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Holistic Guidance - From Here to Eternity
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $2.94
Your Save: $ 12.01 ( 80% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Columbia Classics Tristar Home Video
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra
Directed By: Fred Zinnemann
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780800100834
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 0800100832
Label: Columbia Classics Tristar Home Video
Manufacturer: Columbia Classics Tristar Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Columbia Classics Tristar Home Video
Release Date: 1994-06-22
Running Time: 118
Studio: Columbia Classics Tristar Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1953
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Editorial Reviews:
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Here's a model for adapting a novel into a movie. The bestseller by James Jones, a frank and hard-hitting look at military life, could not possibly be made into a film in 1953 without considerably altering its length and bold subject matter. Yet screenwriter Daniel Taradash and director Fred Zinnemann (both of whom won Oscars for their work) pared it down and cleaned it up, without losing the essential texture of Jones's tapestry. The setting is an army base in Hawaii in 1941. Montgomery Clift, in a superb performance, plays a bugler who refuses to fight for the company boxing team; he has reasons for giving up the sport. His refusal results in harsh treatment from the company commander, whose bored wife (Deborah Kerr) is having an affair with the tough-but-fair sergeant (Burt Lancaster). You remember--the scene with the two of them embracing on the beach, as the surf crashes in. The supporting players are as good as the leads: Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed won Oscars (and Sinatra revitalized his entire career), and Ernest Borgnine entered the gallery of all-time movie villains, as the stockade sergeant who makes Sinatra miserable. Zinnemann's work is efficient but also evocative, capturing the time and place beautifully, the tropical breezes as well as the lazy prewar indulgence. This one is deservedly a classic. --Robert Horton
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An All-Time Great but Too Bad About the DVD!
Comment: This is an all-time great film for many reasons and should be in any film buff's dvd library. The screenplay is excellent and in a rarity for the time, there is really no happy ending at all and what I really liked about the film is that it came across as sincere and true to life; it hit home that in life, we don't always get the happy ending that we want at least not in the short term. The acting is also very, very good even for the often underrated Montgomery Clift who never got his due as a great actor not only for this brilliant role but also for his work in "The Misfits" and "A Place In the Sun". I thought Donna Reed was even better here than in "It's a Wonderful Life". Frank Sinatra thoroughly deserved his Oscar too.
One thing that is regrettable though is that this film wasn't made in colour which is a real waste of a wonderful setting. Having lived in Honolulu for a few years I can tell you that black and white doesn't do justice to what must be among the most beautiful settings that you can find in the world for any film let alone this masterpiece. In fact, among the special features is a clip of director Fred Zinnemann's home movies from the set and even that was in colour! The featurette "The Making of From Here To Eternity" was very good as well as the excerpt from "Fred Zinnemann: As I See It" which is where we get to see his home movies.
Too bad the dvd hasn't been restored well and so the picture and sound quality is poor. The good news is that with the advent of Blu-ray, the powers that be have the opportunity to do a much better restoration job on this great classic. Let's hope they clean up the picture frame-by-frame and provide at least Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound options of a superiorly remastered sound.
Great movie but you may want to wait for a better dvd version.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fine Film about Military Life on the Cusp of WWII
Comment: Wow. I saw this last night on TCM for the first time. I really wish I'd taken the time to see this movie earlier. This film is so much more than the classic beach scene they play constantly on greatest movie moments clip shows. Burt Lancaster gives a strong performance as Sgt. Warden, the first sergeant to an incompetent, philandering captain. Warden begins an affair with the captain's wife, Karen, played with aplomb by Deborah Kerr. The romantic beach scene is nice, but the real fireworks come right after, when Warden demands to know how many men she's been with. Deborah Kerr's performance when she answers makes watching the film worthwhile and it's barely begun!
The other main plot follows Montgomery Clift as Pruitt, a private and his buddy, Maggio, played by a charismatic Frank Sinatra, who almost steals the whole film. He's a confident, funny drunkard of a solider, an absolute delight to watch. Pruitt has his own problems, in that Captain Holmes wants him to box, which he cannot do after an incident from his past. Consequently, (with the exception of Maggio), he is made a pariah within the unit. Soon, his work ethic and love for the Army forge a bond between him and Warden. Pruitt also is in love, with Lorene, played by Donna Reed, a social club girl. Meanwhile, Maggio runs afoul of the stockade sergeant, a brilliantly nasty Ernest Borgdine.
