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Set in 1941, we meet soldier Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), who has transferred to a rifle company at Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, despite being in a good place formerly as a bugler at his old regime. The first person Prewitt meets is Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra), who's cleaning outside. Prewitt enters the main building and meets up with Captain Dana Holmes (Phil Ober), who questions why Prewitt would have wanted to transfer here. Prewitt says he was passed over for the position of First Bugler by someone undeserving. Holmes thinks that's a crazy reason to want to come here, but in fact, Holmes wanted Prewitt here anyway because he's heard Prewitt is an excellent boxer, and Holmes wants to bolster his boxing team, who have won many trophies already. However, Prewitt once blinded an opponent and has since then given up boxing, so he refuses to box here. Holmes leaves, and First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) alerts Prewitt that he may have just made an enemy in Holmes, his superior. Outside, Mrs. Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) arrives to learn her husband just left. She decides to come back later, but not before her and Warden exchange some flirtatious banter as he wonders if perhaps he can help her out.
In the barracks pool room, members of the boxing team harass Prewitt for not wanting to join the team. The harassment continues from Holmes, who derides Prewitt during military drills. One time another soldier, Sergeant Galovitch (John Dennis), trips him during a rifle exercise. Holmes then orders Prewitt to run laps holding the rifle outstretched. Maggio sees the tripping and protests, so he has to run the laps too. Prewitt doesn't protest.
Warden visits Mrs. Holmes at her home under the ruse that he has paperwork for her husband to sign. When he comes in, she pours him a drink and takes the papers from him. He says they can actually wait until tomorrow, so she rips them up and throws them away. There's some tension, and not the sexual kind, so Warden decides to leave. Karen stops him. They kiss. The affair has begun.
Back at the barracks, Sergeant Stark (George Reeves) tells Warden that Karen's marriage is unhappy and she has a reputation for dating soldiers, himself included. Warden lets that information sit for awhile as he meets up with Karen at the beach. Meanwhile, Maggio takes Prewitt to the New Congress Club, of which he is a member, to mingle with the ladies and put away some beers. Inside the club, Maggio is dancing but gets annoyed by what is apparently loud piano playing from Staff Sergeant James Judson (Ernest Borgnine), and Prewitt has met and become enchanted with Lorene (Donna Reed).
Maggio and Judson eventually nearly come to blows, but cooler heads prevail. Maggio also learns that Judson is the sergeant guard of the stockades. Prewitt, who briefly left Lorene's area to put out the Maggio-Judson fire, returns to see another soldier talking with Lorene. Prewitt pouts jealously until Lorene admonishes him, saying the soldiers are all here for a mingling good time. Later on, Prewitt apologizes to Lorene as he lets her know of his situation at Schofield and why he's in a bit of a foul mood sometimes. Maggio is pretty drunk by now and leaves his whiskey bottle with Prewitt as he heads out with his lady.
While all this is going on, we're at the beach for one of the most famous images in movie history...
...as the waves wash ashore onto Warden and Mrs. Holmes making out on the beach. After this, they sit on a bench and almost immediately start arguing, as Warden questions the rumors he's heard about Karen. Karen tells him why her marriage is unhappy. Dana has cheated on her numerous times, and one time he came home drunk after an affair, and she confronted him about it. Dana shoved her down, and Karen wound up miscarrying as she was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time. She also sustained damage preventing her from having children at all. She says she finally feels happy with Warden.
The next day back at the barracks, Prewitt gets word that Holmes and his buddies are especially out to get him since he continues to refuse to box. Prewitt digs a ditch, and is then ordered to fill it back up again. Outside the boxing ring, Prewitt is mopping when Galovitch kicks over a dirty bucket from inside the ring, and then orders him to clean that too. Holmes takes Galovitch's side without hesitation. Prewitt tells them both to clean it themselves. His punishment is being taken on a hike up the hills, although the soldier accompanying Prewitt doesn't like this either and has compassion, stopping for them both to have a cigarette at one point. When the hike ends, Prewitt still refuses to apologize to Galovitch, so Holmes sends him back for another hike. During the second trek, Holmes decides to write up Prewitt for a court martial due to insubordination, but Warden talks him out of it.
At night, the soldiers are all out drinking at the New Congress Club. Someone at the table is blowing a bugle pretty tamely, so the inebriated Prewitt takes it from him and blows a tune that earns applause from everyone in the room. Judson approaches the table and takes a photo Maggio is holding, which is of his sister. Judson kisses it and whispers something assumingly-derogatory in Prewitt's ear, before laughing and walking away. Maggio hits Judson over the head from behind with a bar stool. Judson pulls a switchblade, but Warden intervenes. When Judson advances on Warden, Warden breaks a beer bottle to make a makeshift weapon, causing Judson to toss his switchblade to the ground and back off. However, before leaving, Judson warns Maggio that sooner or later he will end up in the stockade.
Prewitt and other soldiers are given a weekend pass by Warden. Maggio is the last to leave, which is unfortunate because before he can, his pass is rescinded and he is ordered to stand guard at a post since "Anderson's sick." Prewitt wants to take Lorene out for the weekend, but she's working so she cannot. During this conversation, she tells him her real name is Alma. Prewitt heads to the Kalakaua Inn to drink and pout. In time, Lorene/Alma arrives. Prewitt tells her he wants to work his way up to sergeant, then move to the mainland and marry her. He'll even box if he has to to achieve this goal. Lorene isn't sure how she feels about that idea. In then stumbles Maggio, who has deserted his post and is drunk as a skunk. Maggio goes outside and starts undressing to go swimming, but Prewitt convinces him to get dressed as he goes to get a cab for him. Maggio says OK. Prewitt goes to get the cab, but as Maggio starts to redress, the MP's arrive and arrest him for deserting his post.
