This movie established Frank Sinatra as a solid actor. You will see a different view of the Pearl Harbor attack. The movie is not about the attack, but about the lives of the people living there before the attack and after. Burt Lancaster as always turns in a great performance, Ernest Borgnine is a great bully, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed all provide great performances. This is a different kind of war movie as it shows the men in the military as real men with strengths and weaknesses. It was Lancaster who suggested the famous kissing scene in the surf be filmed lying down on the sand instead of standing in the water. There are no true heroes in this movie, but there men who do good things. It won the award for best picture and deserved it. 

The story goes that the mafia put pressure on the producers to use Sinatra. Whether true or not, it was retold in The Godfather. He was a very good actor. Among other roles, he was fantastic in The Detective, an underrated movie in my opinion.

It is an great movie and Lancaster is excellent.  For whatever reason, it is not one I have felt the need to watch more than once.