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I am no fan of Earnest Hemingway's male-machismo, sexist, minority-victimizing slave-mentality, politically idealistic novels. That written, on to comparing the film with the novel, with the same title, that it was based upon. Unlike a Hemingway gruff & eagerly predatory man, or a whimsical figure with fantastical supernatural powers, or a typical woman victim of such men, due to the direction of Sam Wood, the screenplay adaptation by Dudley Nichols, great casting & stellar acting, the film "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is different enough from the 1939 novel to make it still relevant today. Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper) is a soft-spoken, mild-mannered Montana school teacher who joins the anti-fascist guerrillas during the Spanish Civil War. He's got more reasons than political ones that make him need strong enough distraction from the pain he's riddled with & the love he's torn up by. Since he's familiar with Montana's rugged mountain terrain, Jordan volunteers for the risky mountain assignment where he'll await order to bomb a cave's bridge. Enter Pilar (Katina Paxinou), a sage woman who's the guerrilla's guide & maternal figure. She's more philosophical & logical in the film than supernatural as Hemingway depicts her. Pilar's wise enough to be able to predict what's next. Maria (Ingrid Bergman), could have played Hemingway's victimized younger woman. Instead, her Maria's a survivor of being raped by soldiers who left her so traumatized that she's mute. Pilar inspires the stunning beauty to go be with the guerrilla fighter who's about to risk his life for their cause. Together, Jordan & Maria spend for days waiting while getting to know each other & 4 nights beneath the starlit sky on the mountain. Although their romance is the subplot that is supposed to blot out the ravages of war & suffering, the way Cooper & Bergman play their roles accentuates the horror of being adversaries. Undoubtedly, Cooper was intended to be the Hemingway hero of heroic manly-men. But, in the end, the character who steals the show is Pilar (Katina Paxinou), who's scripted lines are unforgettable: "Pilar: Look I am ugly. Yet one can have a feeling here [points to her heart] that blinds a man while he loves you. He thinks you are beautiful. And one day for no reason at all he sees you ugly as you really are. And he is not blind anymore. Then you see yourself as ugly as he sees you; and you lose your man and your feeling. Then, one day the feeling, that idiotic feeling that you are beautiful, grows inside you again and another man sees you and thinks you are beautiful and it's all to do over again. Now I'm past it. But, it still might come again." Paxinou won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as well as the First Annual Golden Globe Award, in 1944, for Best Supporting Actress. Historically, the fascist dictator, Francisco Franco, pressured Paramount to prevent the studio from releasing this film. Although the film deviates from the 1939 novel as I've explained, Franco was obsessed with the novel's anti-fascism. Obviously, Franco didn't have the influence that hundreds of thousands of potential viewers who lobbied Paramount for the film's release had!~Read full review
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