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110 comments in total

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47 out of 66 people found the following comment useful :-
Montgomery Clift shines From Here to Eternity, 19 July 2005

Author: nawknek from United States

"From Here to Eternity" contains the best performance delivered by an actor of any gender on celluloid. Montgomery Clift is assertive, funny, tough, sensitive and charismatic in the pivotal role of Robert E. Lee Prewitt, the rebellious loner with the streak of nobility. It is easy to see why James Dean idolized him after seeing his portrayal in the film. It is also a shame modern actors don't mention his name more often when listing their influences. As often noted, he preceded Brando by two years (he first appeared in Red River, released in 1948; Brando bowed in The Men in 1950)and created the arch-type of the 1950's rebel. But due to his intelligence, Clift also informed his characters with a sense of purpose. He didn't simply rebel. For instance, in Eternity, he apologises after an angry outbreak at his girlfriend. Instead of appearing weak, he impressed me all the more for doing so. It makes him appear more mature than the typical rebel. In another instance, when he feels his friend Maggio is being unfairly attacked, he "stares down" the attacker proving he looks out for his friend, another attractive quality. When the non-coms dole out extra punishment to him to force him to box, he refuses to file a complaint but likewise refuses to comply to their demands. Such moments distinguish Clift from other, more typically macho Hollywood leading men of the era and contributed greatly to Eternity's long initial run at the box office and its status as a classic piece of Hollywood cinema. It is time someone set the record straight and restored Montgomery Clift's name to its rightful place in the pantheon of Hollywood's great leading men. For proof, look no further than From Here to Eternity.

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43 out of 59 people found the following comment useful :-
The definitive Pearl Harbor film, 26 October 2001

Author: John L. Pestka (jlp) from Las Vegas, NV

Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor" is so inferior in every aspect of filmmaking to "From Here to Eternity" that the two films shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence together. "From Here to Eternity" boasts an absolutely legendary cast that delivers one of the finest composite performances of all time. Just try comparing Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift to Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett - not even close to a fair fight. Throw in Frank Sinatra in an Oscar winning supporting role and you've got a classic that truly stands the test of time. The tight script portrays real, fleshed-out relationships that are equal parts passionate and tragic. And both Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed are luminous. For some reason this film gets ignored or forgotten when the greatest films of all time are mentioned; all you need to do is watch it again after "Pearl Harbor" and you'll realize what a mistake that is. "From Here to Eternity" easily stands with the greatest films in history.

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49 out of 71 people found the following comment useful :-
A Realistic View of the Army, 2 September 2005

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

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. The book was definitely going to be made into a film and it was only a question of casting to make it a success.

Director Fred Zinneman had a good intuitive sense about casting here, even against type. The two principal female parts were done against type. Deborah Kerr who made a career of playing respectable women played a captain's wife who's drinking and playing around. Not that husband Philip Ober is letting grass grow under his feet either, but Kerr's latest sexual exploit involves her with the First Sergeant of her husband's company, Burt Lancaster.

Donna Reed, who up to that point was best known for being Mary Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life, plays a prostitute here. A girl from the wrong side of the tracks, jilted by a rich boyfriend stateside, she's in Hawaii to make money and then go home and buy some respectability. She's not looking for romance with any soldiers, but you can't plan these things.

Especially Montgomery Clift if he comes in your life. It's been argued that this is Clift's greatest role and a case can sure be made for it. His character of Robert E. Lee Pruitt is like so many who still join the army today, from small town America who have no future there and find a home in the Armed Services. What makes Clift unique is that strong sense of individualism he can't control in an organization that does not encourage individuality.

Clift and Lancaster are a great study in contrasts and that's what drives From Here to Eternity. Lancaster as Sergeant Milt Warden is the ultimate professional soldier, held in the highest regard by his men. Lancaster is someone who knows how to work the system, you see it in the way he manipulates his captain. Of course he's got to be a manipulator there since he's having an affair with Deborah Kerr. He tries to protect Clift from himself and ultimately fails.

Clift has transferred into an infantry company and he was at one time a boxer. But he blinded someone in a fight and quit boxing. Philip Ober who prides himself on having several champions in various weight classes worked to get Clift in his company. Clift upsets his plans by refusing to box so he has the various sergeants give him "the treatment."

Clift's best friend in the company is a tough street wise soldier from the big city named Angelo Maggio, played by Frank Sinatra. Sinatra read the book and knew this part was for him. He did everything he had to do to get that part, including working for scale. At the time Sinatra was considered a has been as singer and actor. Sinatra was right on the money in terms of picking a role. 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. Lancaster and Sinatra didn't inhabit the same Hollywood orbit, but they remained friends for life. The same could not be said for Clift. Allegedly, some five or six years after From Here to Eternity and after Monty Clift's automobile accident while shooting Raintree County, Clift at some party at Sinatra's made a drunken pass at one of Sinatra's retainers. That got him kicked out of Sinatra's circle permanently.

