From Here to Eternity (1953)

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From Here to Eternity (1953)

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Background
From Here to Eternity (1953) is the powerful, realistic story (and fierce indictment) of the lives of American military men (and their women) stationed in peacetime Hawaii (near Honolulu) in the summer and fall before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941 and the US entrance into WW II. The successful film, both critically and financially, soon became the second biggest hit of the year, behind The Robe (1953) (the first CinemaScope film) and ahead of Shane (1953). One of the first remakes about the same topic was the ABC-TV mini-series titled Pearl (The Mini-Series) (1978) with superstars of the day Angie Dickinson and Dennis Weaver. It was also re-made as a glossy, 2-hour TV melodrama titled From Here to Eternity (1979) starring William Devane, Natalie Wood, Steve Railsback, Joe Pantolino, Peter Boyle and Kim Basinger, and directed by Buzz Kulik. This 1979 movie was also spun off as a soapy TV mini-series in 1980. And Michael Bay's recent Pearl Harbor (2001) provided a soap-operatic, sappy, and predictable love story triangle with an authentic and convincing re-creation of the historic attack. In gritty, documentary-style black and white, director Fred Zinnemann (who had directed the acclaimed western High Noon (1952) a year earlier) accurately captured the isolation and boredom of the military personnel in a close-knit Army barracks on the island of Oahu, combining social/military history with the drama of the personal lives of its main characters - an enlisted man and a neglected officer's wife, and a prostitute and a military outcast. The major male characters wage their own 'battle' against corruption high up in the military ranks, each in their own ways. Three of the film's stars were cast against type and their wholesome images: Donna Reed as 'hostess' bar-girl (hooker) Lorene and dignified British actress Deborah Kerr (instead of Joan Crawford who was announced for the part, but allegedly detested the costuming) as an unfaithful and adulterous sexpot wife. Montgomery Clift was also cast as a bugler, former boxer and stubborn, insubordinate soldier, although he was inexperienced in those areas and needed coaching. Burt Lancaster fit his role perfectly as a rugged sergeant. [Note: If casting decisions had gone differently, Aldo Ray, Edmond O'Brien, Joan Crawford, Julie Harris, and Eli Wallach would have played the roles given to Clift, Lancaster, Kerr, Reed, and Sinatra, respectively.] It was based on James Jones' hefty, 859-page smoldering 1951 novel of the same name, taking its title from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Gentlemen Rankers" - "damned from here to eternity." However, Jones' sprawling and complex story-line about Army life with its bold and explicit script (with strong language, violence and raw sexual content) was considered unsuitable (and unfilmable) for the screen and it was rejected. Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn, whose risky film project was soon nicknamed "Cohn's Folly," finally chose a more acceptable version written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Daniel Taradash. However, two major concessions and changes from the novel had to be made: (1) Fatso's sadistic brutality against Maggio had to be interpreted as atypical of Army behavior, and (2) the fate of Capt. Holmes - he was to be reprimanded for his mistreatment of Prewitt, rather than promoted. Nonetheless, the ground-breaking film's subjects still include prostitution, adultery, military injustice, corruption and violence, alcohol abuse, and murder. Shot on location (including a three-week shoot in Hawaii's Schofield Barracks), this film was a monumental award winner - its thirteen nominations won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Donna Reed), Best Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra), Best Screenplay (Daniel Taradash), Best B/W Cinematography (Burnett Guffey), Best Sound Recording, and Best Film Editing. It won the most Academy Awards for any picture since Gone With The Wind (1939). (Its other five nominations were: Best Actor (Montgomery Clift and Burt Lancaster, who split the votes), Best Actress (Deborah Kerr), Best Scoring, and Best B/W Costume Design.) At the time of its release, it was rumored that Sinatra's alleged Mafia ties (plus the help of his beautiful wife Ava Gardner) pressured tyrannical Columbia head Harry Cohn to relent and offer the part of Maggio to Sinatra instead of Eli Wallach. [This mythical, conspiracy-theory scenario seemed reprised with two characters in The Godfather (1972): singer-actor character Johnny Fontane (Al Martino, similar to Sinatra) and studio head Jack Woltz (John Marley, similar to Cohn) and the infamous bloody racehorse's head-in-the-bed scene.] Nonetheless, Sinatra's 'comeback' performance helped to re-spark his film career, that had faltered after a string of appearances in mediocre 40s musicals (often with Gene Kelly), and throat problems that had curtailed his singing career.

The Story
The film begins with the credits playing above soldiers practicing their marching at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, 1941. A lone Robert E. Lee Prewitt ("Prew") (Montgomery Clift) enters the base, passing Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra) - a genial and respected friend. Prewitt has requested a transfer to the base from the Ft. Shafter bugle corps. Maggio is doubtful about the wisdom of Prew's transfer to the new Company command: "You made a very bad mistake. This outfit they can give back to General Custer." But Maggio praises Prewitt's bugling talents: "You're the best bugler they've got on this whole island." The duty-obsessed, brutal base commander, Captain Dana Holmes (Philip Ober) speaks to Prewitt about his transfer, learning that it was because of "a personal

