Laura’s Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
From Here to Eternity won eight Academy Awards out of 13 nominations, including the award for Best Picture. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the movie, everyone has seen the famous kissing scene on the beach, proving the film was justified in being selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2002.
The Analysis:
While this is a war movie, it centers more on relationships and a bit on the inner workings of the Army. Talented bugler, boxer, and career soldier Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt transfers to a rifle company in Oahu, Hawaii. After an accident with a friend while boxing, Prewitt refuses to ever participate in another fight. He tells Captain Holmes that he will not fight on his new regiment’s boxing team. In response, Holmes encourages First Sergeant Warden and the other soldiers to haze Prewitt and make his life miserable. Prewitt’s only real friend is Private Angelo Maggio, a scrappy Italian who can’t seem to stay out of trouble. On a weekend, Maggio and Prewitt head to a private club to mingle with some ladies and Prewitt is drawn to a beautiful woman named Lorene, although it’s difficult for them to see each other often. Meanwhile, First Sergeant Warden also finds himself in a precarious romantic entanglement with the wife of his commanding officer. None of them know it, but the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor will be what ultimately determines the fate of these relationships.
Many films focus on war with just a side plot about friendship or romance, but this movie portrayed the attack on Pearl Harbor through a more personal lens. I enjoyed the different approach of making the relationships central to the plotline, showing the personal side effects of war, rather than focusing on the broader historical implications. Although the characters are fictional, the personal stories made the movie more impactful, because it showed how such an infamous historical event shaped the lives of individuals.
From Here to Eternity can appeal to a relatively wide range of viewers. The movie has parts of many genres, combining comedy, drama, romance, and war. However, I don’t think modern audiences would enjoy this film as much as audiences of the time. It has an old-fashioned feel and people watching the movie less than a decade after WWII ended would have a much more vested interest in the subject, relating to the characters more than today’s viewers ever could. I think in the 1950s, this would have been a 4 or 5 star film, but viewing it today feels slightly underwhelming considering the high praise and many awards the film received when it came out. This is a quality movie and an enjoyable one, but it has to be judged through the lens of its time. I’d recommend it to fans of older or historical films.
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