In honor of what would have been Fred Zinnemann’s 116th birthday, today’s scene that I love comes from 1953’s From Here To Eternity, one of the two Zinnemann-directed films to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

In this scene, Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) proves that he’s still a skilled boxer.  That’s not something that Prewitt wants the world to know because he’s still guilt-stricken over accidentally blinding one of his sparring partners.  Captain Holmes wants Prewitt to fight on the regimental team.  Prewitt would rather just play the bugle but, as he shows in this scene, he can still throw a punch if he’s forced to.  It leads to a lot of drama, the majority of which is forgotten in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.