The Moose Hole - Review of Cold Mountain

[MickeyMoose15]

Released December 25th, 2003

Director: Anthony Minghella

Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Jen Apgar, Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, Lucas Black, Emily Deschanel, James Gammon, Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Hunnam, Jena Malone, Taryn Manning, Mark Jeffrey Miller, Robin Mullins, Natalie Portman, Giovanni Ribisi, Ethan Suplee, Donald Sutherland, Melora Walters, Ray Winstone, Jack White

Premise: Fearing for the safety of his beloved Ada, the wounded Confederate soldier Inman makes his way across the war-ravaged South, back to her farm on Cold Mountain. He faces trials and tribulations as he encounters slaves and bounty hunters, soldiers and witches, unexpected friends and dangerous enemies at every turn. Ada's road is no easier as she relies on wits and newfound bravery to protect her father's farm from attack, with the help of an intrepid drifter named Ruby. As they come ever closer, Inman and Ada weave a story about the longing for home after being in the wilderness, the longing for peace after being at war, and the longing for love and union in the midst of chaos. Based on one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, "Cold Mountain" sets off on a true American odyssey through a time that saw some of the greatest ferocity -- and heroism -- the nation has ever known.

What is with Hollywood and the concept of love in the mitts of great disasters? There can be no greater example of this obsession then the highest grossing film of all time, Titanic. Though the Oscar darling can be blamed for the most recent trend, it is not the first to start this. There’s the classic Casablanca and many other films set in and around World War II that do the same thing that is happening today in war features. Many films have come out recently and tried to duplicate the same result as Titanic but none have come close. Miramax is hoping they can break that statement with their film set in North Carolina during the Civil War ....

Click Here to Read the Full Review! (http://www.hostultra.com/~TheMooseHole/Cold%20Mountain.htm)

[tabuno]

Sometimes I am struck by this odd sense that war, action, and trying to make sense of the deaths of tens of thousands of men can be the subject of such intense interest while love is relegated to the background as a topic of criticism and a primary motive in putting a movie down. Nicole Kidman's character should have been younger?

I recall Dr. Zhivago as a revolutionary war movie and a love story, one of the more remarkable pieces of epic movie making.

The more important element in war is the human element, the bonds that keep us human not the gory details of brutal battle strategy. Am I struck by "Cold Mountain" by its intensity and raw savagery, looking at human failings and the more classical male versus female premise between war and love that can be found in this movie. Men kill, women nurture - an almost universal, dichotomy of the human species - a much more basic, fundamental premise that underlies humanity.

Romantic love, a fantasy ideal brought to the screen by this movie is an impossible dream, but the passion, innocent emotion that keeps burning is a deep emotive feeling that men suppress and hide (after the first crush) and that women long for for most of their lives but rarely receive. This inspirational movie of love and pain, of graphic brutality and salvation is much more than how old the main character is...

This major film feature breaks new ground in its telling...less sex more longing and feeling by looks, acting, and narrative story telling. This movie raises the bar of a standard of love probably none of us can hope to reach. It offers hope for those of us who sacrifice, those of us who have lost love. It demonstrates the senselessness of war in the trenches and brings us back to the more important concerns of feelings, personal human relationships...how we live life in our own personal sphere that truly matters.

This movie is truly worthy of both the Golden Globe nominations it received and possible Oscar nominations in the future. In my mind, the message contained in this movie is even more potent than that found in the brilliant and one of the most evocative movies ever made "The Lord of the Rings."

[MickeyMoose15]

Sometimes I am struck by this odd sense that war, action, and trying to make sense of the deaths of tens of thousands of men can be the subject of such intense interest while love is relegated to the background as a topic of criticism and a primary motive in putting a movie down.

If its the Civil War? Yeah!


Nicole Kidman's character should have been younger?

The way she was presented in the beginning, it felt as though she was suppose to be younger.


Romantic love, a fantasy ideal brought to the screen by this movie is an impossible dream, but the passion, innocent emotion that keeps burning is a deep emotive feeling that men suppress and hide (after the first crush) and that women long for for most of their lives but rarely receive.

