Oscars Retrospective: From Here to Eternity (26th Academy Awards Review)
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The war movie genre is one of the most legendary and long-standing of the film genres. And within that genre, World War II movies in particular seem like its own entire sub-genre. Partially because of all the wars in human history, it seems the easiest to distill into a battle of good versus evil, partially because the war was fought right as cinema was coming of age as its own media form. We’ve discussed numerous movies made during WWII previously in this series and how you didn’t get films that actually examined the more human side of a soldier dealing with war until 1944/45. After the war ended, cinema slowly changed gears to dealing with problems with postwar America though it wouldn’t be long before we started getting WWII-based movies again.
The first major movie made about World War II after the war ended was Battleground (1949) which stood out as the first war movie that showed soldiers acting like a bunch of jerks at times which made them feel more real. The second major movie made about World War II is From Here to Eternity which practically reinvented the genre as we know it and introduced numerous new tropes into the genre that we might take for granted today. (If it sounds a little sick that I’m treating the bloodiest war in human history in terms of movie genre entertainment, just know that we all do it, from me to Hollywood to you.)
From Here to Eternity is another one of those old movies that was regarded highly at the time but has since been forgotten. And when I say it was regarded highly at the time, that’s underselling it. Both the movie and the book it was based on had large swathes of the population up in arms and provided one of the most critical looks at the military during the jingoistic time period from after Pearl Harbor and before Vietnam. Though, of course, by today’s standards, it’ll seem quite tame to the point that you probably wouldn’t even realize that this movie invited controversy at the time.
From Here to Eternity revolves around a squad of soldiers serving at the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii near Pearl Harbor, particularly the squad leader, First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster), and his erstwhile new recruit, Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift). Most of the movie is spent on the character’s personal problems before they all ultimately come to a climax during the Attack on Pearl Harbor which also serves as the climax of the film. This is a clear example of the disaster film trope of “fictional characters do other stuff for 2 hours before all dying in a real-life tragedy” that you might think this movie pioneered though this story was nothing new and had been done in disaster movies before (i.e. San Francisco (1936), In Old Chicago (1937)). That having been said, those movies were about actual disasters; doing that trope about a battle on American soil where real soldiers were ambushed and killed only twelve years ago was a bit bolder.
But that’s all in the last act. The main storyline of the film is that it takes place in what is called Company E a.k.a. the Boxing Company. Most of the companies in the area have an extracurricular boxing team where members of the company can enroll for fun. Over time, however, these have gone from fun to becoming quasi-illegal competitions that people like to bet on with better boxers getting promoted in rank. As fate would have it, the newly-enlisted Private Prewitt has a history as a boxer and is headhunted by Company E’s commanding officer, Captain Holmes (Philip Ober). When Prewitt passes on joining the boxing team, Holmes and his other officers decide to haze Prewitt and make his life a living Hell until he joins.
From Here to Eternity was the first movie to acknowledge corruption in the ranks of the United States Armed Forces. Pressuring a soldier to join an illegal boxing circuit and making his life a living Hell when he refuses is probably the tip of the iceberg in terms of shady things that soldiers have done in history but it’s still a worthwhile story for showing the darker side of authority. In terms of how historically accurate the film is, the answer seems to be a resounding: kinda.
The novel From Here to Eternity (1951) is a fictionalized account of author James Jones’ (not that one) time serving in Hawaii and the Pacific, though he affirmed that most of the events in the novel actually happened and he just swapped the names around. Considering how the novel revolves around numerous members of the Army committing illegal acts, it’s no surprise that many of the people who served in the real Company E dispute its veracity. According to some other soldiers who also served in the company, they gave the story an accuracy rating of about 80%. Regardless, the story apparently ruffled enough feathers that fellow company member, Robert A. Maggio sued Jones and Columbia Pictures though the lawsuit went nowhere. (A few other former Company members had similar ideas but ultimately chose not to, valuing the camaraderie of the army too much.)
