One of my all time favorites.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The main characters in this movie are on the side of the bad guys: The Republicans (or Loyalists). The good guys are the Nationalists and Franco. This seems counter to all common knowledge. This is because the (biased) media has told exaggerations (lies) about this era for years. Though the Republicans contains good 'republicans' as we know them--people who want to establish a good constitutional republic; it is really a coalition of republicans, socialist and at least two communist groups, one direct from Russia. The communists are particularly nasty: they use a particular form of torture: they would place prisoners in a small badly constructed cells where they either couldn't stand up or lie down properly: this made them stay awake most of the time in the most excruciating pain. In addition, the Republicans, over the years of the war killed thousands of Catholic priests and burned down many churches. No wonder the poor Catholics were fighting for their lives. (Whether you believe in this faith or not, all certainly believe everyone has the right to practice the religion of their choice.)Then the other side is not so bad as history (and the media) makes it out to be. History has called the Nationalists a bunch of radical fascists. However only ten percent of the Nationalists were official fascists: they were called the Phalangists and were what can be called fascist-lite: they were more like the Italian Fascists. The leader of the Nationalists was General Franco and he was not a fascist. However after the war one could call him a dictator: however, he did not control the economy like a fascist: he let it work on its own. However, he kept politics to one party and had strict control of the media and other sectors: perhaps not ideal, but not utterly evil.Some criticize the Nationalists use of the German Nazis. However, given their dire situation, one could see that they needed some help. In addition, some overly berate the Nazi bombing, including the town of Guernica. However, the Germans really only dived bombed the Republican train depot there--admittedly with some unfortunate collateral damage- -and did NOT obliterate the whole town as some dire socialists (including Picasso) claimed.Read some good history books and find out the truth. Read 'The Last Crusade' by eminent historian Warren H. Carroll, P.H.D. Modern media sources like Wikipedia contains all the right facts: however, more often than not, it is what is left out that hides the basic truth.PS. The same goes for the Bogart character in Casablanca: he also fought for the wrong side. A fine cast of characters: an adulterer (Bogart) and a custom official who took bribes so people can be set free--despicable. In addition, the main character from The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was sending her kids to fight the right side: the Nationalists (however, her error was sending kids into a fight that wasn't for them and not for sending them to the wrong side.) Same goes for Pan's Labyrinth. If I have to see another movie extolling the evil Republicans I will go crazy. Just goes to show you the evil, socialist bent of Hollywood and some segments of the population of Spain (which should know better.)

This film has a reputation for being somewhat boring, even turgid. For the first hour, I can certainly see the point of that. Not a great deal happens in the first 60 minutes or so, other than a rather predictable and over ripe Hollywood romance springing up between Cooper and Bergman. There's no action, no real sense of an external threat (surprising considering the setting) only a few not too interesting squabbles between the partisans.This however changes pretty much when the weather changes. As the snow begins to fall there is a new urgency to the film. Nationalist troops show up and the squabbles take on a darker edge with a real sense of menace. There is a truly superb performance from the drunkard which deserved an Oscar. Then Pilar (well played too) recounts his past history and we see him in a more sympathetic light. From then on our feelings towards the drunkard constantly shift between disgust and pity, perhaps the subtlest aspect of the film.One can say the dialogue is rather over-blown but this is typical of romantic films of the time. But the scenes of the atrocities committed in the name of 'freedom' are well done and surprisingly brutal even for a film of 1943.

This is a fine film, very popular in its day for depicting the desperate fight for freedom that even civilians engaged in by choice, at a time when democracy was in fact truly threatened and there was a very real possibility it would disappear from the earth. Because of the bravery of so many men and women of that time, the freedom that many today take for granted was assured. But it is by no means permanent.The film is relatively heavy but certainly many modern films about current events are equally heavy. One is either involved or not but I found it a great story of a small group of people who have survived a great deal of pain in life and who have little to lose. The film presents the characters very well, allowing us to like and understand them. It was shot in Technicolor on realistic locations and beautifully designed by William Cameron Menzies. The music by Victor Young is outstanding.In case anyone may not know, Ingrid Bergman was the choice of Ernest Hemingway. In fact, he went out of his way to see to it that the ballet dancer and actress Vera Zorina, who was originally cast and who had begun shooting the film, was replaced by Bergman. Hemingway also wanted Gary Cooper and no one else to play Robert Jordan. How can these actors be 'miscast' when the author who created the characters felt they were perfect for the roles?

To suggest, as a number of reviews have, that Cooper's acting is wooden is being polite. His words emanate like some parody of a person learning English for the first time, stoned, and in a casket. Granted, some of the lines he is given are terrible ("If I go, you go with me," and about 10 variations of this), but he is supposed to be an actor. At least, the others give some flair to their performance, but Coop was clueless. This is what happens when you get a Republican to play a Hemingway hero in the Spanish Civil War: a truly treasonous performance. As much as I like him in some pictures, such as High Noon, his acting or whatever you call it in FWTBT is deader than Monty Python's Norwegian Blue.