From Here To Eternity (1953)

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY  (1953)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Fred Zinnemann
    Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift,
    Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Ernest Borgnine,
    Philip Ober, Jack Warden, Claude Akins
The great military potboiler about soldiers and their women in Hawaii in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor. The men are perfectly typecast - Lancaster as the tough but fair career man, Sgt. Warden, Sinatra as the cocky, party-loving Pvt. Maggio, and Clift as Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt, an uncompromising "hardhead" who loves the Army but doesn't like to be told what to do. The women are cast against type, and that works, too - Kerr as a heat-seeking officer's wife who hooks up with Lancaster, and Reed as a bar girl who gets involved with Clift. All five leads got nominated for Oscars, and Reed and Sinatra won. The movie's full of unforgettable moments, and the shot of Kerr and Lancaster making out in the surf is iconic. A personal favorite: Lancaster and Clift, both shitfaced, sharing a bottle in the middle of the road.