From Here to Eternity 1953
This is another very famous movie that I had never managed to see until I was able to borrow it using a Screen Pass. It finished at number 52 on AFI’s 1998 Top 100 list. It is kind of a gritty movie about army life, in this case on Hawaii in the months before Pearl Harbor. Montgomery Clift puts in a nice, smoldering performance and Burt Lancaster is also very strong (literally, he looks amazing in a uniform). They show a little of a dark side of military service as some of the characters are bullied or cheat on their wives. It is a little of a soap opera as the cast date or fall in love, but the characters are pretty good and a lot of stars show up. They get drunk a lot, which is hard to portray well, and the movie suffers in those moments, which are short at least. It isn’t really a war movie, though it essentially ends with some action scenes as the soldiers try to do anything they can to stop the Japanese attack. It is unspoken that the characters who live through this will have even less chance once the war really gets going, which gives the movie a little more gravitas. The iconic scene of the kiss in the surf almost feels out of place (and takes place fairly early), but maybe shows some of the intensity they were going for. The focus on flawed characters makes the movie feel more modern than a lot of military movies.
Written: 14 Sep 2021
Owned on: Digital