From Here to Eternity

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From Here to Eternity
Image:53a.jpg
original movie poster
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Produced by Buddy Adler
Written by James Jones (novel)
Daniel Taradash
Starring Burt Lancaster
Montgomery Clift
Deborah Kerr
Donna Reed
Frank Sinatra
Ernest Borgnine
Merle Travis
George Reeves
Philip Ober
and Jack Warden
Cinematography Burnett Guffey
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) August 5, 1953 (U.S. release)
Running time 118 min
Language English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
For other uses, see From Here to Eternity (disambiguation).

From Here to Eternity is a 1953 movie based on the novel by James Jones in which characters work through daily bouts of intimidation and infidelity on a military base in the days preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor. The rather explicit novel had to be considerably toned down to appease the censors of the time. For example, in the famous "beach scene", it is less obvious that Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster's characters have actually been having sex on the beach than it is in the novel and the later, more frank miniseries based on the book.

Contents

[edit] Themes and casting

The story encompasses groundbreaking themes of prostitution, adultery, military injustice, corruption, violence, alcohol abuse, and murder. It involves the personal lives of its main characters – an enlisted man, an unappreciated officer's wife, a prostitute and a military outcast. The major male characters wage their own battle against corruption at higher levels.

Donna Reed is a bar hostess and prostitute, Lorene; British actress Deborah Kerr is an unfaithful wife, and Montgomery Clift is a former boxer and insubordinate soldier. Burt Lancaster is rugged sergeant Milt Warden.

[edit] Cast

Its five stars, Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, and Donna Reed all received Oscar nominations and Reed and Sinatra won for Best Supporting Actress and Actor. Among the cast members without Oscar nominations are Philip Ober, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden, and Merle Travis. The novel's author had a small, uncredited part in the film.

William Holden, who won the Best Actor Oscar for Stalag 17, felt that he didn't deserve it. Holden believed Burt Lancaster should have won the best actor award for this film, for his portrayal of Sgt. Milt Warden.

Image:DK in From Here to Eternity.jpg
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the famous beach scene in From Here to Eternity.

[edit] Production

Legend has it that Frank Sinatra got the role in the movie because of his speculated Mafia connections, and that this was the basis for a similar subplot detailed in The Godfather. It is also possible that Sinatra's then-wife Ava Gardner persuaded studio head Harry Cohn's wife to go to bat for him, the version related by Kitty Kelley in her comprehensive Sinatra biography. The on-screen chemistry between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr was carried off-screen, as the stars became romantically involved [1] during filming. A rumor has been circulating for years that George Reeves, who played Sgt. Maylon Stark, had his role drastically edited after preview audiences recognized him as TV's Superman. This is depicted in the docudrama Hollywoodland. However, Zinnemann maintains all his scenes were kept intact from the first draft, nor was there ever a preview screening. The movie was also remade as a TV miniseries in 1979. The U.S. Army withheld its cooperation from the production (most of the movie was filmed where it occurred, at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii) until the producers agreed to several modifications, most noticeably the fate of Captain Holmes.

Numerous barracks locations are still intact and still occupied by active duty troops.

[edit] Reception

The film won eight Oscars:

It received nominations for a further five Oscars:

In 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

[edit] References in popular culture

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

The famous beach lovemaking scene between Lancaster and Kerr was featured on numerous films in popular media. (Remarkably, the actual shot of Lancaster and Kerr kissing in the surf is only three seconds long.) Some examples include the following scenarios:

  • lampooned in the movie Airplane!, where Robert Hays' and Julie Hagerty's characters become covered in seaweed. The producers of the film have always stated that this was a coincidence.
  • parodied in the twelfth issue of Mad Magazine, published in june 1954.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Burt Lancaster: An American Life, Buford, Kate, Knopf; (2001), ISBN 0-679-44603-6

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
The Greatest Show on Earth 		Academy Award for Best Picture
1953 		Succeeded by
On the Waterfront
v • d • e
Academy Award for Best Picture: Winners (1941–1960)
de:Verdammt in alle Ewigkeit

es:De aquí a la eternidad eo:From Here to Eternity fr:Tant qu'il y aura des hommes it:Da qui all'eternità hu:Most és mindörökké nl:From Here to Eternity pl:Stąd do wieczności pt:From Here to Eternity sl:Od tod do večnosti (film) fi:Täältä ikuisuuteen (elokuva) sv:Härifrån till evigheten tr:From Here to Eternity

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