From Here to Eternity movie storyline. James Jones’ best-selling, hard-hitting novel of on-duty/off-duty military life among recruits in the pre-Pearl Harbor era of 1941 – on the eve of WWII. A combination romance, combat and melodramatic film set at the Schofield Barracks Army base on Oahu. Sensitive bugler Pvt. Robert E. Lee “Prew” Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) is dealt harsh treatment when he stubbornly refuses to fight for the company’s boxing team.
In 1941, bugler and career soldier Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) transfers to a rifle company at Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu. Captain Dana “Dynamite” Holmes (Philip Ober) has heard he is a talented middleweight boxer and wants him to join his regimental team to secure a promotion for Holmes. Prewitt refuses, having stopped fighting because he blinded his sparring partner and close friend over a year before.
Holmes makes life as miserable as possible for Prewitt, hoping that he will change his mind, and then orders First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) to prepare general court-martial papers after Sergeant Galovitch (John Dennis) first insults Prewitt and then gives an unreasonable order that Prewitt refuses to obey. Warden suggests, however, that he try to get Prewitt to change his mind by doubling up on company punishment. The other non-commissioned officers join in the hazing, and Prewitt is supported only by his close friend, Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra).
Meanwhile, Warden, at the risk of a prison sentence, begins an affair with Holmes’ neglected wife, Karen (Deborah Kerr). Sergeant Maylon Stark (George Reeves) has told Warden about Karen’s many previous affairs at Fort Bliss, including with himself. As their relationship develops, Warden asks Karen about her affairs to test her sincerity, and Karen relates that Holmes has been unfaithful to her most of their marriage. She miscarried one night when Holmes returned home from seeing a hat-check girl, drunk and unable to call a doctor, rendering her barren. She then affirms her love for Warden and tells him that if he became an officer, she could divorce Holmes and marry him; Warden reluctantly agrees to consider it.
Prewitt and Maggio spend their liberty at the New Congress Club, a gentlemen’s club where Prewitt falls for Lorene (Donna Reed). She wants to marry a “proper” man with a “proper” job and live a “proper” life. Maggio and Staff Sergeant James R. Judson (Ernest Borgnine) nearly come to blows at the club over Judson’s loud piano playing. Later, Judson provokes Maggio by taking his photograph of his sister from him, kissing it, and whispering in Prewitt’s ear. Maggio smashes a barstool over Judson’s head. Judson pulls a switchblade, but then Warden intervenes. Judson backs down, but warns Maggio that sooner or later he will end up in the stockade, where Judson is in charge.
During a weekend liberty, while Prewitt is with Lorene at the New Congress Club, Maggio walks in drunk and in uniform having deserted his post. The military police arrest Maggio, and he is sentenced to six months in the stockade.
Sergeant Galovitch later picks a fight with Prewitt while he is on detail, and a crowd gathers as the two start fighting. At first, Prewitt resorts only to body blows, and even then pulling his punches, but his fighting spirit reemerges and he comes close to knocking Galovitch out before Holmes, who had been watching for some time from outside the crowd, finally steps in and stops the fight. Galovitch accuses Prewitt of starting the fight, but when the man in charge of the detail says that it was Galovitch, Holmes abruptly lets him off the hook and disperses the crowd.
The entire incident is witnessed by the base commander, who orders an investigation by the Inspector General. When the truth about Holmes is revealed to the commander he orders a court martial, but when Holmes begs for an alternative, an aide suggests that Holmes resign his commission; the commander accepts the suggestion and orders Holmes’ resignation within the hour. Holmes’ replacement, Captain Ross (John Bryant), reprimands the others involved in the hazing and orders the boxing team’s framed photographs and trophies be destroyed; he then demotes Galovitch to private and puts him in charge of the latrine.
From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and written by Daniel Taradash, based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. The picture deals with the tribulations of three U.S. Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed portray the women in their lives, and the supporting cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Philip Ober, Jack Warden, Mickey Shaughnessy, Claude Akins, and George Reeves.
The film won eight Academy Awards out of 13 nominations, including awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Fred Zinnemann), Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra), and Supporting Actress (Donna Reed). The film’s title originally comes from a quote from Rudyard Kipling’s 1892 poem “Gentlemen-Rankers”, about soldiers of the British Empire who had “lost [their] way” and were “damned from here to eternity”.
From Here to Eternity (1953)
Directed by: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Philip Ober, Harry Bellaver, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden, John Dennis, Merle Travis, Barbara Morrison
Screenplay by: Daniel Taradash
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Burnett Guffey, Floyd Crosby
Film Editing by: William A. Lyon
Costume Design by: Jean Louis
Set Decoration by: Frank Tuttle
Art Direction by: Cary Odell
Music by: George Duning
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: August 5, 1953
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