This ends up being a pretty engaging set-up to play out the film’s plot, with two excellent leads. Montgomery Clift manages to hit just the right note for Private Prewitt’s character. He’s a lost soul who wants to believe in the best of the army and is rewarded for that by being constantly grinded down by his superiors, to the point of him becoming somewhat disillusioned by the ideals of the institution. Yet, he keeps clicking away, following his orders and doing what is expected of him. This character could easily become too much of a whiner or too stoic that it doesn’t hit. Instead, Clift finds just the right balance. You end up really rooting for this guy as he wants to believe in the army but is forced to be on the receiving end of this corrupt abuse. Burt Lancaster does equally well in the role of middle management as he’s the one commanding officer who knows what he’s doing is terrible but is forced between defending his subordinate and obeying his superiors.
Most of the other characters are good though not particularly memorable. The love interests are fine, the villains are fine, the other troops are fine. The most memorable side-character is Ernest Borgnine as Staff Sergeant Judson, an especially cruel officer who likes to use his rank to bully his underlings. Borgnine was a great character actor, known for playing tough guys, and you can tell he has a lot of fun being especially despicable in this movie.
From Here to Eternity is also notable as being the breakout film of Frank Sinatra, Italian-American icon and the biggest multimedia star of the 1950s. Sinatra plays Private Maggio, Prewitt’s best friend who is also caught up in being abused by his superior officers. Fans of The Godfather (1972) may know that the character of Johnny Fontane (the Godfather’s godson) was based off of Sinatra and that the subplot where Fontane gets a movie role because the Corleone family threatens a Hollywood producer was based off an old rumor that this is how Sinatra got the role in From Here to Eternity. Sinatra denied this and said he got the role because he knew the producer of the film and not because of those Mafia ties that he definitely in no way, shape or form had. (It really is fascinating, in fact, how little Mafia connections Sinatra had, mostly because he totally didn’t.) What’s especially interesting is that the 100%-not Mobbed-up Sinatra won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for this role (alongside Donna Reed as Private Prewitt’s love interest, Alma), which is pretty impressive for such a new actor. I also think it’s a classic case of the Academy choosing to award an Oscar just based on who can give the sappiest scene of the year. The character has one pathos-evoking scene but, outside of that, the performance is nothing remarkable.
The best and worst part of the movie is the climactic Attack on Pearl Harbor. Weirdly enough for a disaster movie, the movie doesn’t have a whole lot of, if any, buildup to the actual attack but I don’t think it really needed one. Due to the film’s setting, and the infamy surrounding it, you’re constantly dreading how everyone is going to react when the planes do finally hit without anyone having to say a word. The second that one character calls the town they’re in Pearl Harbor, you immediately know what’s going to be coming. And when it does, it is pretty harrowing. Like most other battle epics of the day, they avoid the temptation of having a score overlay the battle scene which makes it feel a lot more real. Having spent 2 hours with these characters does make it very engaging at watching how all of them react to the attack.
While the climax is excellent, the actual resolution is a bit disappointing. Without giving it away, the movie ends on a bit of a bittersweet moment and was one of the first movies to really show the human life that can be wasted by war. The final tragedy is one of failed redemption as one of the main characters is killed before they can complete their character arc. This was a bit of a risky move at the time as most war movies before this ended on either a triumphant note or, on the rare occasion when they did have the stones to kill off their lead, their deaths usually meant something. Having a death be essentially meaningless is a risky move to end on though I ultimately think that the risk doesn’t really pay off.
As I’m sure you know, the 1960s were a real inflection point in American filmmaking and you can divide classic cinema from movies released before the 60s and movies released afterwards. Films released beforehand do have a bit of a cheesiness built in due to the antiquated acting and values that can make watching them a bit of an acquired taste. Even films that are darker still have that old-school style to them. From Here to Eternity is not any different which makes the “failed redemption” climax end up ringing a little bit hollow. The film isn’t nearly Hellish enough to make a “war is Hell” point and it leaves the ending feeling a bit jarring. And not in a way that a good, more modern war movie makes it feel. I was just a bit weirded out by the whole thing.
