From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity (1953) is one of the most controversial films of its time. Adapted from James Jones’s bestselling novel, the landmark blockbuster deals frankly with adultery, military corruption, physical abuse, racism and murder, and traces the unhappy lives of five American outsiders in the last days before Pearl Harbor. Made at the height of the Cold War and Hollywood’s anticommunist purges, director Fred Zinnemann, writer Daniel Taradash and producer Buddy Adler defied military and industry pressure to censor the material.

Exploring the film’s full production history and drawing upon archival documents and rare interviews with cast and crew, J. E. Smyth provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the film many industry insiders thought couldn’t be made.

This special edition features original cover artwork by Eda Akaltun.

J. E. Smyth is Reader in History at the University of Warwick, UK. Smyth is the author and editor of five books, including Reconstructing American Historical Cinema from Cimarron to Citizen Kane (2006) and Fred Zinnemann and the Cinema of Resistance (2014).