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For Whom the Bell Tolls (film)

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For Whom the Bell Tolls
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySam Wood
Screenplay byDudley Nichols
Produced bySam Wood
Starring
CinematographyRay Rennahan
Edited by
Music byVictor Young
Production
company		Paramount Pictures
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • July 14, 1943 (1943-07-14) (USA)
Running time170 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$7.1 million (est. US/ Canada rentals)

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a 1943 American war film produced and directed by Sam Wood and starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, and Joseph Calleia. The screenwriter Dudley Nichols based his script on the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls by American novelist Ernest Hemingway. The film is about an American International Brigades volunteer, Robert Jordan (Cooper), who is fighting in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. During his desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge to protect Republican forces, Jordan falls in love with a young woman guerrilla fighter (Bergman).

For Whom the Bell Tolls was Ingrid Bergman's first Technicolor film. Hemingway handpicked Cooper and Bergman for their roles. The film became the top box-office hit of 1943, earning $7.1 million. It was also nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning one. Victor Young's film soundtrack for the film was the first complete score from an American film to be issued on record.

Plot

During the Spanish Civil War, an American language teacher, Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper), who lived in Spain during the pre-war period, fights in the International Brigades against Francisco Franco's fascist forces. An experienced dynamiter, Jordan is ordered to travel behind enemy lines and destroy a critical bridge with the aid of a band of local anti-fascist guerrillas. The bridge must be blown up to prevent enemy troops from travelling across it to respond to an upcoming offensive against the fascists.

The guerrilla fighters plan their mission.

Jordan meets an old man, Anselmo, who is a guerrilla fighter who will serve as Jordan's liaison with the local geurrilla fighters. Anselmo leads Jordan to a group of Republican guerrillas who are led by a middle-aged man named Pablo. Jordan falls in love one of the guerrillas, a young woman named María. Maria's life was shattered by her parents' execution and her rape at the hands of the Falangists (part of the fascist coalition) at the outbreak of the war. Jordan has a strong sense of duty, which clashes with the unwillingness of the guerrilla leader Pablo to commit to helping with the bridge-blowing operation, as it would endanger himself and his band. At the same time, Jordan develops a new-found lust for life which arises from his love for María. Jordan and María become lovers. Pablo's wife, Pilar, usurps Pablo's leadership and pledges the allegiance of the guerrillas to Jordan's mission. However, when another band of anti-fascist guerrillas, led by El Sordo, is surrounded and killed, Pablo steals Jordan's dynamite detonators and exploder, hoping to prevent the bridge demolition and thereby avoid fascist reprisals on his village. Although Pablo throws the gear down a gorge into the river, Pablo regrets abandoning his comrades and returns to assist in the operation.

However, the enemy, apprised of the coming offensive, has prepared to ambush the Republicans in force and it seems unlikely that blowing up the bridge will do much to prevent a rout. Regardless, Jordan understands that he must still demolish the bridge in an attempt to prevent Fascist reinforcements from overwhelming his allies. Lacking the detonation equipment stolen by Pablo, Jordan and Anselmo coordinate an alternative, improvised method to explode the dynamite by using hand grenades. Jordan attaches wires to the grenades so that their pins can be pulled from a distance. This improvised plan is considerably more dangerous than using conventional detonators, because the men must increase their proximity to the explosion.

The old man Anselmo (played by Vladimir Sokoloff), who acts as Robert Jordan's guide.

While the guerrilla fighters Pablo, Pilar, and Maria create a diversion for Jordan and Anselmo, the two men plant and detonate the dynamite, costing Anselmo his life when he is hit by a piece of shrapnel. While the guerrillas are escaping on horseback, Jordan is maimed when a fascist tank shoots his horse out from under him. Jordan cannot feel his legs and he knows that if his comrades stop to rescue him, they too will be captured. He bids goodbye to María and ensures that she escapes to safety with the surviving guerrillas. He refuses an offer from Agustín to shoot him and chooses instead to lie in wait for the fascist pursuers and die trying to stop them. Armed with a Lewis machine gun, he waits until the horse-mounded fascist soldiers appear in his gunsights. He then pulls the trigger, firing a sweeping barrage at the oncoming soldiers.

Cast

Guerrilla fighters Robert Jordan (Cooper) and Maria (Bergman) embrace.

Restoration

The film was originally released in a roadshow format, at 170 minutes (not counting intermission). For re-release, it was trimmed to 134 minutes, and it was not seen at its full length until the late 1990s, when it was archivally restored to 168 minutes. This restored version is the one that has been released on DVD. The restoration was photochemical, not digital, and the titles and some of the scenes in the early reels are slightly to significantly out-of-register.

Academy Awards

Robert Jordan (Cooper) rigs the bridge with explosives.
Wins
Nominations

Other versions

There was a Lux Radio Theater version broadcast on February 11, 1945, which retained the principal cast from the film: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, and Akim Tamiroff.

See also

References

  1. "All Time Domestic Champs", Variety, 6 January 1960 p 34
  2. "Top Grossers of the Season", Variety, 5 January 1944 p 54
  3. Patrick Robinson. 1980. Movie Facts and Feats: A Guinness Record Book.
  4. "The 16th Academy Awards (1943) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2014-02-27.
  5. "NY Times: For Whom the Bell Tolls". NY Times. Retrieved 2008-12-16.

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