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From Here To Eternity
TCM will show another of its “Essentials,” Fred Zinnemann’s unforgettable masterpiece From Here to Eternity 1953. The lives of five people are intertwined and come together on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor –the defining moment in 20th century America. These strongly defined characters are brilliantly played by one of the most extraordinarily effective casts ever assembled: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed.
From Here to Eternity’s iconic status today, makes it difficult to imagine the great controversy it raised when it was released in 1953. James Jones’ epic 800-page novel was a huge bestseller; But Its language was so crude, it was raw and unwieldy and was thought to be un-filmable. The highly complex story would have taken hours of screen time to do justice to its expansive narrative. The censors would never allow Jones’ graphic description of matter of fact sexuality and his portrayal of military life as a dehumanizing force that can destroy a man. After paying the then staggering amount of $82,000 for the rights, Columbia chief Harry Cohn was determined to complete the production, quickly known throughout the film community as “Cohn’s Folly.” Cohn whet through dozens of treatments until he at last found an adaptation by Daniel Taradash.
Dan Taradash’s screenplay is a tapestry woven from the stories of five people. Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), an accomplished bugler and boxer, was a stubborn individualist who loved the Army despite repeated attempts by the service cut him down to size, he still marches to his own tune regardless of the consequences. In the months prior to World War II, is transferred to Schofield Barracks on Oahu, his new commander, Captain Holmes (Philip Ober) tries to use heavy handed measures to persuade Prewitt to join the company’s boxing team. He is rejected by every soldier on base except his sergeant, Milt Warden (Burt Lancaster) , a New Jersey hood, Private Maggio (Frank Sinatra). Zinnemann said in 1984 that From Here to Eternity has “really four different stories going on at the same time: Warden’s affair with Holmes’ wife, Karen (Deborah Kerr) ; Prewitt’s love for Alma Lorene (Donna Reed), an embittered prostitute angling for a better life; Maggio’s ultimately fatal feud with sadistic Sergeant “Fatso” Judson (Ernest Borgnine). Everything climaxes on that fateful Sunday, when the US Army and Navy installations on Oahu are attacked by Japan, forcing everyone to put their lives on hold to fight a common enemy.
Casting the film was risky, particularly with regard to Frank Sinatra, The role was a turning point for the young “Old Blue Eyes” transforming him from has-been teen idol to legitimate actor. He worked hard to get the role, relentlessly pestering Harry Cohn until he finally acquiesce (The legend perpetuated by the famous horse head scene in The Godfather is a fiction). Montgomery Clift, charter member of the New York Actors Studio and an intense but difficult actor, was not the first choice as the heroic Prewitt. Donna Reed, the girl-next-door type, won the role of the prostitute, Alma. Zinnemann was insistent on Deborah Kerr, even though she was known as playing prim and proper ladies, saying that audiences would remain in suspense to see if such a woman would actually “sleep around.”
A major logistical problem was securing the assistance of the Army, because a film about military life in Hawaii would be almost impossible without it. The original position of the Army brass was to reject any project based on Jones’ highly critical book. Former Army officer, producer Buddy Adler, was able to win conditional approval by making two important changes. First, the sadistic hazing given to Maggio by Fatso could only be implied, not shown, and his behavior had to be seen as an anomaly, not the norm or as Jones’ book depicted, the result of Army policy. Taradash and Zinnemann went along with that concession and felt that Maggio’s dying in Prewitt’s arms would be very effective. More difficult to swallow, however, was the second change. In the novel, the dastardly Captain Holmes is promoted to major, the filmmakers found this to be appropriately ironic. But the Army forced them to write a scene in which the captain’s conduct is called to account and he is forced by the base commanders to choose either from resigning or a court martial. Zinnemann would write later that it was, “the worst moment in the film, resembling a recruiting short.”
Although Clift stated privately that he thought Burt Lancaster was an awful actor and “a big bag of wind” His atitude is contrasted with Lancaster’s, who had great respect for Clift’s talent. “The only time I was ever really afraid as an actor,” Lancaster admitted, “was that first scene with Clift. It was my scene, understand. I was the sergeant, I gave the orders, he was just a private under me. Well, when we started, I couldn’t keep my knees from shaking….I’d never worked with an actor of Clift’s power before. I was afraid he was going to blow me right off the screen.” Lancaster’s anxiety was reflected in a number incidents, disagreement over his lines, the camera angles, and his appearance. He fought continually with the normally even-keeled Zinnemann, the director was goaded into telling him to go “screw” himself.
The scene that will be forever remembered, arguably one of the most famous in the history of cinema; Lancaster and Kerr laying on the beach in an embrace as the surf foams up around them. She responds to his passionate kiss saying “I never knew it could be like this!”
The picture was both a critical and a box-office success, winning an incredible eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay (Daniel Taradash), Cinematography (Burnett Guffey) and Best Supporting Oscars for Donna Reed and Frank Sinatra.
