Leisurely paced WWII story about the months preceding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. Best remembered for the romantic rendezvous between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr embracing on the beach as the waves crash over them. Be that as it may, this film is better appreciated as an acting powerhouse featuring one of the greatest casts of any film. Montgomery Clift is memorable as a private whose life is made miserable by an army captain when he refuses to fight in the regiment’s boxing team. Burt Lancaster is also excellent as a sergeant involved in an affair with his commander’s wife. Too emotionally sentimental to be a war movie and too macho to be a romantic drama. This entertaining (albeit overrated) literary adaptation fits somewhere in the middle. Received thirteen Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture.
Menu
2 Responses
I actually didn’t know this was a WWII film. All I knew about it was the iconic love scene on the beach. Might give it a try, then.
Yeah, the whole thing probably would’ve been better if they’d left Deborah Kerr’s part on the shelf (but what would they have done with all those posters?) Prewitt’s story has enough drama for any movie though; and even if We don’t need to see the details of Lancaster’s love affair, the contrast between him and his moral flexibility and Prewitt’s refusal to back down from his personal principles or his loyalties to his friends — and what that leads to for both men — is what the thing’s all about. Hard to think of a better combination of writing, direction and acting in a story that says as much about people.