In fact From Here to Eternity was also the Best Picture of 1953, with Zinneman getting his second Best Director Oscar in a row after the one he took home in 1952 for High Noon. Donna Reed won for Best Supporting Acress. Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift were both nominated for Best Actor, but split the vote allowing William Holden to win for Stalag 17. Another great acting job itself. And Kerr was up for Best Actress, but lost to Audrey Hepburn for Roman Holiday.

From Here to Eternity is a film loaded with good actors in small roles who got their first notice in this film. Ernest Borgnine, Robert J. Wilkie, Claude Akins, Jack Warden, Mickey Shaughnessy, all play various soldiers and each one is memorable. Especially Borgnine as the vicious sadistic sergeant of the stockade.

TV's Superman was in From Here to Eternity also. George Reeves who was looking to escape the typecasting from Superman has a part as another sergeant who warns Lancaster about Deborah Kerr. He gave a fine performance, but most of it wound up on the cutting room floor. That would have unforeseen tragic consequences.

This is not any kind of glamorous army. These people are all too real and not very noble. The original novel was toned down quite a bit for the screen. But when the attack on Pearl Harbor comes, the men rise to the occasion, do their jobs in a more than competent manner and led by Burt Lancaster in that company. It's these men who won that war in the Pacific and the one in Europe as well and From Here to Eternity despite the less than noble portrayals of them as individuals is a great tribute to them as a team.

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27 out of 40 people found the following comment useful :-
War, in this film, is bigger than people..., 22 January 2000

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Fred Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity" and David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai" have one thing in common: a good war story about people with whom we are extremely identified and concerned...

It may seem strange to consider "From Here to Eternity" as a war film, since a great part of it deals with the military life in a peacetime army... But war is very important to this motion picture... The December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is its definite point, its explosive end, the ruthless attack on U.S. military mind...

The attack is one of the great sequences in War Films... The sound of the Japanese planes is heard, then there are explosions, and confused soldiers rising from their early breakfast... The Japanese Bombers dive and sweep firing with machine-guns the courtyard and its large buildings, while men run in every direction...

When a non-fighting companion refuses to pass out arms to his pals, the soldiers break down the door of the ammunition room, take the machine guns to the roof and fire to the flying planes...

When they succeed in hitting one plane they are delighted by the flavor of war...

With this powerful scene all the connecting parts that hold together the characters of the story are permanently altered... The great event reduces the characters' pains and passions... World War II is a force that modified everything... War, in this film, is bigger than people...

The highlights of the film are many, but let me mention the best: Clift playing a flamboyant blues in a local beer joint... The blues came rushing out, expelled from his body by the strength of his feelings; the romantic-erotic scene between Lancaster and Kerr on a deserted beach; Clift playing "Taps" and his tears running down his face...

Burt Lancaster portrays the tough 'efficient' sergeant who knows how to bend the rules without breaking them... He guides and supports his 'philander' pretentious Captain... 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... He gives a deep and intense characterization, winning an Academy Award...

Donna Reed is excellent as the charming social woman of the evening...

Winner of eight Academy Awards, "From Here to Eternity" is a clear indicative of how war comes into collision with the destinies of people, throwing them violently into a turbulent and dangerous situation...

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19 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Monty Clift's greatest role?, 8 July 2003
Author: didi-5 from United Kingdom

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. Would it have been the same with Joan Crawford instead of Kerr? Hard to say. I think the heart of the film is Clift, who gives perhaps his career best as ex-boxer Prewitt, the sensitive bugle player fighting his demons. Lancaster is a close second, a hard-boiled officer with no time for love.

One of the best of the 50s, and well worth watching.

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28 out of 47 people found the following comment useful :-
Romance & History, 10 June 2001
Author: Matthew Ignoffo (mermatt@webtv.net) from Eatontown, NJ, USA

The folks who made PEARL HARBOR should have done their homework on how to bring a personal romance into a historical event. This film should have been at the top of their list.

The Pearl Harbor attack is the climax of the film as well as of the various intricate human relationships in the film. This is a classic piece of romantic history, and the beach scene is probably one of the most erotic ever done -- all the more impressive because it has no nudity.

This is a real saga of human passion and how it is affected by history. Whether you see PEARL HARBOR or not is up to you. But definitely see this film.

