Release Year: 1953

Genre: Drama, Romance

Director: Fred Zinnemann

Writers: Daniel Taradash, James Jones (novel)

Stars: Deborah Kerr, Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift

If you watch From Here to Eternity, be warned—you may end up with a bathing suit full of sand.

From Here to Eternity is most famous for its kiss-on-the-beach scene, where Sgt. Warden (Burt Lancaster) and Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr) roll around in the surf and make out as a wave washes over them. This was not only super racy by the standards of the day, but probably also inspired tens of thousands of Americans to imitate it—little suspecting how much sand would infiltrate their bathing suits in the process.

But the movie is about more than tastefully erotic beach-snogging. It's a portrait of the U.S. Army on the brink of the beginning of World War II—and shortly after the war begins as well. In one wing of the plot, a soldier named Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) has to resist the malevolent Captain Holmes, who pressures him to box after he's quit the sport (Prewitt blinded a friend in the ring).

In the other plot wing, Sgt. Warden dates Holmes' wife on the sly—Holmes himself being an adulterous jerk already. How will they navigate these problems? Maybe some major event will get the ball rolling… (cough Pearl Harbor cough).

From Here to Eternity was based on James Jones' 1951 novel (same title), which won the National Book Award. Considering that Jones himself was stationed on Oahu, Hawaii, before the war, he probably knew what he was talking about—he depicts life in the army without undue glamorization, but with respect for the soldiers. Actually, the book's content (brothels, gonorrhea, you know) was toned down for the movie—the prostitutes at the New Congress Club are now "hostesses," though the pay-for-sex part is sort of half-implied.

Anyway, when adaptation time came along in 1953, From Here to Eternity was made into a smash hit movie that got everybody talking. It won tons of awards at the Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Best Supporting Actress (Donna Reed), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Daniel Taradash).

Frank Sinatra won Best Supporting Actor for his role as the hero's best friend, Angelo Maggio. (The Godfather later started a rumor that Sinatra's mobster pals bullied a producer into giving Sinatra the role by chopping off a horse's head and putting it in the producer's bed. But this was untrue, disappointingly or not.) From Here to Eternity won eight Oscars total, out of a whopping thirteen nominations.

Even if it has melodramatic elements, From Here to Eternity remains one of the classic movie representations of life in the army. So sit back, and enjoy—and if you must recreate the make-out scene, it's best to just lie on a towel.

Not to Be Confused With Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor

Why study this? Pearl Harbor and epic make-out scenes. 'Nuff said.

Oh yeah—and gritty realism, too.

From Here to Eternity documents, through the fictional lives of its characters, the outbreak of America's struggle in the largest war of the 20th century: WWII. Pearl Harbor, of course, was the beginning of American involvement in that war—the Japanese surprise attack on U.S. military installations and ships in Hawaii.

But From Here to Eternity doesn't really focus on the military or strategic side of the battle (other movies have done that, like Tora Tora Tora!). Instead, it looks at the human side, studying the lives of the soldiers who were stationed on (and making out on) Oahu in the months leading up to the attack.

The movie doesn't exactly make military life look glamorous. And this, coming less than a decade after the end of WWII, was a really, really big deal.

From Here To Eternity was about as far from pro-war propaganda as you could get. We see the villainous Captain Holmes try to bully a soldier named Robert E. Lee Prewitt into fighting in a boxing tournament… and Holmes is able to get plenty of goons from within the ranks to go along with his scheme. For Prewitt and his friend, Angelo Maggio, there's also a lot of drinking, fighting, carousing, and visits to a brothel-like hot spot called The New Congress Club.

Yeah. Try to imagine a wartime recruitment poster with Uncle Sam pointing and saying, "I want YOU for military bullying, boozing, and visiting prostitutes!" (Or just use the Uncle Sam poster generator.)

And that's not all that's going down on base. Sgt. Warden is hitting all the bases (bow chicka bow bow) with Captain Holmes' wife, while still uneasily going along with Holmes' plan to bully Prewitt. So everyone is adrift in a sea of malaise and dissolution—occasionally having love affairs, but not really going anywhere. No one's really committed to a Cause in a big way.

Finding Your Ideals

The Japanese bombs that fall on Pearl Harbor change all that. The date that will live in infamy shakes everyone out of their torpor and steels them with a new sense of purpose. Sgt. Warden is no longer another of Holmes' lackeys—he's one of the guys who'll win the war. And Prewitt rushes back from going AWOL (after a knife fight) to help his comrades.

And this turnabout is what, naturally, helped From Here To Eternity go from 1953 into filmic eternity—it manages to be both uber-realist and show how war can bring people together to fight for a common good. Think of it as the movie-cousin of Casablanca… except instead of Rick being a lone degenerate who makes good, this whole cast is made up of kinda-scummy characters who get right.

And who doesn't love a redemption story?