It's been quite a while since I broke out one of my Best Picture collections. This sweeping tragedy won eight Academy Awards, including ones for Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed, and was nominated for five others. Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) has transferred to a different Army unit on Hawaii from the bugle corps after being supplanted due to favoritism. His new commander, Captain Holmes (Philip Ober), finds out that Prewitt used to be a boxer and pressures him to join the division team. Prewitt refuses so the Captain authorizes his non-commissioned officers to haze Prewitt until he changes his mind. The First Sergeant, Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster), hates the Captain for being a lazy sod and begins having an affair with the man's brittle, dissatisfied wife (Deborah Kerr).
It's a little melodramatic for my tastes but I've never been a big fan of star-crossed romances. I have to say it's an accurate portrayal of life in the Army, at least as far as the drinking and screwing around. It was interesting to see Donna Reed playing something other than a perfect housewife. As Lorene/Alma, she was steel-heartedly determined to make enough money off the soldiers stationed in Hawaii to retire back to the mainland and marry someone respectable, despite being in love with Prewitt. It was nice to see her capable of that kind of darkness.
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