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matter." Career soldier First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) realizes that the new soldier was demoted from corporal to "buck private": Prewitt, you was a corporal in the bugle corps. You took a bust to buck private to transfer to an infantry outfit. Why? Because you like to hike? Or was it because you couldn't stand to bugle? Prewitt describes the circumstances for his transfer to Company "G" at Schofield - his protest over the appointment of an inferior bugler above him. His feelings and pride were hurt by favoritism: I was first bugler for two years. The top-kick had a friend who transferred in from another outfit. The next day, he was made first bugler over me. I was a better bugler...Maybe it ain't sensible, but that's the reason. The insecure Captain, the regimental boxing coach, 'pulled a few strings' to get Prewitt transferred to Company "G". He knew that Prewitt was a top middleweight boxer and urged Prewitt to box for the squad so that his company's boxing team could triumph in the regiment championship - his company's win would reflect upon his own superiority and bring a promotion: "I need a win this year." However, Prewitt insists that he hasn't been boxing for over a year, because of a tragic accident - he blinded an opponent while sparring in the ring. The strict Captain doesn't see hard-headed Prewitt's rationale for refusing to bolster the ranks of the team: You might as well say 'stop war' because one man got killed. Our fighting program is the best morale builder we have. If Prewitt will box on the regiment's boxing team, he will be rewarded with the esteemed post of bugler. But Prewitt defiantly refuses and flatly rejects the commander's offer. The Captain, a defender of team spirit, observes how Prewitt's principled stubbornness ("as a lone wolf") is disobedient and unacceptable in the Army - where individualism doesn't count: Looks to me as if you're trying to acquire a reputation as a lone wolf, Prewitt. You should know that in the Army it's not the individual that counts. Well, you'll find that we won't put any pressure on you in my outfit. Just don't make any mistakes in it, that's all. The tough but fair and by-the-book First Sergeant Warden has little respect for the arrogant commander who leaves the running of the company to him: "He'd strangle in his own spit if he didn't have me around here to swab his throat out for him." He also advises Prewitt, the 'hardhead,' about how he should go along with the system and not champion the principle of individualism ("A man don't go his own way, he's nothin'"): Warden: You know what you did just now when you turned down dynamite Holmes? You put your head in a noose. Things are soft for a boxer in this outfit. Otherwise, you'd better know how to soldier. Prewitt: I can soldier with any man. Warden: ...You'll fight, Prewitt. You'll fight because Captain Holmes wants to be Major Holmes. He's got an idea he'll make it if he gets a winning team. And if you don't do it for him, you'll do it for me, 'cause my job is to keep him happy, see? The more he's happy, the less he bothers me and the better I run his company. So we know where we stand, don't we, kid? Prewitt: I know where I stand. A man don't go his own way, he's nothin'. Warden: Maybe back in the days of the pioneers, a man could go his own way. But today, you gotta play ball. The rough-hewn Warden understands how to play the system to his advantage and keep everything under control, but is unwilling to manipulate the system to gain a promotion, like his manipulative commander. The sergeant begins to eye the base captain's wife, Karen Holmes (Deborah Kerr), an unhappy, lonely, and frustrated wife who has gathered a reputation as being a loose and trampish woman. She has been told about Warden's qualities by her husband: "He says you're very efficient." Captain Holmes is often away from the post, "buttering generals" and drinking at the officers' club, and is acknowledged by his wife to be an unfaithful philanderer. The entire boxing team attempts to pressure the obstinate Prewitt, reminding the ex-boxer: "Division champs get ten day furloughs." Maggio defends his friend's position and respects his steadfast decision and personal integrity: "Listen, the guy don't have to fight if he don't want to without gettin' kicked around." Prewitt courageously remains a highly principled individualist and soldier: Look. I told Holmes and I'm tellin' you. I ain't fightin'. I quit fightin'. You guys want to put the screws on, go right ahead. I can take anything you can dish out. Career soldier Sgt. Warden, who doesn't reject Prewitt outright, is seen as a smart, honorable and fair soldier by Corporal Buckley (Jack Warden): He ain't like the others. He'll make it tough on you, but he'll draw himself a line he thinks fair and he won't come over it. You don't see many top kicks like him no more...All I know is, he's the best soldier I ever saw. The whole outfit at the base accepts Prewitt's dare and makes life difficult for the hard-headed, introspective soldier. They begin to find fault with everything he does and they harrass him endlessly. He receives "the Treatment" in order to break his spirit - undesirable tasks, emotional harrassment, physical abuse, extra marching duty from Sergeant Baldy Dhom (Claude Akins), and double-time laps around the track for having a poorly-assembled rifle during gun inspection. In bayonet drill, one of the sergeants deliberately trips Prewitt. When Maggio rebelliously defends his friend, they both are sent to do laps. Knowing that the captain will be gone, Warden calls on the restless, frustrated and testy Mrs. Holmes one rainy day for a drink and to initiate a relationship. She reveals how as an army commander's wife, she has wasted herself by being caught and trapped in a loveless, childless relationship - her unhappiness, sex starvation and longing for motherhood have driven her toward amoral behavior and promiscuity. They set the rules for the beginning of their secretive liaison: Mrs. Holmes: Perhaps he's in town on business...You're taking an awful chance, you know...That's what I like about you, Sergeant, you have confidence. It's also what I dislike about you. Sergeant: It's not confidence, Ma'am. It's honesty. I just hate to see a beautiful woman goin' all to waste. Mrs. Holmes: Waste did you say? There's a subject I might tell you something about. I know several kinds of waste, Sergeant. You're probably not even remotely aware of some of them. Would you like to hear? For instance, what about the house without a child. There's one sort for you. Then there's another. (She takes a drink) You're doing fine, Sergeant. My husband's off somewhere and it's raining outside and we're both drinking now. You probably only got one thing wrong. The lady herself. The lady's not what she seems. She's a wash-out, if you know what I mean. And I'm sure you know what I mean. (She turns away after expressing self-pity.) Sergeant: Are you gonna cry? Mrs. Holmes: Not if I can help it. (He turns to leave.) What are you doing? Sergeant: I'm leaving. Isn't that what you want? Mrs. Holmes: I don't know, Sergeant. I don't know. (He turns and approaches, and they kiss and embrace passionately.) Sergeant Maylon Stark (George Reeves, better known as TV's first Superman) has heard that Warden is "eyein' the Captain's wife like a hound dog at hunting time...She took up with a lot of men back there at Ft. Bliss...This ain't no story...Sure is somethin' strange about that woman."

