Review of From Here to Eternity (1953) by Stephanie M — 07 Aug 2009

I. Love. Donna. Reed. In. This. Movie.

She plays one of the most cutthroat awesome devious and sympathetic and just plain complex women in cinema in this movie. DONNA FRIGGIN' REED people. I love the speech she gives to Prew about proper, and how she's gonna be PROPER dammit because when you're proper YOU'RE SAFE. Goodness! Ugh, and that final scene with her and Kerr... amazing.

Now that I got that out of my system the rest of the movie is pretty awesome too. I've always loved that they tell you it's 1941 but you never get the exact date until the third act. I love the harsh critique of an army during peacetime and I love the two intermingling stories of the two enlisted men (Lancaster and Montgomery Clift) and their love affairs both elicit in their own ways (please people, I don't care if they say she's a "hostess" she's totally a prostitute).

Montgomery Clift... wow, what a talent and such a sad shame what happened to him. He really could have been one of the greats. He brought such an intensity to this role that permeated the rest of the cast. Even Sinatra is pretty good as his buddy. And the scene where Lancaster and Clift get drunk in the middle of the road together is really pretty awesome.

If there's a weakness it's some of the Pearly Harbor bombing footage interspersed kind of awkwardly with real footage but I guess I'll give them a pass since it was the 50's. A) Effects weren't up to snuff as they are now and B) people watching it at the time lived through it and you just couldn't show it too realistic when it was still so fresh in the public consciousness.

Otherwise I can't compliment this movie enough, it truly is a grand masterpiece of its time.