FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

US, 1943, 165 minutes, Colour.
Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Katina Paxinou, Akim Tamiroff, Arturo de Cordova.
Directed by Sam Wood.

For Whom the Bell Tolls was a very popular film of 1943. Based on Ernest Hemingway's well-known novel, it featured Gary Cooper as the hero. Cooper had been the Hemingway hero of A Farewell to Arms in 1932. He seems to embody in a very serious kind of way the tough American Hemingway heroes, abroad in Europe and fighting for causes. Ingrid Bergman is in a different kind of role as Maria the partisan. Katina Paxinou won the Oscar for the best supporting actress in this film.

Directed by Sam Wood, whose range included the Marx Brothers' The Night at the Opera, Goodbye Mr Chips, the
film is an interesting example of the 1940s viewpoint of the Spanish Civil War. It recreates the atmosphere of Spain,
takes the side of the Republicans, as did Hemingway, and uses this in the 1940s as a propaganda approach for morale of the Americans in World War II. This makes the film somewhat dated now, although it is very popular and an interesting screen adaptation of Hemingway's work.

There was to be another version of A Farewell to Arms in the 50s with Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones; Gregory Peck starred in The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Tyrone Power starred in The Sun Also Rises and George C. Scott in the posthumously published Islands in the Stream in 1976.

1. The title comes from a quotation by John Donne about death. How was this relevant to the film? Did it highlight the themes and the atmosphere? How?

2. The film was made in the early forties. Its subject was the Spanish Civil War of six years earlier. Does the film now seem dated? Or is it a vivid presentation of the atmosphere of the thirties and forties? How well was the Spanish Civil War presented in this film? Justly? Were the issues clear? (Or was this not important?)

3. How significant is this film as a visualisation of Hemingway's ideals? The Hemingway hero? Hemingway action? The relationships between men and women? Danger and dedication? Physical strength and physical duress? The physical consequences of dedication to a cause?

4. What kind of hero was Robert Jordan? (Was he too much what one expects a Gary Cooper hero to be like?) Why was he, an American, involved in the War? Why did he have such responsibilities and have to take such risks ? Was he dedicated to a cause? What dedication did he have to the Spanish people? Was he an effective hero? Was he willing giving his life for others? Was he a self-determining hero? Did he exercise his freedom? Or was he governed by some fate?

5. How important was the mission an which he was sent? The ironies of lack of communications about the mission? His involvement in it? Was it an impassive kind of involvement, doing what he was told? Or did he bring his own freedom and initiative to it? Was it significant for the war? Did the dramatics of the mission highlight the significance of the war and the issues involved? How?

6. Impressions of the Spanish peoples of the hills and mountains? What were they fighting for? How were they victims of their surroundings and their poverty? What was their cause? Why did they attract international help?

7. The character of Pablo? What kind of man was he? A leader who had been humiliated? His moodiness? Why did he constantly change? His relationship to Pilar? His feeling of humiliation before Robert Jordon? How did he humiliate himself and betray the group? How did he redeem himself? Did he in any way parallel Robert Jordan?

8. How strong a personality was Pilar? Why? Why was she a leader? What authority did she have? Was she a sympathetic character? How well did she understand the war and its situations? How well did she understand Robert Jordan, Pablo? Maria? What did she stand for as a symbol of a fighter, a woman, a Spaniard?

9. How did the film develop the ideologies of Fascism, Communism, Internationalism?

10. What kind of a person was Maria? Was she too much a standard Ingrid Bergman heroine? Was she a strong heroine? What were her values? How did she contrast with the others as regards ideology and cause? How much did she rely on feelings rather than beliefs?

11. Why did Maria and Robert fall in love? Was it obvious from her point of view? Why? Was it obvious from his point of view? Why? Was this a strength or a weakness on his part? How did it change him? Did it have an effect on his life? Would it have had an effect on his life had he lived?

12. How strong were the elements of adventure in the film, the setting, the time element for the accomplishment of the mission, the mountains and the snow, the enemy soldiers, the bridge, the difficulties of communicating with headquarters, the night, soldiers searching in the snow, the explosives, the blowing up of the bridge?

13. How did the film develop the interrelationship between fate and destiny outside themselves and love coming from within?

14. How did the film show the irony of plans and preparation and fate and destiny making other arrangements?

15. How exciting was the blowing of the bridge and the escapes? Were they well planned? The influence of Pilar? The wound? Robert Jordan? The emotional involvement of Maria as she knew that she had to leave him? How well was this handled? Too romantically? Or did it fit in with the whole atmosphere of the film?

16. How did Robert Jordan's death take up the theme of the title of the film? Had there been a sense of ominous menace during the film? How optimistic or pessimistic was the film?