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Two inter-related, parallel love stories that are both emotionally-dangerous, forbidden and career-threatening are inter-cut together during the film's continuing sequences - the relationships are between: Karen Holmes and the Sergeant Warden Private Prewitt and a hostess named Alma at the New Congress Club The virile Sergeant Warden and bored housewife Karen meet at a park bench at Kuhio Beach Park in a clandestine meeting away from the base. As a "non-com," Warden risks twenty years in Leavenworth prison for sleeping with a commissioned officer's wife: Karen: I didn't think you were coming. Warden: Why not? I ain't late. Karen: No, I guess you're not. Then, I got here a little early. I must have been over-anxious. You weren't though, were you? Warden: I stopped along the way for a couple of drinks. Karen: You certainly chose a lovely spot for our meeting. I've had three chances to be picked up in the last five minutes. Warden: Well, that's par for the course around here. Karen: Well I don't care for it. I never went in much for back-alley loving. Warden: Take it easy. Karen: You probably think I'm a tramp. Warden: Now what makes you think I'd think a thing like that? Karen: Don't try to be gallant, Sergeant. If you think this is a mistake, come right out and say so. Well, I guess it's about time for me to be getting home, isn't it? Well, isn't it? Warden: What's the matter? What started all this anyway? Do you think I'd be here if I thought it was a mistake? Takin' a chance on twenty years in Leavenworth for makin' dates with the company commander's wife? And her actin' like, like Lady Esther's horse? And all because I got here on time. Karen: (encouraging) Well, on the other hand, I've got a bathing suit under my dress. Warden: (with a broad grin) Me too. The other soldiers spend the night out, in their off-base hours, at the "New Congress Club" on River Street in Honolulu, run by a pretentious woman named Mrs. Kipfer (Barbara Morrison). [In the novel, the New Congress Club was the New Congress Hotel, a house of prostitution, where enlisted men hang out.] The members-only private club, a USO-type social establishment advertises: "Soft Drinks, Dancing, Recreation." A slightly-drunk Prewitt is taken there by Maggio and the 'baby-face' quickly learns the rules of the 'respectable place' from Annette (Jean Willes): Members are entitled to all privileges of the club, which includes dancing, snack bar, soft drink bar, and gentlemanly relaxation with the opposite gender so long as they are gentlemen - and no liquor is permitted. Got it? Considered 'new poison' in the club, Prewitt spots "the Princess" across the room - the aloof, but warm-hearted, dark-haired "hostess" who is known as Alma (Lorene) (Donna Reed). He proudly introduces himself to the innocent-looking B-girl as a career soldier: Prewitt: I'm a 30-year man. I'm in for the whole ride. Alma: Well, I suppose it's different when a fellow's gonna make a career of it. Prewitt: Ain't nothin' the matter with a soldier that ain't the matter with everyone else. Alma: I like you just the same. I liked you the minute I saw Annette bringing you in. Prewitt: You did? That's funny. I-I-I came in and I stood there and saw you sittin' over here. Prewitt is called away when an angry confrontation erupts between Maggio and the bullying, cruel Sergeant "Fatso" Judson (Ernest Borgnine), Sergeant of the Guard at the stockade - it arises over the volume of Judson's piano-playing. The unpleasant name-calling quickly degenerates: Judson: I'll play loud as I want, you little wop. Maggio: Little wop!? Mess with me, fat stuff, and I'll bust ya up. Judson: You must be in a hurry for trouble, wop? Maggio: ...Only my friends call me wop.

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From Here to Eternity (1953)

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The Story (continued)

Meanwhile, during Warden's and Karen's rendezvous, the waves crash in toward the deserted beach for the prelude to the film's most memorable, famous and shockingly torrid (for its day) love-making scene on a sandy Oahu beach. [The scene was shot in Hawaii at Oahu's Halona Cove, also known as Eternity Cove, adjacent to Hanauma Bay. It has been spoofed numerous times, e.g., in The Seven Year Itch (1955) and in Airplane! (1980)]. Karen removes her outer clothing, and looks provocatively at the Sergeant as he strips down to his shorts. For a moonlight-drenched swim, she runs first into the water and encourages him to join her. In the New Congress Club, when Alma shows a temporary interest in another soldier, Prewitt becomes jealous: Alma: Now what do you think Mrs. Kipfer hires us for? She pays us to be nice to all the boys. They're all alike. Is it so important? Prewitt: It is important. We may seem all alike. We ain't all alike. I'm sorry. Alma: Look. Let's go up to Mrs. Kipfer's parlor and sit there. She lets us use it sometimes for somebody special. Back at the edge of the Hawaiian beach surf, the waves churn up white caps and breakers. The water rolls up the beach and races toward Karen and Warden who lie together. Their bodies are tightly locked and intertwined in an embrace as they kiss each other and the white foaming waves pour over them. She rises, prances up the sand, and collapses onto their blanket. Warden follows and stands above her, drops to his knees, and finds her lips in his: Karen: (breathlessly) I never knew it could be like this. Nobody ever kissed me the way you do. Warden: Nobody? Karen: No, nobody. Warden: Not even one? Out of all the men you've been kissed by? Karen: Now that'd take some figuring. How many men do you think there've been? Warden: I wouldn't know. Can't you give me a rough estimate? Karen (sarcastically): Not without an adding machine. Do you have your adding machine with you? Warden: I forgot to bring it. Karen: Then I guess you won't find out, will you? Warden: Maybe I already know. The scene quickly becomes one of alienation and conflict. His probing denegrates her character - his knowledge of her loose promiscuity and numerable other previous affairs at other outposts nags at him and produces feelings of ambivalence about her sexuality. When Warden accuses her of being a tramp, she counteraccuses him of being brutally insensitive: Karen: What's the matter? What are you hinting at? Warden: Why? Is there something to hint at? Maybe there's been a long line of beach parties. Karen: You must be crazy. Warden: Am I? What about when you and Holmes were back at Ft. Bliss? Did you ever hear of a soldier named Stark? Maylon Stark? Karen: Why yes. Warden: (mimicking) Why yes. (accusatory) You knew him too, didn't ya? Didn't ya? Karen: I had to go and forget you were like all the rest of them. Warden: Only it's true, ain't it? Well ain't it? She turns away, grabs her clothes, and runs away. He pursues and stops her. Finally, she softens and explains her unhappy, unfulfilled and intolerable marriage in detail. Her husband's irresponsible behavior (adultery) contributed to a miscarriage, hysterectomy and future infertility - Warden listens intently and eventually comfort the bitter woman in his arms: Warden: Why don't you tell me about it? Tell me the story. There's always a story. Karen: You don't leave a person anything, do you? (She again tries to leave, but he holds on and pulls her back. She attempts to strike at him, but he blocks her. She falls in front of him. He walks back to get his clothes.) Come back here, Sergeant. I'll tell you the story. You can take it back to the barracks with you. I'd only been married to Dana two years when I found out he was cheating. And by that time, I was pregnant. I thought I had something to hope for. I was almost happy the night the pains began. I remember Dana was going to an officer's conference. I told him to get home early to bring the doctor with him. And maybe he would have if his conference hadn't been with a hat check girl. He was drunk when he came in at five

