From Here to Eternity Resources

If you want to learn a lot of technical facts, see a huge cast list, and scan giant lists of movie trivia, look no further. (Of course, if you want in-depth character analysis, extensive summaries, and lots more—there's this other website. It rhymes with "Shloop".)

This page aggregates all the (glowing) reviews of From Here to Eternity on the web, including those from newspapers and magazines… and those from obsessive Internet people.

AMC gives a little background, a little synopsis, and some fun facts on its film site.

The Mecca of Classic Movies brings you some film clips and a capsule Leonard Maltin review of From Here to Eternity, along with some other stuff.

This is the book itself—a veritable behemoth in length compared to the movie (the movie runs about two hours, while the book is plus-800 pages). Considered one of the greatest World War II novels, the novel is also considerably racier.

This miniseries starring Natalie Wood and William Devane was fairly well reviewed when it came out. But given that the movie already existed in classic form, why fight the mountain?

This TV series version also starred William Devane (the dude from all those gold-hoarding commercials) and ran for about eleven episodes.

This musical comes courtesy of Tim Rice—the guy who wrote the lyrics for The Lion King. People apparently liked it—and who wouldn't, coming from the guy who made "Hakuna Matata" a universal motto?

Barra's article goes deep—picking apart the Sinatra horse-head rumors and describing how the movie actually got made and all the challenges that arose.

This original New York Times review expressed total love for From Here to Eternity. Considering that the movie has endured this long, kudos to the reviewer for knowing a good thing when he saw it.

Patterson explains how James Jones' book was originally pretty explicit, gonorrhea and all. They had to tone that down for the movie, a bit.

This retrospective review is highly approving—Thomas was particularly bowled over by Alma's speech about wanting to be "proper."

Gritten describes the making of From Here to Eternity with all its challenges. The article puts Fred Zinnemann, the director, in an especially positive light (rightly so, it seems).

Ebert mentions From Here to Eternity in paying tribute to Lancaster's illustrious career.

Paris Review interviews are considered the literary interviews, which gives you an idea of James Jones' high standing. Since From Here to Eternity was his most famous book, he naturally talks about it here.

In this interview, conducted when she was eighty, Kerr reminisces and recalls how hard she worked to change her English accent in order to play Karen Holmes.

Glancy discusses the historical accuracy of three movies about Pearl Harbor—including From Here to Eternity.

The original trailer consists mainly of text against a background—but it ends with the famous kiss on the beach. See? They already knew it was going to be a thing.

Clift talks about his career and also tells the interviewer what he thinks about interviews.

Here's the famous scene itself—the iconic moment, the immortal instant. It's amazing how fast it actually happens.

Clift learned how to play the bugle for the role, but this is definitely an overdub.

They really wanted this song to catch on and played it a bunch of times during the movie. The guy on guitar is a famous country guitarist from the era, Merle Travis.

The director dishes about how From Here to Eternity was made. You can still hear his German accent (many of the great directors from this era were refugees from Germany—Zinnemann and Billy Wilder among them). Also, he hated the miniseries and TV versions.

Travis—who plays the guitar-playing character Sal Anderson in the movie—performs the movie's central tune.

Here's another version, courtesy of Floyd Kramer.

Ah, the zither—a weird, weird instrument. This guy does a striking version of "Re-Enlistment Blues" with it.

You kind of need to see it in motion to really "get it" though.

This poster relied on the already classic kiss scene to pump up the movie.

This poster talks about From Here to Eternity being based on "The boldest book of our time."

This poster came from after the movie's initial release, as you can tell by the way it touts the movie's eight Oscars.

Despite not really looking like a boxer, Clift made the role work in a huge way. Note the Hawaiian shirt.

This was Sinatra's huge movie breakthrough. No wonder he looks so happy.

Kerr had to switch from English duchess mode (her typical kind of role) to American beach-kissing mode for this movie.

Here's Lancaster standing in the rain, ready to hit on Karen Holmes.

Reed holds a cigarette and reclines seductively in The New Congress Club.

Here's Zinnemann—also known for the all-time classics A Man for All Seasons and High Noon.

Jones had a rep as a tough-guy writer—along the lines of Hemingway. That kind of shows through here.

Taradash, ace adapter of scripts, rocks a blazer and tie in this photo.