
Actually its more of a soap opera with Burt Lancaster putting the make on Deborah Kerr and Frank Sinatra having a fight with Ernest Borgnine and Montgomery Clift having a tryst with Donna Reed, which brings me to the element of the movie that I really liked: Donna Reed's character.
As it turned out we got one of the best composition of actors in one film to have ever graced the screen.From Here To Eternity is a film about the lives and loves of a number of characters at Schofield Barracks-Pearl Harbor, just prior to the infamous attack by the Japanese that changed WW2.
Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden, Deborah Kerr, and Donna Reed all give performances that any other actor would be proud to have given.
From Here to Eternity stands in the tradition of The Best Years of Our Lives, Seven Samurai and The Godfather, of pictures with interwoven plots that have become classics thanks to strong screen writing, intelligent direction and powerful acting performances.Part of the reason From Here to Eternity works is because it is very quick in establishing its characters and plot lines.
The veteran director upended the western genre just a year earlier with the Gary Cooper classic "High Noon", and he places the same incendiary focus of character over action here, that is, until the inevitable climax which uses the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as a catharsis for the characters' dilemmas now dwarfed by the coming world war.Based on James Jones' epic novel, screenwriter Daniel Taradash manages to reduce the complexity of the book's themes without trivializing them, and then-offbeat casting enhances the movie immeasurably.
The dramatic thread to the film is Montgomery Clift's Prewett character and his relationships with the characters played by Burt Lancaster, the firm but fair sergeant himself drawn into a sexually charged relationship with his superior officer captain's disaffected wife, played against type by Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed as the "hostess" he falls in love with and especially Frank Sinatra's rascally but likable and always supportive Maggio.Sinatra famously begged for the chance to show his acting skill in a straight role to reignite his career and duly given the chance, he grabs it with both hands.
Lancaster and Kerr fire up the screen in their doomed relationship, especially in the famous scene by the crashing waves, Reed plays her part with admirable restraint but Clift's acting exceeds them all, whether in his reluctant fight scenes, blowing a bugle like Satchmo or playing a drunk after he's exacted revenge on Maggio's tormentor, played memorably by the recently deceased Ernst Borgnine.The action climax as the Japanese attack is thrillingly portrayed especially the high camera shots, although I would question the too obvious and thus jarring insertion of real footage of the actual attack.Controversial in its day for its unblinkingly honest depiction of the US army, it can be seen now as one of the best films of the 50's, a master class in dramatic narrative and character acting..
Fred Zinnemann's epic about the lead-up to Pearl Harbor, featuring excellent performances from young Montgomery Clift and Donna Reed, a knockout role for Sinatra, and that roll in the surf for Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr.From Here to Eternity is a potboiler which wears its heart on its sleeve.
********* From Here to Eternity (8/5/53) Fred Zinnemann ~ Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr.
Every acting job is measured and believable, whether Lancaster's just-let-me-do-my-job introverted bullheadedness to Kerr's not-quite-the-Captain's-slut-wife to Sinatra's multi-dimensional kid-from-home-with-an-irrational-chip-on-his-shoulder to Clift's I'm-smarter'n'subtler-than-James-Dean-defiance to Reed's putting-on-airs-(up)country-girl-at-heart...it's all there.
I would have to say, after reading James Jones' sprawling novel about the peacetime Army in the days before Pearl Harbor, that this is about as good an abridgment of his work as could have been made at the time.All of the most brutal prison stockade scenes have been removed (along with the coarse language), personalities have been softened to suit the censorship of the time (Donna Reed is a "hostess" instead of a whore), Warden's latent homosexuality is never mentioned, and yet--with all the deletions--Daniel Taradish has fashioned a very strong film script.As characters rebelling against authority, MONTGOMERY CLIFT and FRANK SINATRA do admirable jobs.
Clift is especially touching in his combination of toughness and the ability to show his tender side; Sinatra is well cast as Maggio and makes the most of a strong supporting role.As Karen, DEBORAH KERR has been reduced to a supporting character, but she effectively portrays a lonely woman who cannot stay immune to the charms of equally lonely soldiers.
Through this it makes for a compelling batch of stories; you have Lancaster as a sergeant who falls for the Captains wife (Deborah Kerr in a performance that is so intense at times it nears going into being too much, but she always keeps a scene and her delivery of these lines in check) and the conflict in whether to go for it in the 'after all this' thing; Pruitt (Clift), who this feels like the movie is more about than its top billed star, is filled with guilt and angst and should also be too much to take, but also finds those lines of keeping it compelling and interesting, full of pain and fury and all that, but also not going too far.The only one who may be having 'fun' up to a point is Sinatras Maggio, who becomes the brunt of racist remarks (damn you Ernest Borgnine, who's great in his few scenes by the way and cuts a mean impression), and is the first to drown himself in booze when it becomes clear life is being much too oppressive.