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a.m. I was lying on the floor. I begged him to go for the doctor, but he fell on the couch and passed out. The baby was born about an hour later. Of course it was dead. It was a boy. But they worked over me at the hospital. They fixed me up fine. They even took my appendix out. They threw that in free...And one more thing - no more children. Sure I went out with men after that. And if I'd ever found one that...I know. Until I met you, I didn't think it was possible either. The previous scene dissolves into the next - introduced by the circling smoke from Prewitt's cigarette rising upward. In Mrs. Kipfer's parlor, Alma and Prewitt quickly become better acquainted. She opens up about her past, telling him that she was jilted by a wealthy boyfriend in Oregon. Now she yearns for something better - she plans to work at her profession until she can save enough money to leave Hawaii for the mainland with a financially-secure life: I enlisted too. I came out here on my own to get away from my home town in Oregon...I had a boyfriend. I was a waitress and he was from the richest family in town. He just married a girl suitable for his position after three years of goin' around with me...So I-I left and went to Seattle. When I got there, I met a girl just back from Hawaii and she said she made a lot of money working there. So I caught the first boat. I've been here a year and two months...Oh I don't like it, but I don't mind it. Anyway, I won't be here forever...I've got it all figured out. In another year, I'll be back home with a stocking full of money. Then I'll be all set for life. Prewitt tells Alma about his harsh, humiliating treatment at the barracks - a result of his refusal to box on the regiment's team after he blinded a friend during a sparring bout a year earlier: Some of the guys are puttin' me over the jumps 'cause I don't want to fight...yeah, on the boxing team. I don't want to box. I don't even want to think about it...see, I used to fight, middleweight. And I was pretty good and they know it...I used to work out with this guy Dixie Wells. He's a real good friend of mine. Loved to box. People on the outside had their eye on him. He was gonna come out of the Army and go right up to the top. Well, one afternoon, he and I were sparrin' around in the gym, you know, kind of friendly-like. And, he must have been set pretty flat on his feet 'cause I caught him with a, no more'n ordinary right cross, and uh, he didn't get up. He didn't move. He was in a coma for a week, and uh, finally, he did pull out of it. Only the thing was that he was blind. Well, I went to see him at the hospital a couple of times and finally I just couldn't go back. The last time he and I started talking about fighting, and uh, he started to cry. And seein' tears comin' out of those eyes that couldn't see anything. Back at the base, Prewitt is warned that Holmes spoke to his boxing team - all non-commissioned officers. "From now on, it's no-holds barred. They aim to run you right into the stockade if they got to." During field exercises, Prewitt is deliberately forced to crawl through mud. He also must dig an enormous hole in the ground so that a single newspaper can be buried. Exasperated by unfair harrassment, Prewitt talks back to one of the officers: "I've never liked being spit on, sir, not even by a non-commissioned officer." For his insubordination and for refusing to apologize, he is ordered into "a full field pack, extra shoes and helmet," and hiked up to Kolekole Pass and back - twice. To break him even further, Holmes commands Warden to prepare court-martial papers for 'insubordination to a non-commissioned officer.' Only it's a shame...It's too bad you got to lose a good middleweight...Even if he gets just three months, he'll still be in the stockade when the boxing finals come up. Instead of a court-martial, Holmes re-considers and instead prepares to "double up on company punishment." Instead of a stay in the stockade, K.P. duties, street cleaning and garbage details fill most of Prewitt's "life in a rifle company." Acting as a "stooge for Holmes," Warden talks to Prewitt as he scrubs pots and pans in dirt dishwater - he wants Prewitt to surrender and be bribed into boxing: Warden: Life in a rifle company. Look awful tired, kid. How do you like straight duty?...I just said you look tired, you know, drawn to a fine edge. Prewitt: Oh, I like this life. It's a great life. If I find a pearl, I'll cut you in. Fifty-fifty, you know what I mean? If you didn't put me here, I'd have no chance to find it, right? Warden: ...Well, since you like it so much, I'll see if I can find some more for you. How about garbage detail? Prewitt: Thanks, I had that on Wednesday. Warden: So you did. What about street cleaning? Prewitt: Yesterday. Warden: You got a better memory than me. Of course, if you were smart... Prewitt: Yeah, but I ain't smart. Warden: I know, I know. But if you were, you wouldn't have to pull KP or any other fatigue duty for that matter. Prewitt: If you think you can bribe me into boxing, Warden, you're wrong. You're wrong! Not you, and dynamite Holmes and the treatment. Between beers during off hours, Prewitt cuts loose with some bugling and beguiles all of the company with his talent. Maggio shows some buddies his family photos and the smiling, villainous, beer-gutted Sergeant "Fatso" Judson again taunts Maggio with an insult about his sister. Another fight breaks out in the barroom between the two after Maggio crashes a bar-stool down on Fatso's head. Before Warden breaks up the struggle between the knife-wielding Fatso and the Italian, the bully threatens: "I'm gonna cut this wop's heart out. Anybody steps in here, I give it to 'em first." With animalistic intensity, Warden challenges Fatso with a jagged, broken-ended bottle: "OK, Fatso. If it's killing you want, come on." The stockade sergeant reluctantly drops his knife. Before it's over, Fatso warns Maggio about how he won't forget: Tough monkey. Guys like you end up in the stockade sooner or later. Someday you'll walk in. I'll be waitin'. I'll show you a couple of things. Prewitt becomes more possessive of Alma's time when he has finally been given a pass during a time of intensified treatments. This makes it difficult for her to work under Mrs. Kipfer's rules and enjoy his company: "I can't just walk out, and even if I could, she doesn't like us to date boys on the outside...You haven't any claims on me mister. You're not my husband, you know." Prewitt is visibly upset: "I may not get another pass for months. I've been countin' on this like a kid counts on Christmas." She protests when he calls her Lorene - a name derived from a perfume ad: Oh, stop calling me Lorene. My name's Alma...Yes, Alma Burke...Mrs. Kipfer picked Lorene out of a perfume ad. She thought it sounded French. At a rendezvous at the Kalakaua Inn later that night, he is thrilled to see her. Then he attempts to explain to her why he's a soldier. The Army is the only home he's ever known or wants to know - although it coldly doesn't love him back ("A man loves a thing. That don't mean it's gotta love him back"). For Prewitt, communication with his bugle is easier than with words. Alma: Gee, you must hate the Army. Prewitt: No, I don't hate the Army. Alma: Yeah, but look what it's doing to you. Prewitt: I love the Army. Alma: But it sure doesn't love you. Prewitt: A man loves a thing. That don't mean it's gotta love him back. Alma: Yeah, but a person can stand just so much. Prewitt: You love a thing, you gotta be grateful. See, I left home when I was seventeen. Both my folks was dead and I didn't belong no place, 'till I entered the Army. If it weren't for the Army, I wouldn't have learned how to bugle.

