For Whom the Bell Tolls
Director: Sam Wood
Year Released: 1943
Rating: 0.5
Soulless film of the 'great' Hemingway novel - some call it exceptional filmmaking; I call it taking three hours to blow up a fucking bridge (get Bill Holden or Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and you'll see some real explosions). The relationship that develops between Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman is as artificial as they come – of course they're going to fall in love, who else is there to fall in love with? – and it isn't helped by Cooper's typically unexpressive acting (worked perfectly in High Noon, I admit) and Bergman's lovesick cooing. More of a staged play than a movie, and a pretty dry play at that.