Warden and Karen are at another restaurant having dinner, and they decide they need to leave when a group of soldiers arrive. In the car, Karen says she's grown tired of having to hide, and prods Warden to put in for a promotion to officer so she can divorce Dana, marry him, and not have to relocate off the base. Warden reluctantly says he'll consider it, but he really doesn't want to be an officer because he doesn't like officers.
The next day, Prewitt learns that Maggio is sentenced to 6 months in the stockades. This combined with the further antagonizing from Holmes and company finally causes Prewitt to reach his breaking point. Galovitch picks a fight with Prewitt, who at first refuses to fight back, but finally resorts to only body blows. As the beatdown continues (and is witnessed by a smiling Capt. Holmes), his fighting spirit re-emerges and Prewitt comes close to knocking Galovitch out before Holmes finally stops the fight. Galovitch accuses Prewitt of starting the fight, and Holmes is salivating with a prepared punishment, but then the man in charge of the detail says that it was Galovitch who started it. Holmes simply disperses the crowd and says let's all move on. The entire incident is witnessed by the base commander, who orders an investigation. Things don't get better for Holmes back home, since he's wondering if Karen is having an affair but still won't grant a divorce despite both being unhappy in the marriage.
Later that night, Warden and Prewitt are both drunk and discussing life. Prewitt tells Warden that he'd make a great officer. Eventually, Maggio shows up stumbling, saying he finally escaped Judson and his constant physical abuse, but Maggio's in extremely bad shape and dies in Prewitt's arms before medical personnel can arrive. Prewitt tracks down Judson at the club, convincing him to step outside and into a blind alley (hey, why not?), where he says it's time for Judson to pay the price for killing his friend. Judson pulls out a switchblade, and Prewitt responds by pulling out the switchblade Judson had tossed to the ground during their last encounter. Ultimately, both men are stabbed, and Judson dies of his wounds. Prewitt hides out at Lorene's while the next several days see newspaper headlines wondering who killed Judson.
The investigation into the Prewitt-Galovitch fight has concluded, and Holmes is found guilty of running his troop negligently. Holmes's options are a court martial, or resign his commission. He opts for the latter. Holmes's replacement, Captain Ross (John Bryant), reprimands the others involved and has the boxing team's framed photographs and trophies removed. He then demotes Galovitch to private and puts him in charge of the latrine.
The day turns to December 7, 1941. We all remember that date, I'm sure. Pearl Harbor. Everyone at the barracks does their best to fight back. Prewitt hears of the attack and attempts to rejoin his company under cover of darkness, despite the pleads from Lorene, who says she just knows she'll never see him again. Prewitt still goes, and unfortunately as he gets there he is shot dead by a patrolman who thinks he's an enemy. Warden identifies the body and answers a question affirmatively that he was a friend of his.
When Karen finds out that Warden did not apply for officer training, she realizes they have no future together. She hops aboard a boat to return to the mainland with her husband. Lorene and Karen wind up meeting on the ship. Lorene tells Karen that her fiancé, Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, was a bomber pilot who was heroically killed during the attack at Pearl Harbor. Karen recognizes the name, but says nothing.
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As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the material of the original story had to be toned down quite a bit, despite the objections of original author James Jones. In the famous beach scene, for example, Warden and Karen weren't just kissing. I'll leave it at that. There's also references to the homosexual nightlife scene throughout Hawaii in the book. The screenwriters didn't even go anywhere near that one. There were also some necessary changes to the screenplay because of objections from the U.S. Army, who in time gave their full cooperation to the film once they were pleased with the overall story told, especially in relation to the fate of Captain Holmes. Once the film was actually shooting, everyone got along very well, including several of the actors and original story author Jones becoming regular drinking buddies off-hours. Not surprisingly, Sinatra was in that group too.
Speaking of Sinatra, it has been often-rumored that he got this plum role due to his ties with the Mob. This is untrue. In reality, he simply lobbied HARD for it, often contacting Columbia Studios head Harry Cohn, signing letters as "Maggio", etc. He also took a massive pay cut from his normal asking price, which I'm sure was what ultimately made the studio decide to give him the role. It worked out. Sinatra had shown acting prowess in years past, but here he delivered with a gem, and it won him the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award at the 26th Annual event. Frank wasn't the only one to take home gold. The film garnered a whopping 13 nominations and won 8 trophies, which at that time tied the record high along a little film from 1939 you may have heard of, Gone With the Wind. Donna Reed, cast very against type, was another Oscar winner as Best Supporting Actress. The other categories won were Sound Recording, Film Editing, black-and-white Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Director and Picture, winning out for that top honor over Julius Caesar, The Robe, Roman Holiday and Shane. The film probably would have won 9 Oscars if not for two nominees, Clift and Lancaster, both up for Best Lead Actor, a happenstance that probably split their votes and allowed someone else (William Holden, for Stalag 17) to sneak in and take Oscar home. Nonetheless, From Here to Eternity is a truly great film that holds up just as well in 2014 as it did in 1953. Great performances and a gripping story are what drive home the point that not only can war be hell, but so can the very people involved within it that surround you.
see, it doesn't post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a big dumb blog location, not a a dumb blog. I write a reply. It dogs me. It dogs me days in a row. I write a reply in front of YOU and the cockamamie thing posts without a hitch. You go jump in a lake blogspot! And you too Google.
ReplyDeleteNow, for a reiteration of my previously DOGGED reply...I agree with your description of Clift as a pouter. I think he's always looked like he's pouting. But, sadly, I've never seen this movie so I can make no other appropriate or even smart comments.
That is all.