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Alma: To bugle? Prewitt: Yeah. That's the mouthpiece that I used when I played a taps at Arlington. They picked me to play a taps at Arlington Cemetery on Armistice Day. The President was there. I play the bugle well. Completely drunk after visiting three bars, Maggio arrives and greets his pals: "Hello, citizens." He is in uniform, but typical of his inability to live by discipline, he continues to drink. Calling himself "the terror of Gimbel's basement," he uses olives as dice for a bar-top craps game. After shooting "snake eyes...the story of my life," he admits that he has walked off guard duty and is AWOL. Prewitt struggles to talk sense with him, but Maggio is resistant ("let's go swimming with a movie star") and defensively combative. Outside, half-undressed and dead drunk, Maggio claims to Prewitt that he is waiting for a movie star to come out of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel closeby: What's the matter with you? Can't a man get drunk? Can't a man do nothin'? Can't he put his lousy hands in his lousy pockets on a lousy street. A man got to be hounded all his life. Well, I'm tired. I ain't no criminal. I ain't no coward. MP's on patrol subdue him, arrest him and he is courtmartialed - his fate is to spend six months in the stockade. As he is brought to the prison, Maggio tells the guard: I'm gonna escape from this dump. Gimbel's basement couldn't hold me, neither can no lousy stockade. In the Sergeant of the Guard's office, Maggio is greeted by the vengeful, power-corrupted Stockade sergeant - "Fatso": Hello, tough monkey. The scene ends with the sadistic Sergeant reaching for his billy-club. Alma lets Prewitt use her cooperatively-rented home in a very "fashionable district" where he can escape at any time: "You can use it any time you want to, even when I'm not here." Prewitt is pleased by the arrangement: "Hey, this is like bein' married, ain't it?" Alma replies that living together is better than being married: "It's better." Because they must meet clandestinely and always be on guard, Warden wants Karen to divorce her opportunistic military husband Holmes, but it would only be feasible (and keep him from going to Leavenworth) if the Sergeant became a commissioned officer himself. She urges him to change his military status so that she can divorce her husband and marry him, but he despises the idea of advancing his career and becoming a commissioned officer. They mutually agree that marriage often leads to unhappiness ("so they were married and lived unhappily ever after"), although for the time being they are 'miserably' in love with each other during their romantic, secretive affair: Karen: It can't go on like this much longer. Even when we sneaked clear across the island tonight, we had to run out like jailbirds. Warden: If there was only some way we could -- Holmes would probably give you a divorce, but he'd never let me transfer out of his outfit. Karen: There is a way. I've been thinking about it. You've got to become an officer. You can take the new extension course, the one they passed last May. When you get your commission, they'd ship you back to the States. Warden: An officer? Karen: Yes. Then I could divorce Dana and marry you. Warden: I hate officers. I've always hated officers. Karen: Well that's a fine and intelligent point of view. Suppose I said I always hated sergeants. That would make a lot of sense, wouldn't it? Warden: You sure made a complete study of it. OK, suppose I did, and don't think it's a cinch. Then you'd be gettin' your divorce here while I was in the States. We'd be apart maybe six months. We're sure to be into a war by then. Karen: Why don't you tell the truth? You just don't want the responsibility. You're probably not even in love with me. Warden: You're crazy. I wish I didn't love ya. Maybe I could enjoy life again. Karen: So they were married and lived unhappily ever after. Warden: I've never been so miserable in my life as I have since I met you. Karen: Neither have I. Warden: I wouldn't trade a minute of it. Karen: Neither would I. Warden: I'll probably make the lousiest officer in this man's Army you ever saw. Karen: You'll make a fine officer. A remarkable officer.

