From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity, American dramatic film, released in 1953, about U.S. soldiers in Hawaii in the months before the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. It was one of the most popular films of its time, and it won eight Academy Awards, including that for best picture.

(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)

The film begins with the arrival of Robert E. Lee Prewitt (played by Montgomery Clift) at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, where he meets an old friend, Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra). The company commander, Captain Dana Holmes (Philip Ober), knowing that Prewitt is a talented boxer, urges him to join the company boxing team. Prewitt refuses, having given up the sport after having accidentally blinded a sparring partner. Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) urges Prewitt to reconsider, but Prewitt is adamant. Under orders from Holmes, the men in Prewitt’s company begin a campaign of harassment against Prewitt, though Maggio remains a loyal friend.

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In the meantime, Warden finds himself attracted to Holmes’s wife, Karen (Deborah Kerr), and they begin an affair. In one of the most famous scenes in movie history, Warden and Karen make love on the beach, and Karen later tells him about Holmes’s philandering and drunken neglect of her. Elsewhere, the soldiers have gone to a club, where Prewitt meets the hostess Lorene (Donna Reed) and is smitten. Later, Sergeant “Fatso” Judson (Ernest Borgnine) insults Maggio, and a fight breaks out but is quickly broken up by Warden. On a subsequent weekend pass, Prewitt goes to see Lorene, who tells him that her real name is Alma. Maggio arrives, in uniform and drunk, having walked off guard duty. He is court-martialed and sentenced to six months in the stockade, which is overseen by Judson. Karen urges Warden to become a commissioned officer so that she can divorce Holmes and marry him, but Warden is reluctant. Later, at Alma’s cottage, Prewitt proposes, but Alma wants a husband with a more prestigious job than career soldier. He returns to the base, where Sergeant Ike Galovitch (John Dennis) begins throwing punches at Prewitt. Eventually Prewitt fights back, and he nearly knocks Galovitch out before Holmes intervenes.

Later, while Prewitt and Warden are drunkenly commiserating with each other, Maggio, who has escaped, runs to Prewitt. After describing Judson’s abuse, he dies in Prewitt’s arms. Prewitt, seeking revenge, gets into a knife fight in which he kills Judson and is himself badly injured. He then goes to Alma’s home to recover. Meanwhile, the base commander, who witnessed Prewitt’s fight with Galovitch, receives a report on Holmes’s treatment of Prewitt from the inspector-general. Holmes is forced to resign, and Galovitch is demoted. Karen, learning that Warden has not applied to become an officer, returns to her husband.

The next morning, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor begins. Warden leads a heroic resistance, and Prewitt, hearing of the attack on the radio, attempts to slip back into camp to rejoin his company. However, a guard, mistaking him for an invader, shoots him dead. In the final scene, Karen and Alma meet on an evacuation ship, and Alma tells Karen that her fiancé was a bomber pilot who died in the attack.

The movie was based on the best-selling novel From Here to Eternity (1951) by James Jones. The sprawling and steamy book was considered unfilmable until Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn accepted the somewhat toned-down script written by Daniel Taradash. Director Fred Zinnemann insisted that the film be shot in black-and-white to underscore the seriousness of its themes. It was falsely believed that Sinatra was cast because of Mafia ties, and that rumor found its way into both Mario Puzo’s book The Godfather (1969) and its 1972 film adaptation. The movie also featured Merle Travis singing “Reenlistment Blues.” From Here to Eternity was selected in 2002 for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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Production notes and credits

• Studio: Columbia Pictures Corporation
• Director: Fred Zinneman
• Writer: Daniel Taradash (screenplay)
• Music: George Duning
• Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey

Cast

• Montgomery Clift (Robert E. Lee Prewitt)
• Burt Lancaster (Sergeant Milton Warden)
• Deborah Kerr (Karen Holmes)
• Donna Reed (Lorene/Alma)
• Frank Sinatra (Angelo Maggio)
• Philip Ober (Captain Dana Holmes)
• Ernest Borgnine (Sergeant “Fatso” Judson)

Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)

• Picture*
• Lead actor (Montgomery Clift)
• Lead actor (Burt Lancaster)
• Supporting actor* (Frank Sinatra)
• Lead actress (Deborah Kerr)
• Supporting actress* (Donna Reed)
• Cinematography (black-and-white)*
• Costume design (black-and-white)
• Direction*
• Editing*
• Music
• Sound recording*
• Writing*