Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Lawbolisted Powerful

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

MisterWhiplash This is ostensibly a film about life before war breaks out - the climax (not a spoiler I don't think) is the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 - but it's also about how much it sucks to be a man. And a woman. Actually it is not something that is too appealing it would seem to be a part of an army base during peacetime from the looks of this. The women in this world are in miserable marriages or at miserable jobs, and the guys are stuck in the same super-masculine patterns: do some boxing, trust me, Pruitt, it'll be good for you (nevermind that he blinded a guy by accident in a fight years before), and make sure to have plenty of booze when it's the nighttime.Even the setting is deceptive: the beautiful beaches and sweet presence of Hawaii (those shirts!) are masking how if a person cant take being around other a-holes it doesn't change anything. Through this it makes for a compelling batch of stories; you have Lancaster as a sergeant who falls for the Captains wife (Deborah Kerr in a performance that is so intense at times it nears going into being too much, but she always keeps a scene and her delivery of these lines in check) and the conflict in whether to go for it in the 'after all this' thing; Pruitt (Clift), who this feels like the movie is more about than its top billed star, is filled with guilt and angst and should also be too much to take, but also finds those lines of keeping it compelling and interesting, full of pain and fury and all that, but also not going too far.The only one who may be having 'fun' up to a point is Sinatras Maggio, who becomes the brunt of racist remarks (damn you Ernest Borgnine, who's great in his few scenes by the way and cuts a mean impression), and is the first to drown himself in booze when it becomes clear life is being much too oppressive. Though one knows how this story is leading up to its eventual conclusion, it feels more like a post war story (and it is by way of it being filmed in 53) while coming before. A guy like Maggio would've faced likely the same sort of bullies and pricks in post war life as pre, but in this world he has no escape from what this BS tough guy male world has to do to people. Or does it have to? Yeah, it does.There are points where it likely has dated, where the hopes and aspirations for the women especially (or some of them men too) are different than it would be today or even like 20 years after the pre Pearl Harbor days. What were the options then, one has to ask, and it leads to having to take things on the context when it was made. What makes it work today from being dated is the power of the performances and that the writing is smart enough to recognize everyone as flawed to varying degrees, and that Zinneman keeps a strong hold on the dramatic tone scene to scene. If there's anything flawed its minor, like leaving the Lancaster-Kerr relationship to the wayside for a good part of the run-time until returning to that in the third act.So if you only expect like the romance of that iconic bit on the beach you may be in for not so much disappointment but a heavier and more empathetic tale of soldiers and women and the problems in trying to be true to feelings when its not possible. Sure its a melodrama, but so what? If its done this well its worth embracing to this day, and Sinatra, Clift and Jean Arthur are worth noting for their terrific acting.

tavm After so many years of only knowing this film by reputation, I finally watched this on a Korean Air flight. It's a very compelling drama but after reading the differences from the novel on Wikipedia, it probably would have even been a better one had it been made after the Production Code era. I mean, I'm glad Donna Reed-who I always first think of as Mary Bailey in my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life-won the Oscar for her performance but if it had been revealed she was a prostitute and not just a dance hall girl, her performance would have been so much more powerful. And Frank Sinatra was very compelling in his first straight role but if he didn't have a death scene-and his character actually survived in the book-he probably wouldn't have been nominated, not to mention eventually won, his Oscar for this. Still, this was a fine showcase for such actors like Montgomery Clift, Bert Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, and Ernest Borgnine of which this was his first major film role. So, overall, From Here to Eternity was mostly a very well made film. P.S. Another of the players was one Philip Ober, who was married to Vivian Vance at the time. She was in the No. 1 show on TV during this period-"I Love Lucy"-and her hubby had appeared on the show twice, the second time as then M-G-M head Dore Schary. They'd eventually divorce in 1959.

TxMike This was the darling of 1953, winning a whole slew of Oscars and several more nominations. One of the Oscars went to Sinatra for Best Supporting Actor. Most of us remember Sinatra for his singing but he was a fine actor with 64 roles credited to him.This story takes place in Hawaii in 1941 on an Army base, just a few months before the eventual December 7th surprise attack of Pearl Harbor, the event that got the USA into WW2 against the Japanese. There is a boxing theme running through it, with the military championships scheduled for December 15th, and we know that will be upstaged.Burt Lancaster in his early 40s is the lead as Sgt. Milton Warden. He is confident and runs a tight ship, but he also has his eye on the pretty girls, one in particular, the wife of his commanding officer. It seems pretty well known that the officer routinely cheats on his wife so that makes the pursuit somewhat logical. Deborah Kerr in her early 30s plays that woman, Karen Holmes. The second main story involves Montgomery Clift as Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, a former boxer who quit after a man he knocked over was badly injured and lost his sight. So he was transferred to Hawaii and ceaselessly harassed by men in his platoon trying to get him to change his mind and fight on the team.In his Oscar role Frank Sinatra was Angelo Maggio, a little guy with a big heart but who drank too much. In a bar another man, Ernest Borgnine as Sgt. 'Fatso' Judson, insulted Angelo's mother so Angelo hit Fatso over the head with a chair. The fight was broken up but later when Angelo was thrown in the brig for deserting his guard post, under the 'care' of Fatso, it eventually led to Angelo's death.The last scenes in the movie depict the attack of December 7th and it appears that some real news footage of the attack was used.Several good stories are woven in and while I haven't seen the movies this was competing against I can understand why it was then and still is considered such a timeless movie.

jdonalds-5 I find it interesting that after watching this movie last night I am giving it 6 stars when I might have given it 8 or 9 years ago. I find that it has lost it's luster over the years. You just can't beat Burt Lancaster. Even if I just watch the movie to see his very strong personality and body movements it would be worth the time. He was such an unusual and interesting actor.Some of why the movie doesn't draw a higher score from me is because the pace of movies has sped up over the years, making this one seem slow. Also older movies tend to have a lot more dialog than new ones; whether that is good or not is subjective. But I find this movie lacked action.The morals of this movie must have stunned audiences back in 1953; perhaps that is what made it such a big hit.All in all it's still worth a watch.