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From Here to Eternity (1953)

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The Story (continued)

After a home-cooked meal at Alma's home, Prewitt proposes marriage but she turns him down. Low in self-esteem, she explains that she is not the marrying kind - she is little more than a streetwalker ("two steps up from the pavement") and he is only a common "no class dogface" soldier: Alma: You're a funny one...Cause I'm the girl you met at the New Congress Club. That's about two steps up from the pavement. Prewitt: Well, what am I? A private, no class dogface. The way most civilians look at that, that's two steps up from nothin'. Alma: Prewitt, I thought we were happy. Why do you want to spoil things? She is more realistic about their future together: "Prew. It's true we love each other now. We need each other. But back in the States, it might be different." The real reason to refuse marriage is because of Prewitt's total allegiance to the Army. Rather than becoming the wife of a lowly enlisted man, Alma insists that she must raise her social status and marry a man of "proper" means in a "proper" marriage. That would prove that she isn't a cheap, low-class hooker. In her words, "when you're proper, you're safe": Alma: I won't marry you because I don't want to be the wife of a soldier...Because nobody's gonna stop me from my plan. Nobody, nothing. Because I want to be proper...Yes, proper. In another year, I'll have enough money saved. Then, I'm gonna go back to my hometown in Oregon and I'm gonna build a house for my mother and myself, and join the country club and take up golf. And I'll meet the proper man with the proper position to make a proper wife who can run a proper home and raise proper children. And I'll be happy because when you're proper, you're safe. Prewitt: You got guts, honey. I hope you can pull it off. She confesses, however, that she still needs him because she is lonely: Alma: I do mean it when I say I need you 'cause I'm lonely. You think I'm lying, don't you? Prewitt: Nobody ever lies about being lonely. A divorce from Karen would be unthinkable for Captain Holmes: "Because the scandal would spoil your chances for a promotion." Karen wonders which part of her husband's character would be hurt more by her affair - his pride or his curiosity. Karen: I wonder why men feel so differently about it [divorce] than women. Holmes: It's just not the same. An informant tells Prewitt that Maggio is courageously suffering abuse at the hands of the stockade Sergeant during his brutalizing imprisonment: "Fatso's really got it in for Maggio. He's usin' a billy too in places where it won't show. On the back, on the chest. He's got it down to a system. He kicks him a lot too. You know how Maggio's takin' it? He just keeps spittin' in Fatso's eye." Prewitt admires his defiant yet vulnerable friend: "He's a good man." But Maggio "won't peep - that boy's about the toughest nut in the woods...well, maybe he's crackin' at that...after 'Fatso' threw him in the hole - that's solitary. He started talkin' a couple of times about how he's gonna escape. He said to tell ya he's gonna look you up one of these nights." Tempers flare once again when Prewitt is heckled and tormented beyond the breaking point by Sergeant Ike Galovitch (John Dennis) - one of the company's soldiers (and a heavyweight on the boxing team). Prewitt restrains his boxing ability as they trade bare-fist punches on the lawn and are surrounded by most of the men. The ex-boxer is mercilessly beaten when reluctant to punch his opponent in the face. From a balcony, some senior officers notice that Captain Holmes stalls and doesn't immediately interfere and break up the brawl. Members of the boxing team speak up for Prewitt, but he is still adamant about not joining the squad: "If you guys think this means I'm steppin' into a ring, you're wrong." Some of the boys in the company pass time by singing "Re-enlistment Blues" - Prewitt plays part of the tune through his bugle mouthpiece. That same night, Prewitt and Warden both get drunk while sitting in the middle of a dirt road and commiserate about their painful love affairs and the pressures put upon them. Warden resists being corrupted by advancing into a higher position of power - exemplified by Holmes. The two establish camaraderie for each other as they share booze together: Warden: I got the biggest troubles in the whole world...Take love. Did you personally ever see any of this love? (Prewitt nods affirmatively) You'll understand what I mean. This girl, see, she wants me to become...an officer. Do you see me as an officer? Prewitt: Yeah, I can see you as an officer. You'd be a good officer. Warden: You both can see more than I can see. I don't want to be an officer. I'm happy where I am. I might turn out to be a guy like Holmes. You wouldn't want me to be a guy like Holmes, would ya? Huh? Well, would ya? Prewitt: A man should be what he can do. Warden: How's your girl? Now what's her name again? Prewitt: Lorene. Warden: Oh yeah. I remember now. A beautiful name. Beautiful.

