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 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.