I think this is also ultimately why From Here to Eternity has largely been forgotten by modern audiences as it finds itself caught between the fairy tale-like war movies like Casablanca (1942) and Since You Went Away (1944) and the later, truly gritty war movies like The Deer Hunter (1977) and Apocalypse Now (1979). While it was the first movie to show corruption in the Army, that kind of story would be shown up very quickly.
It also bears mentioning that said corruption story is also extremely tame and the film didn’t push boundaries so much as it lightly tapped them. Since the film was also shot with the cooperation of the army, it had to undergo a few rewrites to make the institution look better, not to mention the Hays Code also putting a stop to the more ornery parts of the book. The movie is significantly less harsh than the book it was based on which makes that whole “critiquing the Army” thing feel a bit hollow. Just as two examples:
Captain Holmes does have a comeuppance in the movie while in the book he gets away with his crimes as the bureaucracy protects him.
Alma is supposed to be a prostitute in the book but her and her friends are just dancers in the movie. Because that’s all sailors do when they’re on shore leave: watch people dance.
From Here to Eternity’s biggest contribution to cinema would probably be another famous iconic movie romance moment that a lot of people aren’t aware of what movie it’s from. In this case, it’s this scene where Private Prewitt and Alma make out on the beach as the waves wash them over.
I personally always found this scene unintentionally funny as I’m sure fans of the movie tried to recreate it and found out the hard way why certain parts of your body should not be exposed to sand and rushing seawater.
Overall, From Here to Eternity is a good film that’s boundary-pushing was tame enough that it was quickly forgotten about. Considering how this movie came out during peak HUAC times, we can’t really blame it for not taking the Army to the cleaners. The fact that it got made at all during this time is pretty impressive. While it is a decent old movie, there are many other, better films that critique the United States institution in more compelling ways so I don’t think this is one worth going back to. Not a bad movie but there are better ways to spend your time.
But could it be called movie of the year though?
In case you missed it:
1st Academy Awards (1927/28): Wings/Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans: Part 1, Part 2
2nd Academy Awards (1928/29): The Broadway Melody: Part 1, Part 2
3rd Academy Awards (1929/30): All Quiet on the Western Front: Part 1, Part 2
4th Academy Awards (1930/31): Cimarron: Part 1, Part 2
5th Academy Awards (1931/32): Grand Hotel: Part 1, Part 2
6th Academy Awards (1932/33): Cavalcade: Part 1, Part 2
7th Academy Awards (1934): It Happened One Night: Part 1, Part 2
8th Academy Awards (1935): Mutiny on the Bounty: Part 1, Part 2
9th Academy Awards (1936): The Great Ziegfeld: Part 1, Part 2
10th Academy Awards (1937): The Life of Emile Zola: Part 1, Part 2
11th Academy Awards (1938): You Can't Take It With You: Part 1, Part 2
12th Academy Awards (1939): Gone With the Wind: Part 1, Part 2
13th Academy Awards (1940): Rebecca: Part 1, Part 2
14th Academy Awards (1941): How Green Was My Valley: Part 1, Part 2
15th Academy Awards (1942): Mrs. Miniver: Part 1, Part 2
16th Academy Awards (1943): Casablanca: Part 1, Part 2
17th Academy Awards (1944): Going My Way: Part 1, Part 2
18th Academy Awards (1945): The Lost Weekend: Part 1, Part 2
19th Academy Awards (1946): The Best Years of Our Lives: Part 1, Part 2
20th Academy Awards (1947): Gentleman's Agreement: Part 1, Part 2
21st Academy Awards (1948): Hamlet: Part 1, Part 2
22nd Academy Awards (1949): All The King's Men: Part 1, Part 2
23rd Academy Awards (1950): All About Eve: Part 1, Part 2
24th Academy Awards (1951): An American in Paris: Part 1, Part 2
25th Academy Awards (1952): The Greatest Show on Earth: Part 1, Part 2
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