This week's Cinema Sunday is about one of those classic films, the 1953 drama From Here To Eternity
I used to joke that best way to add a jolt of energy to any story is to add this: "Suddenly World War II was declared!"
Seriously, take this passage from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of both were overspread with the deepest blush. She was convinced that she could have been happy with him, when it was no longer likely they should meet.
From Here To Eternity is most notable as a pop culture phenomenon for the famous scene where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr make out in the ocean surf, waves crashing over their writhing bodies, lost in their forbidden passions.
OK, this scene is bullshit. Look, you've got sand getting in crevices you never want sand to get into let alone the salt water and seaweed and, well, yuck!
It's also the happiest any two people get in this thing.
You need to go back to write up on Wuthering Heights for another movie where characters are so unrelentingly unhappy.
As I said then of Wuthering Heights, I'll repeat it here for From Here to Eternity: "NOBODY in this DAMN MOVIE is HAPPY!! At all!"
Objectively speaking, this film deserves it's rep as an award winning classic. Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed act the hell out of this thing, delivering strong and riveting performances.
Burt Lancaster is First Sergeant Milton Warden, first officer to Captain Holmes who ostensibly in command of an army base in Hawaii. Holmes is more interested in playing politics with the army brass to further his ambitions so all the real work of running things is left to Warden. Warden is pretty damn competent doing all the army stuff that Holmes doesn't care to do.
That also includes sexing up Karen Holmes, the Captain's desperately lonely wife played by Deborah Kerr.
Montgomery Clift is Private Robert E. Lee "Prew" Prewitt. Capt. Holmes is eager for his base to win this year's boxing contest and Prewitt is by all accounts a kick ass boxer. Who refuses to box because of a deep dark secret in his past. Holmes doesn't give a fuck about Prewitt's deep dark secret and resolves to make the private's existence a living hell until he breaks and agrees to box.
Prewitt is also an ace bugler who also refuses to bugle for... reasons.
Prewitt falls hard for Alma Burke (Donna Reed) whose working girl name is "Lorene". Look, it's an American movie made in the 1950's so no one is allowed to say Lorene is a whore who has sex for money but...
And there's Frank Sinatra as Private Angelo Maggio, a wiry, cocky hustler who is probably Prewitt's only real friend on the base. Maggio also has a mouth that doesn't know when to quit which puts him at odds with an angry sergeant and ultimately gets Maggio killed.
Holmes get shit canned from his comfy gig as being in charge when the army brass he was trying to impress do finally notice him and realize he's doing fuck all about any actual army stuff.
Actually doing army stuff is important because....
(Wait for it.)
Suddenly World War II is declared!
Oh good! The Japanese are attacking Pearl Harbor.
Warden is large and in charge as he rallies the men to defend against this surprise attack. (Japan's invites to the Americans were lost in the mail.) Warden shows his bonafides as a kick ass army leader in the heat of battle.
But he doesn't get the girl. Karen's off to the mainland.
And (spoiler) Prewitt gets killed for being stupid.
And Lorene's off on the same boat with with Karen.
NOBODY in this DAMN MOVIE is HAPPY!! At all!
And now it's time for....
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department
Ernest Borgnine is the army sergeant who has it in for Maggio. It's a rare unsympathetic role for Borgnine who is usally a more likeable schmuck.
Claude Akins shows up. Akins is a character actor who has appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows. His most famous role was Sheriff Lobo in BJ and the Bear (which was an actual TV show that really existed about a crime solving truck driver and his pet chimp named Bear.)
And yes, that is actually George Reeves making an appearance. Reeves' biggest claim to fame was the role of Superman/Clark Kent in the 1950's TV series, The Adventures of Superman.
From Here to Eternity is preserved in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
And yes, having actually seen this film, I would agree with that assessment. It's a dramatic epic of people caught up in the tangled webs of their own desires and failings against the backdrop of a world teetering on the edge of war. It's a stark and gripping narrative and a film worth seeing.
If you don't mind that NOBODY in this DAMN MOVIE is HAPPY!! At all!.
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