Rating: 
Summary: "A man don't go his own way, he's nothing."
Review: Fred Zinnemann's "From Here to Eternity" simply has not aged well. It's place in cinematic history remains secure: Frank Sinatra's Oscar, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr embracing in the surf, and the Oscar for Best Picture. Yet, what was considered an adult film back in 1953 plays like a run-of-the-mill soap opera in the present day. As Sergeant Warden (Lancaster) and Karen Holmes (Kerr), the wife of his superior, start to fall in love, Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is trying to find a way to avoid participating in his unit's boxing championship. Prewitt finds support from his friend Maggio (Sinatra) who tries to protect him from the pressures around him and finds love with Lorene (Donna Reed), a "working girl" who has temporarily relocated to Hawaii. Into the mix is thrown a sadistic warden played by Ernest Borgnine and the bombing of Pearl Harbor which plunges all involved straight into World War II. "From Here to Eternity" is filled with one character after another who is desperate. All of them are either desperate for power, desperate for love, desperate for acceptance, or desperate to escape their past. Yet, the plotlines in the film do not produce the same emotional jolt it did five decades ago. Extramarital affairs, bullying authority figures, and fallen women are all topics on trivial daytime television shows today. These mature themes just do not hold your interest anymore when looked at through the veil of time. When this aspect of the film is removed, what is left is just a routine "day-in-the-lives" story. Yet the film still has many things going for it. All of the performances are fine: Sinatra reminds viewers just how talented an actor he was in years past, the chemistry between Lancaster and Kerr is still electric, and Clift turns in another low-key but effective performance. And even though it's legacy may be slightly diminished, "From Here to Eternity" will always be fondly remembered as the film that more than any other made making out at the beach fashionable.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic, yes, but with holes and a bit slow
Review: Undoubtedly considered a classic, this movie won 8 Oscars in 1953, including best film. I enjoyed it, but it isn't a movie that I think I would want to own. Summary:
This movie is actually a little difficult to summarize because it follows two stories. Though the focus is on Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), it also follows stories in the lives of his friend Maggio (Frank Sinatra) and Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster), one of his commanding officers. The movie takes place in Hawaii just prior to and including the attack at Pearl Harbor. The basic idea is that Private Prewitt has an iron will and refuses to be broken by his captain, Captain Holmes (Philip Ober), who wants him to box for his company even though Prewitt has given it up after having blinded a sparring partner. I never really understood why Prewitt switched into G Company from the bugle corps, but he does and that is where the movie starts. Prewitt makes friends with Maggio, another private, but is constantly ridden by the other boxers in the company who are all sergeants because they box and want him to help their team win a tournament. Though he never really cracks from their 'Treatment', he does break down at one point and box with one of the other boxers in the company, showing that he can hold his own. Prewitt's contribution to the movie is his love affair with an escort, Lorene (Donna Reed). Being the hard-nosed soldier he is, we explore his relationship as he falls in love but eventually leaves Lorene - against her wishes - to return to his company on the night of December 7, 1941. On his way he is mistaken for an intruder and shot (he had been AWOL for several days after being wounded in a knife fight in which one of the movie's antagonists was killed to avenge the death of his friend Maggio). The other love story plays out between Sergeant Warden and Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) who is the wife of Sergeant Warden's company commander, Captain Holmes. Captain Holmes has been cheating on his wife since almost the beginning of their marriage and his cheating and drunkenness eventually led her to lose her child and her ability to have more children. She never forgave him (not that I blame her) and has since had numerous affairs with other men. Sergeant Warden falls for her and they have an affair, but in the end he is unwilling to try for a promotion to an officer which is what she wants (symbolic of his love for the military I guess), so their love affair ends. Also, Captain Holmes is eventually forced to resign for his poor command of his company and it seems implied that Captain Holmes and Karen get a divorce, but we are unsure. The final scene is Karen Holmes and Lorene sailing away from Hawaii. They just happen to be next to each other on the boat and the strike up a conversation. But of them are leaving their loves in Hawaii, likely never to return. My Comments:
I'm not sure I like the format of the movie in that it doesn't really follow one character but instead follows two love stories. But, that is kind of a minor point. I did like the fact that the 'good guys', Maggio and Prewitt, both end up dying and the love affairs don't work out. You don't usually find that in movies. It is an interesting twist to a love story that makes the story more believable because it isn't a fairy tale. The storyline isn't entirely perfect. Maggio's drunken rage seems to come from nowhere and, at best, is poorly set up. Then, when he escapes and dies afterward you are left thinking how bizarre the whole situation is. Sinatra was good in the role, he just didn't have much help from the story line. Also, Burt Lancaster seemed like a carryover from an earlier era when men were supposed to be 'men'. Everything he did he did as though he were a hero poised to fight or come save the day (this is especially apparent in the 'famous' beach love scene). I liked that we explored his relationship and that he didn't always have the answers, but there is just something about his portrayal of the role that makes you think he is an actor trying to act rather than a soldier. And then there's Donna Reed. I wasn't convinced by her role. Maybe the intent was to show that she was kind of a good girl that just wanted money, but when she breaks out into her spiel about being 'proper', I can't help but think that someone was trying to make a point. She was my least favorite of all of the characters. Overall, the movie was entertaining, though slow at times. The story didn't make perfect sense, but life rarely does, so why should the story be any different. Some of the acting was forced, but overall it was pretty good. Montgomery Clift was particularly good in his role. If you enjoy classic films, you would probably enjoy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: The real love story - a man and the army