The problem I have with this film's "love story" is that they barely know each other and yet it seems as though they have known each other all their lives. Critics criticize Pearl Harbor and Daredevil for this same thing but not Cold Mountain. Does that make sense?


This major film feature breaks new ground in its telling...less sex more longing and feeling by looks, acting, and narrative story telling.

Less sex? There was plenty of that, almost as much as in Gangs of New York. And the films takes a long time getting to its point or lack there of.

My main grip is the whole idea of love stories set against disasters or wars. I think the events these plots are set against are much more important then a re-tread after re-tread of the same basic love story: Two lovers meet, they are seperated by disaster and the society that won't allow them to be together, the man dies (or in some cases, the woman), and the woman amazingly becomes pregnant in that one time they have sex. How convenient!

And how does this sort of love story reflect reality? I wish I had this sort of quick fall in love and love each for the rest of your life relationship (not getting killed, accourse) but that just doesn't happen or anything I've seen in my life.

[oscar jubis]

Anthony Minghella's adaptation of the 1997 National Book Award winner by Charles Frazier is one of the rare pleasures among the holiday crop of releases. Cold Mountain focuses intimately on the parallel journeys of disillusioned Confederate soldier Inman (Law) and belle-out-of-Charleston Ada (Kidman). Both interact with a variety of individuals over the course of three tragic years to paint a credible social landscape of the American South during the Civil War. Frazier incorporates details of the life of an ancestor into a framework inspired by Homer's "Odyssey" and influenced by "Huck Finn", among others. The attention to period detail, restrained musical score, and authentic folk songs performed on screen that comment/reflect on the action (like a Greek chorus) enrich and facilitate our time travel.

Cold Mountain alternates between Inman's long, perilous trek home and Ada's more interior transformation, as demanded by life circumstances, with assistance from plucky, self-reliant Ruby (Zellweger). A major decision by Minghella was to feature scenes from the Battle of the Crater (an actual event not included in Frazier's book) that convey the horror of war as experienced by Inman and the nature of combat circa 1860s.

The film invites us to participate in Inman's dis-illusion, in his understanding of the inmensity of suffering brought on by war, in its underlying absurdity, in the fallacy of heroism and glory within the context of war. The heroes are those who find alternatives to the carnage and destruction (or at least try). There's no shame in walking away, towards home, fueled by the potential of lasting love created by a few precious moments back in Cold Mountain.

[oscar jubis]

Moose's review is useful insofar as illustrating a common vice: having a rigid notion about what the content of a movie must be, filmmakers's intentions be damned.
Moose wants a movie about "what this War was really about", with "more grand battle sequences and issues of statehood and homeland". Minghella does include a battle sequence, not taken from Frazier's source novel, to impress upon us the horror that repels Inman. Cold Mountain concerns matters more universal and less specific. "It's about how we react to violence at a personal level, and move away from it. The Civil War gave me a concrete background, but any violent conflict could offer similar stories".(Charles Frazier)

Moose hopes "the American education system can pick up where this film fails to lead up to"[sic]. A viewing of Burns' serial doc The Civil War would be a good start. The film Moose wants Cold Mountain to mimic.

I am not writing to pronounce it a masterpiece, just a highly accomplished movie, clear in its moral stance, intimate focus and contemporary relevance. It's not solely about what happened 140 years ago. It's primarily about something still happening today in the hearts of young men and women.

[tabuno]

One of the reasons this website is so respected is that most of the posters, MickeyMoose15 included, make it easy to read responses and to respond to. I was able to read MickeyMoose15's response to my comments with interest without getting bent out of shape by what he had to say. I'm glad I have an opportunity to read movie criticism that actually allows people to think instead of get all steamed, unset, and rant and rave. Instead of responded further, I think I'll just let the more refined commentary by oscar jubis reflect a thread of thought that appears to feel very comfortable to me.

[MickeyMoose15]

Let it be known that I am a "Civil War buff". I just love the time period and discussing of topics within this time period. Believe me, I own the DVD box set of the Ken Burns' Civil War PBS series. That's how pathetic I am. So my view may be a little more biased in one area then most. Just wanting people to know that before reading the full review.