The depiction of military life and the bond between the men in this movie was really well done. All three of the main male characters face conflict, but they never buckle, sticking to their convictions, no matter the cost. The relationships between the men and women were never facile, but multi-layered, as complex as any in real life. The actors all give amazing performances in this movie, never falling to soap opera hysterics. The ending came as a complete shock to me. I never expected the film to end as it did, and it was a nice change from most of the current Hollywood schlock that's out there. It's been quite some time since a movie surprised me. Little wonder that it took a film from 1953 to do so.
I have to say, there are so many fine moments in this film, it really surprises me that the kiss in the water is the one most deeply associated with this movie. In my opinion, the scene in which Montgomery Clift plays "Taps" is a much more striking scene, much more symbolic of the film as a whole. I had goosebumps during that whole segment, and at the end, where Lorene/Alma meets Karen on the ship. This is a romantic film, but it is so much more than that. A classic truly deserving of the label.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best movie I ever saw
Comment: All I can remember of the movie from 1954/1955 was that it was the best movie I had ever seen. Well, being about 13 years old, what did I have to measure it by? At that age, I hadn't been allowed to go to movies, even with my girlfriends. We sneaked off to see "From Here To Eternity". We probably told our parents that we were going to see Bob Hope/Bing Crosby or Gene Autry. (Just a few that I can remember from back then.) Oh, but I remember From Here To Eternity very well. The only other thing was that I fell instantly in love with Montgomery Clift. But, as all young lovers do, I dropped him a year or so later for James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause. Turns out, I wouldn't have stood a chance with either one of them since they had those sexual hangups. Oh well. Shortly after that my future and still husband dropped in. I wouldn't have traded him for either one of them. Oh, I'm suppose to be reviewing the movie. All of those stars, producers, writers, everyone involved, from the movie made it a great movie. I've seen it many times over the years on TV and still loved it and so I'm positive that I will enjoy having this DVD just as soon as I can get it ordered. And then I can watch it over and over and reminisce
Customer Rating:
Summary: A classic that lives up to its reputation
Comment: From the days when doorstop novels (or at least large chunks of them) were turned into films rather than mini-series, From Here to Eternity may be toned down to please both the censors and the US Army, whose co-operation was vital to the film, but it's still a superb piece of film-making that slips in a few powerful punches between the lines.
Set in Pearl Harbor in the months leading up to the Japanese attack, it focuses on two professional soldiers: Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), a hard-headed ex-boxer given 'the treatment' by his commanding officer to force him to fight in the regimental boxing championships, and the company's Top Sergeant (Burt Lancaster), who is having an affair with the officer's frigid wife (Deborah Kerr).
Daniel Taradish's screenplay is a masterpiece of snappy construction, perfectly mirrored by Fred Zinnemann's directorial style that brings out both the toughness and the sentiment with a convincing lack of sensationalism. And what a cast: Lancaster a convincing mixture of toughness and emotional vulnerability, a surprisingly sexy Kerr, Donna Reed playing tough against type, Borgnine at his meanest and a wonderful array of character actors. Clift may make an unlikely boxer, but his performance is one of his best, as is that of Sinatra, always under-rated as an actor on those occasions when he made an effort, as his doomed best friend Maggio.
With a good DVD transfer, this is let down by the extras - only a teaser trailer, a making-of featurette that runs a full two minutes (!!!), a brief extract from a documentary about the director and an audio commentary by Tim Zinnemann and Alvin Sargent. This is still well worth adding to your collection, though. Classic films often don't live up to their reputations. This one does.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Comment: This is a wonderful movie. I have always enjoyed movies set around WWII and this fit the bill. The choice of actors was amazing. They worked well together and I can't think of anyone else who would have played the parts better. No matter how many times I see it, the beach scene is still the best.
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