FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (Sony, 1953) D: Fred Zinnemann, w/ Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr. Rating: NNNN Blu-ray package: NNNN Rating: NNNN
After 50 years, From Here To Eternity is still hugely watchable. The military brutality, adultery and prostitution at its centre made it a shocker in its day, but it was also a wildly popular big-budget A picture that cleaned up at the Oscars, picking up eight wins, including best picture, director, screenplay and supporting actor and actress for Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed.
Shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) transfers into a rifle company in Hawaii. Corrupt and incompetent base commander Captain Holmes (Philip Ober) wants him on the boxing team. Prewitt refuses, and the Army sets about breaking him. Sergeant Warden (Burt Lancaster), who really runs the company, begins an affair with Holmes’s wife, Karen (Deborah Kerr), while Prewitt takes up with “hostess” Lorene (Donna Reed).
Fred Zinnemann directs with the same crisp efficiency he brought to High Noon, getting strong performances from his actors, notably Kerr, who plays very much against her ladylike typecasting.
The picture-in-picture commentary assembles academics, participants and friends and relatives of the key players to provide the extras’ best overview of the production, director and cast. The commentary by Tim Zinnemann, Fred’s son, and collaborator Alvin Sargent focuses more on the director.
EXTRAS Picture-in-picture commentary, commentary, making-of doc, Zinnemann interview snippets. English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese and other audio. English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and other subtitles.