For Whom the Bell Tolls

Roberto!

You promised.

Adios, Kashkin. Adios, Roberto.

BUNKER

Hola, Americano.

Hola. Hola.

Help yourself, Jordan. General Golz?

What an accent! He even knows me in the dark!

That's all we have in Spain now ... accents.

Eh, Jordan? I was looking for you.

I saw you. How did it go with the train?

Alright.

And Kashkin? He caught one.

He didn't want to be taken alive.

Oh, so it was like that? Yes. Murder.

Orders are orders. I still call it murder. Well ...

in this business, Jordan, remember nothing. Nothing except the next job.

What's next? A bridge. Oh, a bridge. Right.

To blow the bridge is nothing. But to blow it at the time of the attack,

that's a horse of another color, as you Americans say. Attack?

Yes. At last we take the offensive. Oh, it will be a beautiful attack.

On paper it looks wonderful, and if it succeeds ...

No, I will not say "if." This time it must succeed and it will.

What I've told you, Jordan, is known only to the general staff.

Our only chance to succeed is by a surprise attack.

Now, here is the bridge, over a deep gorge.

It's the only way the enemy can bring up reinforcements.

Tanks, artillery, troops, all must come over this bridge.

I must know it is gone. Not before the attack, they'd rebuild it.

It must go the minute the attack starts, no sooner, no later.

So the bridge is nothing. But suppose their soldiers are sitting on it.

You know, sentries on both ends. What do you do then?

In my country, they say, "Never blow a bridge till you come to it."- Good.

That's good, you joke. In this business, one should joke a little.

I am so serious. It's why I can joke.

You think you can get through enemy lines tomorrow night? Sure.

Good. That will give you 3 days to prepare for the dynamiting.

Wait for the attack at dawn, after the third night.

How will I know the exact time? Well, use these.

Listen. First we attack from the air.

When you hear the explosions, that's your time.

I've got a good guide for you, an old man named Anselmo.

Knows the country like a fox, and the people to help you.

Now, go and find yourself a pretty girl.

But first get a haircut. Is that an order, General?

Why not? I don't like your barber.

Up the gorge to the left is the bridge.

Sentry boxes, huh? At each end, Roberto.

Always two sentries on guard.

Where do the sentries live? At the roadmender's hut, across the bridge.

You can't see it from here.

The other post is on this side, in that old sawmill.

How many men in the sawmill? Eight, and a corporal.

The other post, how many men? Maybe more.

We'll find out. Look!

They always spit in the gorge.

It brings luck.

I wish I could spit that far.

Roberto!

That sentry, he looks like a man from my village.

He's very young.

He must die? You couldn't do it, Anselmo?

I would kill the sentry, considering the necessity of the bridge.

But if I live later, I'll try to live in such a way,

doing no harm to anyone, that it will be forgiven.

Come on, let's get this dynamite somewhere safe.

You wait here, Roberto. Oh, I can make it, Anselmo.

You want to be shot at, carrying these?

No, not even in a joke.

Go ahead.

Roberto!

He's the boss here, Roberto. Very strong man. I can see.

Foreigner? And a friend. Didn't the old man tell you?

I'm asking you.

I'm here for the Republic.

You know those seals, don't you? SIM, Service of Military Intelligence.

The General Staff commands for the Republic.

In these mountains, I command. No one else.

What's that? Dynamite.

Good. I can use dynamite. How much you bring me?

None. What's your name?

What's that to you? Pablo. He's Pablo.

What for? A bridge.

What bridge? That's my business.

In this country, it's my business. Don't talk so! You want to die?

No! - Shut your mouth. This comrade comes for the Republic!

Anselmo!

Help us get this stuff up to your camp. The old man's tired.

Hola! What is this that comes?

The old man and a dynamiter.

Hey, that stuff! Not in the cave.

What're you making? A trap for foxes.

See? Very practical. He catches rabbits.

If a Gypsy catches rabbits, he says it's foxes.

If he catches a fox, it's an elephant. And if I catch an elephant?

