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Why was From Here to Eternity considered difficult to adapt for film?
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Fred Zinnemann
(From left to right) Marlon Brando, Fred Zinnemann, and Montgomery Clift on the set of From Here to Eternity (1953).
The 1951 novel From Here to Eternity by James Jones was considered difficult to adapt for the screen because it was a "sprawling and steamy" book.1
Due to its complex and provocative nature, the project was widely viewed as unfilmable until Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn eventually accepted a toned-down screenplay written by Daniel Taradash. Once the adaptation moved forward, director Fred Zinnemann made the deliberate choice to film the production in black-and-white to emphasize the seriousness of the story's themes.1