"The work often has the same effective spare quality that made Mr. Zinnemann's High Noon [1952] an impressive business.... Some of the episodes are perhaps excessively brutal, but Mr. Zinnemann is not, after all, trying to portray the activities of a Beaver Patrol. What he has done is given us a glimpse of the military that is very rare." ­ The New Yorker, 1953.

"I love Zinnemann's film, I realized, because it was made in a period before movies had become pop. The movie is about grown-ups with ambitions, weaknesses and loyalties; they make choices and suffer the consequences. There is violence, but it is never exaggerated or cartoonish, and it is always fully felt. From Here to Eternity is a thrilling movie, but nothing in it was designed simply for thrills.... [It] is one of those rare 'big' movies that is also unaffectedly intimate." ­ David Denby, Premiere, September 1990.

"Surprisingly, considering the Cold War temperament of the times, the film is not a glorification of military life. Although the problems of bad leadership and abuse of authority are solved by the army in the film (unlike the book), officers are shown to be pompous, arrogant and ignorant. Only some of the enlisted men are shown heroically. No glorious battles are depicted, and the climax is the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor...Probably most important of all, Hollywood learned that the American audience would support films that attempted to deal with adult situations and problems." - Ray Narducy, The International Dictionary of Films & Filmmakers (Perigee).

"Though intended as an attack on the U.S. Army, it is neither powerful nor truly critical. It marks something of a turning point in Zinnemann's career; formerly a fairly good director, from this point on he played the game according to the Hollywood rules." - Georges Sadoul, Dictionary of Films (University of California Press).

"Appeal of the film is that Lancaster, Clift, Sinatra, Kerr, and Reed all anticipate the rebel figures that would dominate the rest of the fifties. They break army rules and society's rules. They are the only characters with compassion, who can love - so here rebels are positive figures. Picture has superb acting, strong direction by Fred Zinnemann." - Danny Peary, Guide For the Film Fanatic (Fireside).

"The relationships may be doomed, but their treatment set new standards for cinematic sexual frankness. Though it may seem tame and obvious now, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's torrid horizontal beach kiss broke down barriers concerning the depiction of sensuality...All of the romantic entanglements are worked out in the shadow of the men's duties as soldiers and their relationship to the Army. That's really what both the novel and the film are about - the responsibilities of the individual and the organization...Zinnemann and [screenwriter] Taradash don't explore the depths of character that Jones created - film doesn't work that way - but they certainly turned his work into one of Hollywood's most enjoyable entertainments." - Mike Mayo, War Movies (Visible Ink).

"The bawdy vulgarity and the outhouse vocabulary, the pros and non-pros among its easy ladies, and the slambang indictment of army brass have not been emasculated in the transfer to the screen...Eyes will moisten and throats will choke when Clift plays taps on an army bugle for his friend Sinatra after the latter dies from the brutality administered by Ernest Borgnine..." - Variety Movie Guide (Prentice Hall).

"Much of the film's initial impact lay in the casting of Deborah Kerr in a role far removed from her usual well-bred style, and the comeback of Frank Sinatra in his first dramatic part." - The Oxford Companion to Film (Oxford University Press).

"As a production, it is Hollywood in good form, and certainly took the public fancy as well as establishing Sinatra as an acting force." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide (HarperPerennial).

"This is not a theme which one would expect Zinnemann to approach in the hopeful, sympathetic mood of his earlier films, but neither could one expect the negative shrug of indifference with which he seems to have surrendered to its hysteria." - Karel Reisz, Sight and Sound.

"...the movie succeeds by the smooth efficiency of Fred Zinnemann's lean, intelligent direction, and by the superlative casting. Montgomery Clift's bony, irregularly handsome Prewitt is a hardhead, a limited man with a one-track mind, who's intensely appealing; Clift has the control to charm - almost to seduce - an audience without ever stepping outside his inflexible, none-too-smart character...This was the movie of its year..." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movie (Henry Holt and Company).

AWARDS & HONORS:

Academy Awards® for Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra), Supporting Actress (Donna Reed), Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Sound (John P. Livadary). The eight awards were more than any other picture had won since Gone with the Wind (1939). Nominations for Best Actor (Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift), Actress (Deborah Kerr), Musical Score, Costume Design (Jean Louis).

Golden Globe Awards for Best Director, Supporting Actor (Sinatra).

New York Film Critics Awards for Best Picture, Actor (Lancaster) and Director

Directors Guild of America Award to Fred Zinnemann.

Writers Guild Award to Daniel Taradash for Best Written American Drama.

Cannes Film Festival Special Award to Zinnemann.

Compiled by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford