From Here to Eternity

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From Here to Eternity (1953)

There’s a reason From Here to Eternity won eight Academy Awards and was nominated for five others. The stellar cast is in large part responsible as two leading men and several supporting characters of almost leading caliber delivery hard-hitting performances.

The story follows a Hawaiian military base in the months preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s official entrance into World War II. Because the country is not at war for most of the picture, however, we get to see what life was like for the “30-year” men who enlisted with the aim of making a career out of military life. Yes, they do drills, but they also spend their evenings in town getting drunk and meeting women.

But the story is as unsavory as that. It commences with the arrival of Pvt. Robert E. Lee Pruitt (Montgomery Clift) on base, having transferred from his post as a bugler because he was passed over for the first bugle position. He was directed to his receiving base because Capt. Holmes (Philip Ober) once saw him box and aspires to have his division win the inter-regiment boxing league. Pruitt refuses to box, however, because the last time he did he blinded a man.

Pruitt’s story surrounds the intimidation and mistreatment he receives at the hands of the other boxing men in the ranks who try to pressure him to enter the ring. Pruitt makes a great pal, however, in Pvt. Maggio (Frank Sinatra) –a high-spirited soldier who introduces Pruitt to the benefits of a social club in town. It is at said club that Pruitt meets Lorene (Donna Reed), with whom he quickly falls in love. The two maintain a romance that is stifled by Lorene’s confession she does not want to marry an army man.

Maggio, meanwhile, makes a fast enemy in “Fatso”, the sergeant of the stockades (Ernest Borgnine). At a bar in town, Maggio argues with him over the sergeant’s piano playing, the musician calls Maggio a “wop” and the disagreement continues for months. When Maggio is given a last-minute assignment to cover the watch, he shirks his duty and goes on with his original plans to get drunk. His court martial lands him in the stockade where Fatso brutally beats him for weeks. Maggio escapes from the stockade and finds his way to Pruitt only to die moments later.

But those two dramatic tales are not alone in From Here to Eternity. Burt Lancaster as Sgt. Warden presents the story’s romantic plot. Warden is assistant to Cpt. Holmes and catches the eye of the philandering officer’s wife, Karen (Deborah Kerr). Although Karen has been known to get around herself, she confesses to never having known a feeling like that she experiences with Warden. By the end of the movie, the couple hopes to get married, but if Karen is to divorce Holmes, Warden will have to secure an officer’s position in order to transfer out of the regiment. The enlisted man is resistant to the idea, however, and when the war starts, everything will change.

No matter which character you become invested in, by the end of From Here to Eternity you will find yourself heartbroken. For a war movie set during (relative) peace time, the tragedies endured by the various characters are significant. Although the villains –Cpt. Homes and Fatso– get what they deserve, the sweetest character –Maggio– suffers the worst fate. Sinatra won the Best Supporting Actor award and deservedly so. He had pushed to get the role for which producers had passed over Eli Wallach because of his salary demands. Filmmakers thought Sinatra’s skinny build portrayed the helpless image the character called for, and so he got the part. Joan Crawford endeavored to take the role of Karen but also had demands that put her off for the filmmakers. The role was a different one for Kerr who typically played sophisticated roles. Although she brings an upper class air to the part, the character nevertheless has a semi-sordid past.

The direction of the film, by Fred Zinnemann is also superb with beautifully composed deep-focus shots and some of the most memorable scenes in movie history –see Lancaster and Kerr cavorting among the waves. From Here to Eternity does nothing to show the Army in a positive light, yet the Army itself approved its screening in camps. The Navy, meanwhile, banned it for its derogatory portrayal of a sister service.

Source: TCM.com

They Were Expendable

Ring a Ding Ding

They Were Expendable (1945)

     I am typically not a huge fan of war pictures but am always willing to sit through a good one, especially if it stars Robert Montgomery. A friend recently commented on this site that his favorite Montgomery pictures include this one, and I happened to have in on my DVR from TCM, so here we are.

     When I think of director John Ford, I envision truly American  and realistic films, and They Were Expendable fits that assumption. The plot line seems like something adapted from a soldier’s diary. It is an extremely linear plot following PT boat crews in the Philippines in the time following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The story follows two lieutenants – Montgomery and John Wayne – as their team endures various battles, operations and plenty of losses. The characters refer to losing “34 boat” and others rather than losing men. The emotional toll of the war cannot be found in these men but rather in the faces of young soldiers depicted in the movie. Wayne and Montgomery know their role in the war – to do what they can be endure many losses, hence the “expendable” title.

     Also included in the story is a romance between Wayne and Donna Reed, a nurse who cares for the man’s wounded hand. Reed puts on quite a good show by doing very little. The woman emits nearly no emotion while assisting in a surgical operation during an air raid. Through seemingly doing nothing, she conveys so much. At one point she almost imperceptibly bites her lower lip, saying it all. It was her role in Expendable that led director Frank Capra to select Reed as his wife character in It’s a Wonderful Life. Although the romance pops up throughout the middle of the film, it leaves the plot almost completely as the PT crews are sent on a mission from which they are not expected to return.

     Although the war effects – complete with explosions, fires, and diving planes – add immensely to the flick’s realism, what possibly makes Expendable most believable is the ending. Neither happy nor sad, the conclusion is left hanging with the viewer uncertain of what will become of our protagonists or the remainder of their troops. Expendable is not an uplifting movie but it is very well acted and visually executed.

Source: Robert Osborne