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16 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
The Bugle of Schofield Barracks, 28 May 2006

Author: jotix100 from New York

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

James Jones' epic novel was bought for the movies for a mere $82,000, which is nothing, even for those years. This lengthy novel, of almost 900 pages presented a problem for Columbia Pictures because how could a book this size be condensed into a two hour movie? The task of the adaptation fell into Daniel Taradash, an excellent screen writer with a good track record.

The end result, as seen through Fred Zinnemann's brilliant direction, showed aspects of the book, but because of the censorship reigning in Hollywood in those years, could have never been shown to the vast audience this film attracted. One of the novel aspects deals with the homosexuality in the Honolulu of the times. It's clear that some of the enlisted men had liaisons with the gay men that treated them to things their meager income didn't allowed them to have. Maggio, is one of the ones instrumental for involving Prewitt into visiting his closeted friends.

The film deals with two other thorny aspects: adultery and prostitution. Milt Warden, the right hand man of Capt. Holmes, has an eye for his wife Karen, who rumor had it, loved to played around, just as her husband does during his "business in town". In the novel, Karen has an eight year child, who is conveniently disposed of. Their love affair consumed both Milt and Karen. At the same time, a manly Milt, is seen in an intimate moment when he is trying to console Prewitt, who has been ostracized by his refusal to become one of the boxers in the base. Milt caresses Prewitt's hair in what might have been an overture to have something more than a friendship with the gay Prewitt.

The prostitution issue comes when Maggio takes Prewitt drinking and introduces him to the Congress Club, a brothel. Prewitt's relationship with Alma, the girl from Oregon, is toned down because of the fear of trouble with the Hays Code people. It was a hypocritical way to do things, but who knows what would have come out had the film been done today.

"From Here to Eternity" still keeps its crisp black and white cinematography that Burnett Guffey gave the film. It's inconceivable to think of it in Technicolor! The score by George Duning serves the action well with its haunting melody. Fred Zinnemann vision paid big time because his vision for the project had the right approach even when it masks the original text.

Montgomery Clift, one of the most handsome actors working in films at the time, is about the best thing in the film. It appears Mr. Clift was a catalyst for the film, in that he made everyone else excel in the performances they gave. As Robert E. Lee Prewitt, this actor is a pure joy to watch because his transformation into the character. Frank Sinatra has been celebrated for his role as Maggio, yet, he only has a couple of scenes where he shows an intensity and a range he hadn't projected before.

Burt Lancaster as the all American, and supposedly macho Sgt. Warden, does a fine job. Deborah Kerr work as Karen Holmes showed an actress who understood what made her character tick. It's hard to imagine that Joan Crawford was supposed to have played her and she would have thrown the film out of balance. Donna Reed, as the kind Alma, gave a fine performance. Philip Ober, Mickey Shaugnessy, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden, Tim Ryan, and an uncredited George Reeves are seen among the supporting players.

"From Here to Eternity" is a must see film for all serious fans.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Maybe Donna Reed's Best Movie, 31 July 2005

Author: PWNYCNY from United States

"From Here To Eternity" takes place right before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Thus, it's really not a war movie. 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. In the movie Donna Reed plays a prostitute who wants to earn enough money to go home, but by the end of the movie circumstances have transformed her from cynical prostitute to fiancé and bereaved victim who has lost her man, and for whom things would never be the same. To me, this is what a good movie is all about - powerful and compelling character development within the context of a story that is credible and makes sense.

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16 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
See the Re-Release, 8 December 2003

Author: clg-2 from Seattle, Washington

I was a kid when I first saw the movie. All I remembered is the beach scene, and I thought it was a lot longer in duration than it actually is. I went to see the re-release this week. Wow! Has this movie held up! The few chauvinistic remarks directed at women would not be acceptable today but reflect how things were at that time. This is a top-notch film in every way! The acting by the stellar cast is close to perfection (Sinatra, Lancaster, Kerr, Borgnine, Clift--I rate them in that order, but they're all excellent). The plot has huge forward momentum, particularly when we see the page on the calendar. This is a classic! See it again!

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18 out of 30 people found the following comment useful :-
Truly Excellent; Not Exactly the War Movie You Might Expect, 24 October 2005

Author: ilikeimdb from Arlington, VA USA

How others have rated this movie any less than 10-"stars" eludes me. Combine uniformly terrific acting from all involved, an excellent script, keen editing and directing with beautiful visuals, and you do have the 10-star movie that won so many awards. 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. The war scenes are besides the point in this movie. You know there's a war just a'brewing. The real battlefield action happens between the characters in a way so much more important and real than a bunch of bombs dropping to blow up the latest Bruckheimer set. I'll admit the ending strains the movie's own internal logic, but that doesn't take away from its power. There's a war on and not every battlefield is equally as obvious.

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