There’s a reason the surfside smooch in From Here to Eternity between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr is so endlessly quoted and parodied. It’s one of the most classic images in cinema, an illicit interlude that can’t last, an adulterous clinch near Pearl Harbor, 1941, just before the world goes to hell. Fred Zinnemann’s 1953 adaptation of the sprawling James Jones novel earned eight Oscars, and it’s a marvel of script condensation—still the towering model that Pearl Harbor, Tora! Tora! Tora!, and even The Thin Red Line sought to reach. Then there’s that majestic cast, which includes Sinatra, Monty Clift, Ernest Borgnine, and Donna Reed (who earned her Oscar for a very different sort of role than in It’s a Wonderful Life; SEE WIRE, MONDAY, P. 33.). A restored print is promised, making this probably the best holiday movie in Seattle theaters. (NR) Dec. 18-27, 2007