If there's anything flawed its minor, like leaving the Lancaster-Kerr relationship to the wayside for a good part of the run-time until returning to that in the third act.So if you only expect like the romance of that iconic bit on the beach you may be in for not so much disappointment but a heavier and more empathetic tale of soldiers and women and the problems in trying to be true to feelings when its not possible.
The two actors kissing are Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity.This is a WW2 movie, and one of the best classic war films, even though there are no scenes on the battlefield.
He himself always said he should have won his Oscar for The Man with the Golden Arm. Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster, while in very different situations in the film, both fall in love with women they shouldn't, and try to stand up for their convictions even when it's difficult.
It's great to see the different acting styles: Monty with the word "conflicted" tattooed on his forehead, and water boiling beneath his sensitive reserve, and Burt with gritted teeth and lava simmering beneath his strength.At the 1954 Oscars, the film swept Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Sound, Editing, Cinematography, and Supporting Actor and Actress awards.
By focusing on the romances of two military men, including a dangerous affair with a commanding officer's wife, "Eternity" serves up a lot more "Kings Row" than Battleship Row.The best thing in the movie for me, by far, is Montgomery Clift's performance as the central character, Pvt. Robert E.
Ernest Borgnine lends such menace to his first big role as prison sergeant "Fatso" Judson it's hard to believe he didn't go on to fame strictly as a cinematic heavy.Are the romances of Prewitt and Warden really so involving, or are they more like dead-end relationships that tie down the film for long stretches into exercises in alcoholic navel-gazing?
This is a film which still endures the test of time as it dramatically depicts the lives of a small circle of military personnel on the island of Oahu in Hawaii just prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which suddenly plunged the United States into World War II.
How can any viewer not be moved by the circumstances of people caught up with the comparatively insignificant crises of their everyday lives at the very moment when the Japanese are finalizing their surprising and devastating attack, the most serious strike on U.S. territory by a foreign government since the American revolution, right where these people are stationed?As much as I love Audrey Hepburn, I do not understand how she was able to beat Deborah Kerr's portrayal here for an Oscar in "Roman Holiday", a film that failed to inspire me in any way whatsoever.
Mix that with outstanding work by Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, and Donna Reed, as well as top notch direction and screenwriting, and you have the makings of a great film.
Frank Sinatra believed that this was not his greatest performance and confessed his dependence upon Clift's leadership in this picture.As good as the acting is, credit needs to be given to director Zinnemann for another superb product to add to all of the others, including "High Noon", "Man For All Seasons", "The Search", "Act of Violence", "Oklahoma", "Nun's Story", and "Julia", just to name a few.I very much appreciate the film's location of pre-statehood Hawaii and observe how much of the movie seemed to be produced at that magical time in the evening before the sun set.
Lee Prewitt: a loner with a troubled past, Burt Lancaster as Sgt. Warden: a tough, but understanding NCO, Deborah Kerr as Karen Holmes: the company commander's wife, and Frank Sinatra as Angelo Maggio: a wiry Italian fellow who befriends Prewitt and loves to drink.
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.
Solid direction from Fred Zinnemann.Superb performances by a great cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra - all five of them got Oscar nominations with Reed winning Best Supporting Actress and Sinatra Best Supporting Actor.
I never saw this movie until just a few years ago, and, again, over the 2015 Memorial Day Weekend, because I thought it was just another love story...but, it's much deeper and much more complicated than that.It 'is' a love story of new, dangerous, and, impractical love, but, it's also about personal problems; playing favorites and manipulation in the military; people finding themselves in places and situations they hadn't intended on and don't like; and, all at a time when the world was about to change forever.The star-studded cast is superb, although, ironically, 'many of them' were not first choice by the studio head.
Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra both took home Oscars but I feel that the film's other nominees (Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster & Deborah Kerr) were actually more deserving.
Ernest Borgnine dominated every scene he was in as Sgt. Judson, a vicious brute far from his Oscar winning character Marty or in TV's McHale's Navy (in 2010 he had five films in production and was 93!); Beautiful Deborah Kerr, previously known for her innocent, lady-like roles, got to play an unabashedly sexual woman, and a married one at that; Donna Reed, cast against type as a prostitute gives an honest and gut wrenching performance; And Frank Sinatra, cast against all prevailing wisdom, became a great actor overnight as the doomed Maggio.
it all came out in that amazing performance." In gritty, documentary-style and black-and-white photography, Fred Zinnemann (who had directed High Noon a year earlier) accurately captured the isolation and boredom of the military personnel in a close- knit Army barracks on the island of Oahu, combining social and military history with the drama of the personal lives of its main characters - an enlisted man and a neglected officer's wife, a prostitute and a military outcast.
