Both Deborah Kerr and William Holden play difficult roles here out of their ordinary repertoires, and they do it well, carrying their enormous challenges through and coming out of it alive - but no more. In the end there is not much left of any of them. Still they both learned something on the way, and anyone can learn the same thing by watching this very edifying and human war story. He is rough and cruel, violent and bitter, because all he knows is war, and she has lost her husband in the war and goes to the least suitable place for someone like her in the war to find out the truth of her husband. She finally gets it from a grave-digger and caretaker called Useless, and that's the point of the film - she learns her lesson, just like William Holden, the hard way.
Although located in French New Caledonia in the Pacific with palms and beaches, just like in "From Here to Eternity", it is in black-and-white and brutally realistic all the way. Although there are no war scenes, the war is constantly present, and the casualties keep constantly bleeding in a perpetual merciless reminder of the inhumanity of war - "They never teach you how to die, you have to learn it by yourself", - a dire memorandum forever.
Although located in French New Caledonia in the Pacific with palms and beaches, just like in "From Here to Eternity", it is in black-and-white and brutally realistic all the way. Although there are no war scenes, the war is constantly present, and the casualties keep constantly bleeding in a perpetual merciless reminder of the inhumanity of war - "They never teach you how to die, you have to learn it by yourself", - a dire memorandum forever.