rickcast
I am not a native of the southern U.S. But I know ugly Hollywood stereotyping, and insulting and frankly ignorant Southern characterizations are front and center in this movie. It was so annoying that I couldn't watch it more than 10 minutes. It's a disgrace to be called a drama; it's more of a dark comedy, but I couldn't laugh.
Gialinh Vu
Inman, a soldier fighting in the Confederate army is trying to get home and reunite with his loved one, Ada. Ada is left to manage Black Cove Farm all alone after the death of her father and she has no idea what to do. Seeing Ada so lonely, Sally Swanger sends a local girl named Ruby to help Ada out with the farm. Inman goes through a dangerous and violent journey westward but had to retrace his steps when he was handed over to the Home Guard by Junior. Inman ends up meeting a nice slave who feeds him as well as provide clothing and help him draw out a map of what lies ahead. As Inman continues to wander, he meets many other people along the way who aid him on his journey. Inman soon arrives at Black Cove Farm and finds the sight of Cold Mountain. The next day he finds Ada hunting turkeys and they spend the next few days together at the Cherokee village, discussing their feelings, past experiences, and their plans for the future. Inman decides to walk north to surrender to the Federalists because the war was going to end soon. This movie really touched my heart because Inman had to go through such tough obstacles to get back to his loved one and through this we can see what people during the Civil War had to go through. The movie really absorbs the audience into the lives of the people who were away at war and those who were left behind, trying to desperately get rid of such horrible repercussions.
jrbreeze-92686
After doing some research on this movie, I found that it was a decently accurate movie, but there were times when what was shown wasn't what actually happened. The first scene is the battle at Petersburg, which was very accurate, except that when it actually happened, there were both African-American troops and white troops, since they were separate at the time, and in the movie there were only white troops present. The details in the scene were very accurate, though, like that the place the Confederates were was blown up and because of how it was done, many were trapped, and then the Union army was able to move in and attack those that were still there. On the accuracy of how the women are shown, I have found that overall it was very accurate to the time. Often, people believe that everyone who lived in the South during the Civil War was a supporter of the war, but women usually weren't, just as they weren't in the movie. Also, since the characters lived in a rural town, the women weren't always supervised like they would have been in a place that was more populated. In the film, the two main characters that were women were often together, but not usually with anyone else. I personally thought the movie was okay. I didn't think that it would be as violent as it was, but it wasn't too bad. I enjoyed the love story part of it, too.
Leofwine_draca
Why are Anthony Minghella's films so plodding? I remember seeing THE English PATIENT at cinemas back in the day and being astonished at how long it felt. Okay, TRULY MADLY DEEPLY was acceptable but still could have been shortened a little. COLD MOUNTAIN is the worst yet, as what should be a Civil War epic turns out to be a lengthy and often routine melodrama with little to recommend it.Perhaps the novel was at fault too, although as I haven't read it I can't comment. The film is told from the point of view of Jude Law, a wounded soldier whose sole purpose is to get back home to the woman he loves (Nicole Kidman). The film chronicles Law's journey throughout, so why then do we get all the needless boring scenes of Kidman pining for him back home? Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, in comes Renee Zellweger with a supposedly comedic character and proceeds to reduce it to pantomime level.There are elements to enjoy in COLD MOUNTAIN, not least the battle sequences which are well mounted. Law comes into contact with various characters as the story progresses, some of them engaging (Philip Seymour Hoffman), others less so; Ray Winstone seems particularly underdeveloped in a supporting role. But after a couple of hours or so it all gets rather repetitive, and you wish they'd just get on with it instead of dragging things out so much. The ending is particularly anticlimactic.
AD