You'd say it was a tank.

I'll get me a tank, old man!

Some day I'll get me one and you can call it what you please.

Gypsies talk much, kill little.

I'm going for wine. Bring a cup for me.

You have wine, huh? And plenty of it.

We eat like generals here. Yeah, he eats like ten generals.

And what do Gypsies do in the war? They keep on being Gypsies.

That's a good job. The best.

How do they call you? Roberto. And you?

Rafael. Oh, wine! There will be food soon.

Food!

Oh, you have tobacco!

Yeah, I know these.

Much air and little tobacco.

Ah, we eat!

Hola!

Hola!

That's how I comb it.

Go ahead and eat.

Hey, bread!

How are you called?

María. And you?

Roberto.

Been here long?

This long.

Three months. They shaved my head in Valladolid.

I was on the train heading south. The train Pablo blew at Arévalo.

Many of the prisoners were caught again, but they saved me.

They and Pilar. We found her hiding in the rocks where she'd run off.

You should have seen her!

No hair at all. Cried all the time.

And if anyone touched her, she'd shiver like a wet dog.

Man, but she was ugly. God's truth, Roberto.

Though Gypsies usually lie. She looked like a half-drowned kitten.

You blow trains? I have.

Here? No, in Extremadura.

In another six months it'll grow out.

Are you his woman? Pablo's?

You've seen Pablo!

I've seen Rafael too. No. No, not the Gypsy.

This is a very strange woman. Is of no one.

But she cooks well.

Really of no one?

No one.

Nor of you, either.

No.

No. I have no time for women.

No?

María!

Who's that?

Pablo's woman, Pilar.

She's something barbarous! But brave!

A hundred times braver than Pablo. Pablo was brave in the beginning.

He killed more people than cholera.

Yes, at the start he kill more people than the bubonic plague.

But, Pilar, she is something barbarous!

The Gypsy's afraid of her. Why not? She hates me.

Why? She treats me as a time waster.

She doesn't like Gypsies. What an injustice!

She has Gypsy blood herself. She knows of what she speaks.

But she has a tongue. It bites like a bull whip.

What are you saying now, you lazy son of an unmentionable Gypsy?

Answer me, Gypsy!

I was telling this comrade what a kind woman you are, Pilar.

Liar! This one comes as a dynamiter. I know that.

Go and relieve Andrés. He's on guard at the top.

I go, Pilar. I'll see you, Roberto,

when we eat. Not even in a joke! 3 times today you've eaten.

But I can eat twice more. Get out of here! And send me Andrés!

Hola, Inglés.

How are you and the Republic? Good.

Both good. I'm happy.

What did that Gypsy say about me? He said you were much woman.

And I'd say he's right.

And what did you say to the girl, before I came out? Nothing.

I saw how she was from seeing you. I only joked with her. Jokes?

Listen to me, Inglés. She's young, not hardened as we are.

And she's had a bad time. You understand?

Yes, I guess so. I'm worried about her.

When do you leave here? In three days. If I'm still alive.

What made you say that? That never brings luck.

Let me see your hand.

Well? Nothing.

I saw nothing. What do you come for? Blow another train?

No, a bridge. All the better.

Now we have horses. Let's blow all the bridges and go!

I'm sick of this place. We are rotting here because there's no fighting.

Only watching Pablo get drunk. This life is ruining him.

What did you see in my hand? I saw nothing.

Yes, you did.

I'm only curious. I don't believe in it. In what do you believe?

In my work. I saw that. What else?

Nothing else.

The bridge is very difficult? No. It is important.

But it can be very difficult? Yes.

I'm going to look it over again. How many men have you got here?

Five. The Gypsy is worthless, although his intentions are good.

Pablo, I no longer trust.

Thanks. I like your way of speaking. I try to speak frankly.

Then tell me what you saw in my hand. No.

I saw nothing else.

Go now to the bridge. I look after your equipment.

Let me tell you again, Inglés. I'm glad you've come.

We will understand each other.