From Here to Eternity

Sinatra grew up in From Here to Eternity. No longer is his character a wide-eyed youth with a velvet voice following Gene Kelly trying to figure out how to get a girl. Now he plays a man with deep, heart wrenching emotions. Maggio is an ordinary guy. He works hard, but he likes to get drunk. He sticks up for his friends and family. He enjoys the company of a girl, and he's the instigator of the affair. His ordinariness is what drew me in this film. Prewitt and Sergeant Warden both have special abilities that make them stand out; Prewitt has boxing and bugling talents, and Sergeant Warden his imposing persona and uber-masculine aura. Maggio is just an average private (who never breaks into the crooner persona).
All of the previous Sinatra films we have viewed featured him as part of the military, but in the previous three that element of his character acted as a minor backstory detail. Now the military is THE STORY. The rigid setting of this film and the fact that it isn't a musical gives Sinatra real credit as an actor. He can't fall back on "The Voice," he has to prove that he has the acting chops. And he does. Sinatra delicately balances between comic relief and authentic anger, sadness, and fear. His face when he is brought to the stockade and looks at Fatso's bully club filled me with terror and the urge to smite Fatso myself.
Sinatra's Italian identity is brought to the forefront of this film. His character actually has an Italian name (Angelo Maggio) and he exhibits many of the qualities associated with Italian Americans. He is loyal to his friends, devoted to his family, and he drinks . . . . a lot. He is also quick to anger, throwing a chair at the obviously dangerous Fatso because he calls him a "little wop." The film may promote sterotypes about Italians, but I think the focus on Maggio's loyalty and his sincerity overpower the negative aspects of his character.