Burt Lancaster is the army sgt who falls for the captains wife played by Deborah Kerr culminating in a classic love scene.
Donna Reed is the love interest as a hostess who Prewitt adores,Sinatra is his buddy who ends up in serious trouble All the acting is marvellous, its a great movie ,watch and enjoy hollywood at its very best How it all works out is really interesting, a quick mention for Ernie Borgine who is a bad guy..
All of these features led to a good entertainment and to one of the best films of all times.I would like to stress that Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster and Debora Kerr gave us a lesson about how to act, how to compose a character.
Lancaster and Clift lead a terrific cast which also includes legends such as Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, and Donna Reed (who is as beautiful as ever).
I think this is the best movie that i've ever seen about war.It's not telling the USA best or like that it's just about people.Love but every kind of love,friend love,lover love and army love,country love...Burt Lancaster,Frank Sinatra,Montgomery Clift,Deborah Kerr,Donna Reed even Ernst Borgnine did the best work of their lives...Fred Zinneman's masterpiece...If you are living in the world or you say i am a human ,you must watch this film...
But this movie is really more about the two sorry affairs taking place: the one between Sgt. Warden (Lancaster) and his captain's wife, Karen Holmes (Herr); and the other between Private Prewitt (Clift) and Lorene (Reed), a worker at a gentleman's-club-sort-of-place.Maybe I was misled in my expectations, but I thought a movie from the '50s would be a lot more cheerful than this.
The acting is superb too, none of the actors ranging from Burt Lancaster to Deborah Kerr, from Montgomary Clift to Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine give a bad performance.
The film pushes away at the edges of the Hays Code (Deborah Kerr really checks out Burt Lancaster as he's getting undressed  but you can't prevent people going for a swim) - but just when you think the film is doing an admirable job of showing the seamy side of humanity and building up to something powerful, it backs down as the boys predictably turn into heroes during the Pearl Harbor attack.The main theme, the hard-head holding out against authority, is the same as in Zinneman's A Man For All Seasons, another film full of squabbling men with a downbeat ending.
Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Montgomery Clift, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, and several others in supporting roles, my god.
One is between Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster) and his Captain's wife, (Deborah Kerr); and the other between Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) and Lorene (Donna Reed) a prostitute in a private club.The affair between Kerr and Lancaster happens very quick in the film and they are soon rolling on that famous scene in the beach very much on their first proper date and soon after having their first big bust up.The film does have other cross cutting story lines such as Captain Holmes trying to force Prewitt to join the army boxing team, his friend Maggio's (Frank Sinatra) rivalry with Fatso and then the outbreak of the Japanese attack and the soldiers engaging in action.The film has fine black and white photography and strong performances from the leads especially Lancaster, Clift, Kerr and Philip Ober as Captain Holmes.
Strangely I was not too enamoured with Sinatra and he won the best supporting actor Oscar for the role.The film actually does look rushed and also for a film set in Hawaii we see very few native Hawaiian characters in the movie, it might as well be any army base in the USA.However its an engaging melodrama even though you will kind of sense that this may not be a happy ever after tale..
Donna Reed also costars as a troubled love interest to Robert.Interesting, well acted and directed film has an overall story that relies too much on soap opera elements, which will seem pretty trivial by the time the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor(an exciting sequence).
Lancaster's performance is the better known today (because of his famous frolic with Kerr on the beach), but Clift exceeds him here in talent and depth of feeling.That said, Lancaster is very good as the second-in-command Milton Warden who falls in love with his senior's wife, Karen Holmes.
He proves himself as an inspiring leader of men when the barracks were under attack...Montgomery Clift gives, perhaps, the best performance of his career as the bugler-boxer soldier, whose convictions are stronger than 'The Treatment.'Deborah Kerr plays the cool and reserved young lady stimulating her feelings of love in different ways...Frank Sinatra is terrific in his rebellious role of Angelo Maggio...
Interwoven tales of two mismatched couples on Oahu: (1) dedicated soldier Montgomery Clift and ambitious hooker Donna Reed who wants to return to the states rich enough to snag a proper husband, and (2) authoritarian but sensitive top sergeant Burt Lancaster and self-pitying officer's wife, Deborah Kerr, who finds salvation in their love.Daniel Taradash adapted the screenplay from James Jones' immensely popular novel of the early 1950s, and the movie was directed by Fred Zinnemann.
Still, this was a fine showcase for such actors like Montgomery Clift, Bert Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, and Ernest Borgnine of which this was his first major film role.
And there isn't much war either, only when the film culminates with the Pearl Harbor attacks that the second romance between Montgomery Clift and Donna Reed (playing a prostitute) gets overly melodramatic.