From Here to Eternity

Ahh, another black and white, wartime romance filled my screen this week and in turn filled my heart.  This 1954 Academy Award winner is a classic for anyone who loves the romantic films.  I really had no idea that this film and my film from last week would both be romances.  I was delightfully surprised.  After all, there is nothing better in my mind than getting to watch romance and tragedy unfold in the islands of Hawaii.

Before I dive into the plot and characters of the movie, I just have some other aspects of the film to address.  First of all, I love how once again there was no R-Rated material in the film, yet it was still so heart-wrenching and captured me so deeply from beginning to end.  Secondly, I love how the romance is not cheesy like it can end up being in a lot of present day's romantic movies.  It was actually good acting and the actors looked sincere and really made me believe in the lines of the script.

Now, you may be wondering, what is this movie all about?  Well, the setting is Hawaii, 1941, right before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurs.  Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, who is the main character, transfers to the military company stationed on a Hawaiian island.  He is given harsh treatments at this new station because he would not comply with the Captain's request to join their boxing team, despite the fact that he has so much talent in the boxing ring.  They make him do the most difficult tasks and constantly pick on him throughout his time in Hawaii.  He eventually meets a girl named Lorene/Alma and falls into love with her.  Their story of love develops but is crushed at the end because of a tragedy that happens in the last minutes of the movie.  December 7, 1941.  A quiet morning suddenly disturbed by the droppings of bombs, by gunshots, by explosions.  The attack on Pearl Harbor is set off, and Private Prewitt meets his end during the chaos that ensued.  At the end, the audience sees his love sailing back to the mainland, which had forever been her plan to live out the "proper life" as she referred to it.

That is not the only love that develops in the movie.  There is also the scandalous love between the Captain's wife, Karen, and his First Sergeant Milton Warden.  This love is more secretive but also very captivating.  The Captain had cheated on his wife and left her alone for years and she had developed the habit of cheating on him as well.  They develop an actual real love relationship throughout the film and he tests her love for him by questioning her about her prior relations.  Their love eventually is also broken because the Captain resigns from his position in Hawaii and she is forced to move back to the mainland states with him.  She realizes she will never see her love, Warden, again.

In the end of the film, the two women, who have lost the loves of their lives, meet on the boat back to the mainland.  They speak of the troubles that have bereft them of their loves and one realizes that she knows about the others relations.  It ends with a sadness that neither of the two women got what they truly wanted and the men never got to have what they cherished in their lives either.

Overall, I thought this film was very enjoyable.  I never saw myself as being really interested in films from this era but I do find that they are entertaining with great plots and dialogue.  They capture the audience and I can totally see how this would be one of the prime time entertainments during the era it was produced.  It was a great film-- a little bit long finishing just two minutes under two hours, but definitely worth the time.

I really hope you guys will check it out!
Stay tuned for next week.  We are jumping straight into the sixties with West Side Story (1962)!