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Warden declares his friendship and steadfast support for Prewitt: "Holmes is bound to get him sooner or later. And he's the best stinkin' soldier in the whole Army." Just then, Maggio stumbles into the road and collapses into Prewitt's arms. After a month of abuse and repeated vicious beatings, he escaped the stockade - his face is bloodied from falling out of a moving truck during his flight. Injured internally, Maggio dies in Prew's arms - but not before telling him: Fatso done it, Prew. He likes to whack me in the gut. He asked me if it hurts and I spit at him like always. Only yesterday it was bad. He hit me. He hit me. He hit me. Then I-I had to get out, Prew. I had to get out...They're gonna send me to the stockade, Prew? Watch out for Fatso. Watch out for Fatso. He'll try to crack ya. And if they put ya in a hole, don't yell. Don't make a sound. You'll still be yellin' when they come to take ya out. Just lay there. Just lay there. And be quiet, Prew. A bare bunk and mattress mark Maggio's absent place. That evening, Prewitt, in tribute to his deceased friend, plays taps (dubbed by Manny Klein) for Maggio on the company's parade grounds. During the playing of the soulful tune, the camera finds the somber, saddened faces of Warden and other soldiers in the barracks as they listen. Tears stream down Prewitt's cheeks. Seeking revenge, Prewitt follows "Fatso" as he leaves the New Congress Club, and they step around into a dark alley to talk. The sneering stockade Sergeant has no pity for Maggio's death: "Oh, the wop?...A real tough monkey." Prewitt accuses the insensitive brute of killing his friend, and he replies: "Did I? Well, if I did, he asked for it." The confrontation leads to a slashing knife fight - Prewitt anticipated that "Fatso" would challenge him with a knife so he brought his own switchblade. Both men are severely cut and injured - unseen by the camera, the Sergeant is stabbed and mortally wounded in the gut. He falls to the ground and dies. Newspaper headlines read: Killer of Stockade Sergeant Still Remains Unknown Local and Military Police Seek Clues to Slaying Alma helps shelter Prewitt in her place when he goes AWOL for days after the murder to heal from his wounds. Warden keeps Prewitt on the rolls even after three days' absence. In the meantime, Captain Holmes is the subject of a damning investigation and report filed and sent to the Inspector General - for mistreating Prewitt: It was found that Captain Holmes has been guilty of indefensible cruelty to the aforesaid Private Prewitt. As mentioned, this included the instigation of wholly unauthorized tactics to force the soldier to join the inter-regiment boxing team. "For the good of the service," Holmes is relieved of duty and forced to resign to avoid a court-martial for cruel malfeasance. Holmes is chastised by his superior officers: "...the quicker you're out of the Army, the better for everybody, especially the Army." The other non-commissioned officers are forewarned that boxing will no longer be over-emphasized: "From now on, no man's gonna earn his stripes by boxing." Sgt. Galovitch is busted to Private and put in charge of the latrine. As Warden leans on the wall while speaking on the phone, a calendar on the wall marks the day with a subtle reminder: "December 6, Saturday" - 1941. At their familiar Kuhio beach-park rendezvous spot eight miles from Pearl Harbor and fifteen miles from Kailua (a directional marker indicates the distances), Karen describes the consequences of her husband's discipline case and resignation - Holmes must return to the States. She asks about whether she should get a divorce from her husband, now that she is available to him. Warden turns away from her by admitting that he has not signed the papers preliminary to becoming an officer - one of her prior requirements for divorce. [With Holmes booted out, however, now it isn't necessary for Warden to file the papers.] His main reason to break off his relationship with her is because he cannot identify with the officer class. Like Prewitt, he has devoted his whole life to serving (and being "married to") the Army as an "enlisted man" - a pure masculine ideal - and he seemingly loves the Army more than he loves her. Likewise, Karen has restricted herself to commissioned officers and cannot marry anyone lower than that. And because she wants to end all the "hiding and sneaking" - they part ways: Karen: He's being sent back to the States. He's sailing next week. He wants me to go with him. What'll we do? When do you think you'll get your commission? Warden: I didn't put it in. I filled it out, but I didn't sign it. I took it out of my desk a dozen times, but I couldn't sign it. Karen: (dismayed and disbelieving) Why? But, but it was the plan!...It's been weeks. You can't just say you'll do a thing and then not do it.. Warden: Karen, listen to me. Karen: But why didn't you do it? Why didn't you tell me? Warden: ...Karen. I'm no officer. I'm an enlisted man. I can't be anything else. If I tried to be an officer, I'd be putting on an act. I just can't do it. Please don't ask me why. Karen (knowing deep down): I know why. You don't have to become an officer now, Milt, now that Dana's out of the Army. You just don't want to marry me. You're already married - to the Army. Warden: I love you, Karen. Karen: (She stands and moves away) I know. I know. Warden: (weakly) I don't want you to go back to Holmes. Karen: I don't want to either, but I am. There's nothing else for me to do. It's no good with us, Milt. It could never have been any good. Hiding and sneaking. It had to wear out. Goodbye, Sergeant. Thanks. Warden: It ain't goodbye. It's - we'll see each other again - somewhere. Karen: Of course we will. Somewhere. Prewitt is drinking away his problems at Alma's place - she shows him the "inside page" of the newspaper - a promising headline reading: Still No Clue in the Fatal Stabbing of Staff Sergeant James R. Judson But he toasts himself as an epitaph to his drinking prowess and his ultimate demise: "To the Memory of Robert E. Lee Prewitt." At about ten minutes to eight (bells chime in the ALOHA tower) on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the sound of planes flying through the pass interrupt a breakfast mess hall meal at Schofield Barracks - one of the officers casually remarks and mistakes the Japanese planes for friendly aircraft: "Sure look pretty over them mountains." Although it sounds like "dynamitin' down at Wheeler Field," the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor has commenced. Warden rushes outdoors and notices a single soldier screaming unintelligibly ("The Japs...are bombin' Wheeler Field. I seen the red circles on the...") and running across the parade grounds lawn with two planes behind him. One of the fighter planes strafes the field and immediately kills the soldier (Alvin Sargent, Oscar-winning screenwriter for Julia (1977)). Chaos breaks loose and there is rampant military confusion as more attacks are unleashed on the men who rush from their barracks onto the field. Radio reports warn of the real danger: "This is a real attack - not a maneuver. The Japanese are bombing Pearl Harbor. Please keep in your homes. Do not go on the streets. This is a real attack. Japanese planes are bombing our Naval and Army installations." Sergeant Warden takes charge and rallies his enlisted men to prepare to fight barking commands and orders to the non-coms: I want every man to get his rifle and go to his bunk and stay there. And I mean stay there...You'll get your ears shot off if you go outside. You wanna be heroes? You'll get plenty of chances. There'll probably be Japs in your lap before night. Now get movin'. We're wastin' time. Authentic documentary footage captures the explosions and fires at Pearl Harbor. Sergeant Warden orders the armory to be broken into, and issues weapons to his other commanders. The soldiers return gunfire from the roofs of Schofield Barracks toward the Japanese Zero fighters. One of the men blows the cavalry charge on a bugle: "Friday's gone crazy. He's blowin' the Cavalry Charge." Taking a charismatic, leadership role, Warden holds a heavy, repeating machine gun at his waist as he fires at the planes streaming overhead. One of his targets crashes in a ball of flames. Prewitt hears of the attack on the radio at Alma's place and how the infantry units at Schofield Barracks have moved out and are manning beach positions. The