Review: My favorite scene in this movie isn't the famous Burt Lancaster (Sgt. Warden) - Deborah Kerr (Karen Holmes) beach romp, but that of Montgomery Clift's Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt silhouette walking alone across the barracks, sticking out sorely among the unity of soldiers marching by. I sometimes wonder, if Clift had died suddenly as his peer James Dean had, would he have achieved similar heights of pop culture iconoclasm? Clift once again plays the tortured young man with an honor system established by his own rules, a melancholy misfit who shuffles through the movie a little hunched, one hand in pocket as if to hide something of himself from the world. Although Prew won't box on the company team because he swore he won't get back in the ring, after accidentally blinding a sparring partner, he will seek revenge tragically for his "buddy boy" Private Maggio (Frank Sinatra). In the "ah-cen-chu-ate the positive" post-World War II era in which the movie was filmed, it is the soldiers who takes his orders and does his job well, and by the book, that remains standing tall. Here, it's Sgt. Warden, tall and handsome, a hardened soldier on the outside to protect his innermost sensitivity. There is only one way to interpret honor, and that is by the Army's terms.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Convincing First Sergeant
Review: This is a case of an outstanding movie being adapted from a great book. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY presents a realistic portrait of army life in Hawaii immediately before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The film features strong performances by Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Ernest Borgnine and Montgomery Clift. An extremely competent supporting cast includes Jack Warden, Philip Ober and Mickey Shaughnessy. Burt Lancaster makes a convincing first sergeant. One who is running the show and is full of knowledge about how the army really works. He also has good instincts when it comes time to act as he demonstrates in the showdown with the sadistic "Fatso" played by Ernest Borgnine. Borgnine himself is exceptional in his most famous impersonation of a villain. Frank Sinatra definitely deserves his Oscar in the role of the defiant Maggio. However, after seeing Lee Marvin play a drunk it is hard to appreciate any other actor's attempt compared with Marvin's portrayal in PAINT YOUR WAGON. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY was a relatively low-budget production but it still managed to receive five Academy Awards and eight nominations.
Rating:
Summary: Test of time...
Review: The trouble here is the test of time.... Of course this movie is great, otherwise it would not have won 8 Oscars. But to watch it nowadays is.... strange. The acting is not up to today's standards. Chaplin's movies got older much better than FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, for example. I watched it again yesterday and I liked it, but I came nowhere close to such excitement.
Rating:
Summary: The "fantasy" of every red-blooded American male
Review: Yeah, the story is great, and the acting is top-notch from all the principal characters. But, let's be honest, the most memorable element of the film is the "romp" on the beach between stars Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. Like Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" made many-a-hotel customer cautious in the shower, "Eternity" made "making out on the beach" an alluring possibility.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone has dreams
Review: This is a great movie, and it is even greater after reading the back of the box. According to the box, many of the actors in this film were not the first choice. For instance, the studio didn't think Sinatra could handle a non-singing role, yet he got the part and won the 1958 "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar for his performance. The box also mentions that George Reeves (the old Superman from television) was in the film, but was cut because audiences kept referring to him as Superman. The back of the box has some interesting reading. The movie is set in Hawaii, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Each character has his or her own dreams and goals, and these dreams butt into other people's dreams. For instance, the captain wants a championship boxing team, but the best boxer in the company doesn't want to fight. The captain and the boxer then begin the long battle of wills to see who has the greater claim. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, we learn that all these goals must be put aside for the greater good. We can not sacrifice the whole for the individual. Stepping outside of the group has dire consequences as Montgomery Clift's character shows us. I would highly recommend seeing this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely one of my favorite films
Review: Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra earned Oscars for roles that were completely unlike what they'd be known for later. (As a matter of fact, this is known as the movie that saved Sinatra's career.)And what nobody else has mentioned is that Deborah Kerr completely loses her British accent; she sounds completely American. I might be behind the times, but I think the beach scene is extemely erotic. When Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr fall into each other's arms, and the waves start crashing--isn't imagining the rest more fun than having every detail spelled out for you?
Rating:
Summary: Left me wondering why it is a great film
Review: Since I was a kid I had heard about this famous movie. As a child and teenager it was sort of a forbidden fruit. Now I finally had time to rent it and see for myself " the passion, the romance...." etc. I would hardly call a several second embrace in the waves a towering romantic story. The lines of the lovers are stilted and corny and I find it hard to believe the story of an affair that begins with only one pathetic glance. Pruett was a man of morals. Of that there can be no doubt. If the movie was about anything, if was about standing up for what you believe is right. It was also a story about the abuse of power in the Army. Those were its strong points. My curiousity is now satisfied. I suppose that for the 50's that scene in the surf might have been scandalous and that the conversation was a product of a stiffer form of society. Nevertheless, I rate it as just so so. Definitely not a romance by today's standards. The best scenes came at the end, when everyone rallied to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Rating:
Summary: Over-rated And Dated, But Still A Wonder
Review: Burt Lancaster and Ernie Borgnine steal this movie so easily, you wonder why the rest of the cast showed up. It does have its moments, despite the fact that it's laden with 50's sentimentality and the mumbling method style of Monty Cliff. Unfortunately the soap opera aspects of this film somewhat minimize the import of the main event itself. Still, it beats the recent 'Pearl Harbor' hands-down in every department except for the grimy horror of the attack's special effects, and makes a much more endurable flick. Don't expect much accuracy in depicting the very different ambience of the early 1940's; this is early 50's revisionist history from the first reel (even Donna Reed's hairdo is wrong), and the big attack is merely a backdrop for the melodrama rather than a driving force. For misled fans of 'Pearl Harbor', the acting here makes the cast of that recent movie look like amateurs. "Eternity" isn't as satisfying as it was in the 50's, but it's still a good ride.
| 
