Sam Wood's film presents Hemingway's notion of masculine adventurism, conveying Jordan's single-minded commitment to the task of blowing up a strategic bridge in a mountain pass. Yet, artistically, "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is so diffuse, tedious in pace, and replete with close-ups (of Cooper and Bergman's tearful farewell), that most of what we remember is the tale's romance, rather than politics.