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broadcaster also warns: "This is no maneuver. This is the real McCoy. Look out for falling shrapnel. Keep under cover. Blackout and curfew restrictions will be rigidly enforced. Stay in your homes. Don't use the telephone." The radio broadcaster continues to describe the reality of the attack: "The danger of an invasion continues to exist. And the planes have been identified as Japanese..." Alma is frantic after returning from Queen's Hospital to give blood. Exasperated by the news on the evening of December 7th following the morning's attack, Prewitt who is still bandaged and weak, insists upon joining his men now that war has broken out. He wants to be a loyal, fighting soldier against the enemy, despite his individualistic nature. Alma pathetically pleads and begs with him to remain she even offers to marry him! But as Milt Warden had earlier decided, he feels he must return to the base and be loyal and patriotic as a "soldier" to the service. Alma cannot understand his unrequited love and heroic dedication to the Army - an institution that treated him "like dirt." "What do you want to go back to the Army for?" she asks: Prewitt: Who do they think they're fighting? They're pickin' trouble with the best Army in the world. Alma: Where are you going? Prewitt: ...I gotta get back to the company. Alma: The company? But why? Prewitt: Why? Alma: But, but you can't. You're not well yet. Besides, you're AWOL. They'll throw you in the stockade. Prewitt: They're gonna be throwin' them out of the stockade. They need every guy they can get. Alma: But your side will open up. They'll find out it was you who killed that soldier. Prewitt: Once I report into the company, they'll take care of me. I'll be all right once I get back. Alma: But you'll never make it. There's patrols all over! Prewitt: I'll make it. I know a short-cut. Alma: (on her knees) Prew, stay 'til morning. Maybe if you'll stay 'til morning, you'll change your mind. Oh Prew, don't go! (She hugs him fiercely.) I'll do anything you want. We can go back to the States together. We can even get married. If you go now, I'll never see you again, I know it. Prewitt: I'm sorry. Alma: What do you want to go back to the Army for? What did the Army ever do for you besides treat you like dirt and give you one awful going-over and get your friend killed? What do you want to go back to the Army for? Prewitt: What do I want to go back to the Army for? I'm a soldier. Alma: A soldier. A soldier. A regular, from the regular Army. A thirty-year man. After ignoring Alma's entreaties, Prewitt returns to the barracks. He is accidentally and tragically killed by sentinel guards - his own men, emphasizing his 'outsider' status. In the darkness, they react nervously to him (thinking that he's a Japanese ground-based saboteur) when he fails to halt and identify himself. At the place of Prewitt's death, Warden reacts to the news of the "good soldier's" demise with praise and a glorifying epitaph: He was always a hardhead, sir. But he was a good soldier. He loved the Army more than any soldier I ever knew. Warden grieves over his dead body with a eulogy. He regretfully curses Prew's perpetual stubbornness and overt individuality that indirectly led to his death - when he couldn't "play it smart": You just couldn't play it smart, could ya? All ya had to do was box. But no, not you, you hard-head! Funny thing is there ain't gonna be any boxin' championships this year. (He looks up at the guards.) What's the matter with you guys? Ain't you ever seen a dead man? Let's get this body out of here. We ain't got all night. The war levels the frustrating human experiences of the protagonists and creates many casualties - it is the culmination of all the smaller dramatic and relationship crises. Karen and Alma (who are from two opposite and contrasting social strata - although both might be indistinguishably considered as tramps) lean on the railing of a Matson ocean liner leaving wartime Hawaii for the mainland to find new lives - after lost and failed loves. They have both experienced broken marriage prospects. And they have both been released from military men who each claimed the Army as their one true love. On the deck as they forlornly look back toward the receding island, Karen throws two flower leis into the water from the railing and then explains a legend: Alma: It's very beautiful, isn't it? Karen: I think it's the most beautiful place I ever saw in my life. I can almost see where I worked from here. There's a legend. If they float in toward shore you'll come back someday. If they float out to sea, you won't. The flower leis float away - they won't be coming back. They are both thrust by fate (and by the men in their lives) away from the island toward their uncertain futures. Alma speaks about Prewitt, her fiancee. She memorializes him and their aborted affair - and lies (or is deluded) about him when she describes him as an idealized, tragic (and romantic) hero who was killed while defending Pearl Harbor: Alma: I won't come back. You see, my fiancee was killed on December 7th. Karen: Oh, I'm sorry. Alma: He was a bomber pilot. He tried to taxi his plane to the edge of the apron. And the Japs made a direct hit on it. Maybe you read about it in the papers? He was awarded the Silver Star. They sent it to his mother. She wrote me she wanted me to have it. Karen: That's very fine of her. Alma: Why, they're very fine people, Southern people. He was named after a general - Robert E. Lee - Prewitt. Karen: Who? Alma: Robert E. Lee Prewitt. Isn't that a silly old name? Surely Karen must realize and be aware that Alma is lying, fantasizing or deceiving herself - in the name of love. [After her many encounters and conversations with Sergeant Warden, Karen would have known that Prewitt wasn't a bomber pilot from the South who died as Alma described it.] In a gesture of empathy, the camera pans down and finds Alma clutching Prewitt's bugle mouthpiece in her hands. The leis continue to float out to sea.

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