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For Whom the Bell Tolls | 
 enlarge | Director: Sam Wood
Actors: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Arturo De Cordova, Vladimir Sokoloff
Studio: Mca (Universal)
Category: Video
Buy New: CDN$ 22.75
New (2) Used (7) Collectible (4) from CDN$ 1.09
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 4635
Format: Collector's Edition, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Media: VHS Tape
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 3.9 x 2.1
ISBN: 6303560040
UPC: 096894500634
EAN: 9786303560045
ASIN: 6303560040
Theatrical Release Date: 1943
Release Date: October 29, 2002
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Condition: New sealed VHS, rare film, original story written by Ernest Hemingway.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lost History August 11, 2007
K. S. Puls (British Columbia, Canada)
American viewers like the preceding reviewer might miss much of the point of this film due to lack of historical background due in part to lingering Mc Carthyist distortion of the realities of the Spanish Civil War. The Republic for which Jordan (Gary Cooper) was fighting was a government elected in the face of the great feudal landlords and the unreconstructed and dominant Spanish Catholic Church of that period. The fact that the Republicans received support from the USSR doesn't make them "commies"; they represented every aspect of the political spectrum from liberal to socialist to communist to people who might have been labeled conservative, but still believed in democracy and religious freedom.
They were opposed by the Nationalists, led by Generalissimo (later fascist dictator) Francisco Franco, who was supported by Hitler and Mussolini in their first test run as the Axis Powers. Their atrocities at Guernica and elsewhere, including aerial terror bombing of civilian populations, were very influential in scaring French PM Daladier and British PM Neville Chamberlain into their disastrous Munich appeasement of Hitler two years later.
The complexities of the plot derive in part from the complications that Jordan encounters due to the miscellaneous nature of the side he's fighting for. The often-conflicting motivations of anarchists, socialists, liberal democrats, communists, possible fifth columnists (the term was coined in the Spanish Civil War), opportunists, and people simply wanting to throw off medievalism in order to enjoy democracy and modernism are what provide the dramatic tension in this movie. Distrust was a fatal flaw for the Republican side. This isn't Bushie "with us or against us" "mission accomplished" brainless bravado, or a John Wayne "us good, Mexicans bad" Alamo rendition. It's about a man risking his life to fight the palpable evil of fascism that Franco, Mussolini and Hitler (NOT "Italians and Germans") represented, while doubting that all of his supposed allies share the values he's prepared to die for. The love story isn't the main theme here, except as it makes it easy for one to understand and identify with the anguish of choosing between the personal and the political. It's Jordan's decisions about the need for principled self-sacrifice in the face of doubt that drive the plot and make him a compelling Christ-figure.
The acting is excellent, and the technical work is top quality. This is a significant film not only because of the events it portrays, but because of the Mc Carthyite backlash gainst the people who went to Spain to fight fascism five years before the Japanese finally woke up the rest of America at Pearl Harbor. It records history, and is a piece of history itself.
 "Any Man's death diminishes me " April 1, 2007
B. Chandler (Arlington, Texas)
"Because I am involved in mankind;
and therefore send to know
for who the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee."
Spain 1937. Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper) came to Spain o fight for "The Republic" (a nice way to say for the commies) and against nationalists. He also had a dislike for Germans and Italians. His assignment was to go behind the nationalist lines and blow up a bridge at a strategic moment. There this stoic hero meets a peasant girl (a much too young for Gary, Ingrid Bergman) with a bad haircut and that barely escaped a train ride. They naturally fall in love which complicates things. Will this jeopardize the mission? Do we care?
Along with this we have the classic mixture of characters that you can not tell if they are the good guys or the bad guys. The two that stand out besides the hero and his girl are Katina Paxinou (sort of a female Antony Quinn) as the doyenne, and Akim Tamiroff as the once good guerilla who may be bad or just self-centered. Who they were and how the acted was quite a predicable formula.
The story is an adoption from the Ernest Hemingway novel. Of course they could not put everything in the story and too a few liberties. We also miss the dialog that people read Hemmingway for.
The initial credits are in some annoying script (Parchment) make it hard to read at a glance.
GREAT... but... July 12, 2004
Henning Sebastian Jahre (Oslo, Norway)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
... why these complaints about a widescreen-version? 20th Century-Fox released the first CinemaScope film in 1953(The Robe) in order to outdo TV.... True, there were occassional try-outs like Napoleon in 1927, but the widescreen-system as we know it; came in 1953.FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS is a great as it can get. Bergman in particular shows us natural acting a`la Brando - years before he came to the Hollywood scene... Unfortunately; the two weeks-shooting of Norwegian Vera Zorina as Maria is NOT included on the DVD. Ingrid raplaced her when the ballerina tiptoed through her role; but actually was given the sack because of Cooper, Wood and even Hemingway`s personal interests in Bergman. It would have been nice to see the difference between Vera and Ingrid. The production is lavish and the dialogue intelligent. It was not well-received in 1943 and suffered under the success of Casablanca. However; I think Bergman is at her peak as MARIA and not as ILSA hehehehe
Full screen - are you kidding me? July 2, 2004
Aramis (United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I cannot believe this film is released on DVD in full screen format only, and not in a widescreen format. Full screen is fine for films that are primarily shot indoors, but to do this to a movie with such scenic grandeur is a crime. This format totally destroys the cinematography and grand vistas of the orignal. Have a heart and release a widescreen version!
Great Film: Not Deserving of "Full Screen" treatment June 16, 2004
Read all other reviews of this film for film's brilliance, Gary Cooper's performance, etc. . However, what is bothersome, as good a reproduction this film is, is that it's reproduced in Full Frame NOT theatrical format as when the film was released or widescreen which, particularly in the case of such a brilliant film as this, it is a cinematic crime not to release a true to intent vesion of any film as visualized/composed by the Director and cinematographer. I cannot understand companies that go to all the trouble to make a film like this transfer to DVD so well and overlook the obvious: showing the film's original parameters as well.There are other film's I refuse to purchase simply because of the destruction of the film's composition that Full Frame productions foist upon the artists who created such cinematic greats. Had a truer visual format been availableI would have purchased it, however, this is one exception that I had to buy because of the overall brilliance of the work. Here is hoping that the future will bring a even greater reproduction of the original intent of the film's entire LOOK.
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