From Here to Eternity

Aug 20, 2011

From Here to Eternity

I watched FROM HERE TO ETERNITY for about the 10th time today on TCM. One of the reasons I like it so much is that the places in the movie are real, not movie sets. I've been to Schofield and Fort DeRussy, Fort Shafter, Hickam, and Pearl Harbor as well as Kanehoe Marine Base and Bellows Beach. When I moved here in '82 everything looked just as it did in the movie. There were even houses surrounding those bases that were lived in during WW2.

DEBORAH KERR stars as the wife of a Commanding Officer who falls in love with a Sergent who is under her husband's command. After a devastating loss of a child she searches for love and security in a man who is not her husband.

BURT LANCASTER is her love interest. One of the most well known scenes in the movie is 'THE KISS' on the beach. Rick and I were married a little ways down from this beach on what is called Makapuu Beach... very romantic! The list of others in this movie is astounding!!!  

Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Philip Ober, Mickey Shaughnessy, Harry Bellaver, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden, Claude Akins, Willis Bouchey, John L. Cason, James Jones, George Reeves, Joseph Sargent, Robert J. Wilke, Jean Willes, Carleton Young these are the more well knowns.

The movie also won a bunch of awards!!! Eight for acting and the movie itself. 

There are stories within the story that leads up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The characters are well developed and believable. Not to mention all the wonderful fashions, decor, and culture of mid-century Hawaii and America.