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the audience applauded

Just what I expected

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

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.

Hawaii, late-1941. We see the lives of a few men at an Army base, in particular Private Prewett, Sergeant Warden and Private Maggio. They have their lives and loves. All their stories will come to a head on 7 December when they will be first hand witnesses to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.Every bit the classic it is made out to be. Good script, containing many plots and sub-plots, running in parallel, culminating in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Solid direction from Fred Zinnemann.Superb performances by a great cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra - all five of them got Oscar nominations with Reed winning Best Supporting Actress and Sinatra Best Supporting Actor. The cast also includes early-career appearances by Jack Warden and Ernest Borgnine.The movie itself won the 1954 Best Picture Oscar and director Fred Zinnemann won Best Director. It finished with a total of 8 wins and another 5 nominations.

I never saw this movie until just a few years ago, and, again, over the 2015 Memorial Day Weekend, because I thought it was just another love story...but, it's much deeper and much more complicated than that.It 'is' a love story of new, dangerous, and, impractical love, but, it's also about personal problems; playing favorites and manipulation in the military; people finding themselves in places and situations they hadn't intended on and don't like; and, all at a time when the world was about to change forever.The star-studded cast is superb, although, ironically, 'many of them' were not first choice by the studio head. The characters are solid and each has just the right type of personality to make the story believable when they interact and create intriguing situations.I feel kind of silly for having missed out on this terrific movie for all these years (as I also did with "The Bridges of Madison County" - another I thought was 'just another love story.'). From now on, I'll watch a movie when advised to.This is a great classic movie that 'everyone' should see at least once.

"A man should be what he can do." 'From Here to Eternity' (1953) embodies a whole new glimpse on U.S. history film all on its own. Shot in glorious black and white with a sharp, savvy screenplay and directed by the great Fred Zinnemann, (who had directed High Noon a year prior,) does this picture accurately capture the life of the soldiers that are stationed on the Schofield Barracks on the Hawaiian island of Oahu in late 1941? Let's take a look. Entering into the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, thus beginning World War II and while waiting around on the island, it is revealed to the viewer the soldier's emotions of boredom and utter loneliness. The film stars many popular actors of the day. Montgomery Clift plays Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, transferred to the barracks of Oahu. There, Captain Dana Holmes, played by Philip Ober, learns of his talent as a talented boxer and pressures him into joining a regimental boxing club in which Prewitt stubbornly rejects. 1st Sergeant Milton Warden, played by Burt Lancaster, agrees to change Prewitt's mind by making his life as difficult as possible. Prewitt is also supported by his friend Private Angelo Maggio throughout, played by Frank Sinatra.In discussing the history portrayed, it tells the viewer that it was designed to show a world that, even though tropical and lush, would soon unfold near the end into traumatic chaos and destruction. It was shown at a time just before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor where young soldiers were sent off to be stationed far away, and not one of them really knew what was going to happen or what the next day would bring forth. World War II was indeed on the deadly brink of a surprise attack, and every American soldier knew that they had to be on their guard nonetheless.In prevailing attitudes/prejudices that were noticeable, one example would be the constant squabbling and rough-necking between Maggie and the bigoted Staff Sergeant James R. "Fatso" Judson, played by Ernest Borgine. One night, Prewitt and Maggio are in a bar and Maggio is so inebriated that, according to him, "Fatso" is playing the piano too loudly in the background. This ensues into Maggio and "Fatso" almost having at it in the middle of the bar, only to be broken up by Prewitt. But their bantering does not end there. Later on in the film, their disdain for each other unfolds into a knife fight in a back alley, in which Maggio winds up in the stockade by "Fatso" for antagonizing him. "Fatso" beats the new prisoner repeatedly until Maggio escapes to find Prewitt and then tells him of all the pain he has endured and then dies in his arms. Prewitt sets out to find "Fatso" and kills him in revenge with a knife fight, and Prewitt receives a sharp slash across the stomach in return. He is later shot by a sentry after coming out of hiding.In describing historical accuracy, it probably comes close as to where the soldiers and recruits are just marching or hanging out and enjoying the paradise around them. Many of them back then may as well have done that. However, the locations was a beautiful oasis, and the surprise attack neat the end of the film comes very close to an accurate depiction. The side-angles of the planes zooming in or overhead dropping bombs were amazing effects, as well as guns being fired by the soldiers and the loud explosions of shells going off everywhere on the island. The air once filled with a tropical breeze was now choked in the thick black smog of war. The time period itself was quite accurate too, even though it was twelve years after the actual event had occurred. And the barracks looked just like they would have that the soldiers were stationed in. Nonetheless, great accuracy and detail throughout the picture.My overall reaction towards this film is that it is one of Zinneman's best. His directorial persistence and settings in this film are as only he can do them. The film was indeed worth watching. Some parts were slow and mushy, including the famous love scene on the beach portrayed by Lancaster and Deborah Kerr laying on the sand as a wave crashes over them, to brutish as Maggio and "Fatso" duel it out with a knife fight at night in a black alley. The most action is near the end of the film with the famous surprise attack on Pearl Harbor itself, when air raid sirens are blaring and gun shots and explosions light up the tropical sky. It is, after all, a classic World War II movie masterpiece, with intriguing action, fight scenes, romance and explosions. How I reacted to the film as a moviegoer was for me, quite a unique experience. I really had no idea what I was in for. I actually felt the hardships and loneliness of the soldiers being stuck on the island, not knowing what would happen or when they would return home. I also felt the horrors of the surprise attack when the bombs where booming and the blood was flowing. All in all, a great movie experience.'From Here to Eternity' was one of the greatest films on U.S. history that I had the privilege of viewing. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, the actors and actresses and the beautiful settings portrayed, filled with action, flair and horrific atrocities and aftermath of war. The film had thirteen nominations and won eight Academy Awards. Every detail and precision in this film paid off magnificently. A film unique among films, this truly is a must-see for all U.S. history film buffs or for anyone who wants to experience the same pleasure and gratification I had personally gained from watching this wonderful classic motion picture about friendships, romance and war, thanks to Mr. Zinneman and Mr. James Jones novel-turned-feature as well.