FROM HERE TO ETERNITY 117
tracking down Judson and killing him with a switchblade. He is wounded during
his attack and seeks shelter at Lorene’s house. The Pearl Harbor attack of 7 Decem-
ber 1941 emboldens Prewitt to return to his com pany, but he is mistakenly killed
by a soldier guarding the fort. Meanwhile, Karen leaves Warden after discovering
that he is not applying to become an officer, boarding a boat with her husband
back to the mainland. Lorene and Karen meet on the ship, where Lorene tells Karen
about her fiancé. Though Karen recognizes Prewitt’s name, she keeps the infor-
mation to herself.
Reception
Released on 5 August 1953— just nine days after the end of the Korean War—
From Here to Eternity proved to be a runaway box office smash. Made for only
$2 million, the movie grossed $30.5 million, making it the third top- grossing film
of 1953. Adjusted for inflation, its box office gross would exceed $277 million in
2017 dollars. Likewise, the movie was showered with awards. Nominated for 12
Oscars, it won 8 statuettes for Best Picture (Buddy Adler); Best Director (Fred
Zinnemann); Best Writing, Screenplay (Daniel Taradash); Best Supporting Actor
(Frank Sinatra); Best Supporting Actress (Donna Reed); Best Cinematography
(Black- and- White) (Burnett Guffey); Best Film Editing (William A. Lyon); and
Best Sound (Recording) ( John P. Livadary). Reviews were mostly glowing. Film
critic Abe H. Weiler expressed the majority opinion when he noted that the film
version of From Here to Eternity “naturally lacks the depth and fullness” of the book
[but] “this dramatization of phases of the military life in a peacetime army...
captures the essential spirit of the James Jones study. And, as a job of editing,
emending, re- arranging and purifying a volume bristling with brutality and obscen-
ities, From Here to Eternity stands as a shining example of truly professional mov-
iemaking” (Weiler, 1953). Conversely, Manny Farber detected a studied show
business slickness that worked against real verisimilitude: “From Here to Eternity
happens to be fourteen- carat entertainment. The main trou ble is that it is too
entertaining for a film in which love affairs flounder, one sweet guy is beaten to
death, and a man of high princi ples is mistaken for a saboteur and killed...
When the soldiers get drunk, the scene is treated in a funny, unbelievable way.
When Clift blows his bugle, it is done with a hammy intensity that tries to mimic
Louie Armstrong at his showiest. When Lancaster and Kerr are being passionate,
on the beach, it is done in patterned action that reeks with a phony Hollywood
glamour. The result is a gripping movie that often makes you wish its director,
Zinnemann, knew as much about American life as he does about the art of telling
a story with a camera” (The Nation, 29 August 1953).
Reel History Versus Real History
Author James Jones clearly based “Prew” Prewitt, the troubled nonconformist, on
himself and distilled his own life in the Army from 1939 to 1944 into the months
at Schofield Barracks leading up to Pearl Harbor that is the book’s setting. In effect,
From Here to Eternity was censored twice before it reached the screen— once by
Jones himself and a second time by the filmmakers. The original version of the