Cold Mountain Information

Cold Mountain is a 2003 war drama film written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Charles Frazier. It stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger in leading roles as well as Natalie Portman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Melora Walters, Jena Malone, Donald Sutherland, Kathy Baker and Giovanni Ribisi in supporting roles.

The film tells the story of a wounded deserter from the Confederate army close to the end of the American Civil War who is on his way to return to the love of his life.

Cold Mountain opened to positive reviews from critics and won several major awards. Renée Zellweger won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in the film. It was also a success at the box office and became a sleeper hit grossing more than double its budget worldwide.

Plot

Jude Law plays a young man named W. P. Inman at Cold Mountain, a provincial North Carolina town. He meets Ada (Nicole Kidman) and is at the fledgling stages of a relationship with her when he marches off to war as a Confederate soldier.

On the morning of July 30, 1864, Inman and other Confederate troops are entrenched outside Petersburg during its siege. The teenaged Oakley (Lucas Black) is handing out clothes from a wheelbarrow while Inman reads letters from Ada. The soldiers are tired and bored. Most are seasoned veterans who have been fighting for over three years. But meanwhile Union engineers are filling a mine under the Confederate trenches with gunpowder barrels while above, hundreds of Union troops are waiting to attack. Suddenly back at the Confederate siege works, a rabbit hops into the trench. Just as one of the men is about to capture it the ground rises from under him and there is a huge explosion. The Union lit the barrels and most of the trench exploded. As Inman and Oakley get up dazed from the blast, they see Union troops charging at them. As the Union soldiers charge, they run right into the crater where the trench used to be and are trapped in a kill zone. The Confederates fire down at them but the fighting becomes hand to hand and Oakley is pulled down in by a Union soldier and Inman goes after him. Before Inman can reach him Oakley is bayoneted but survives. Inman shoots the Union soldier with a LeMat revolver he finds and pulls Oakley out of the chaos. The battle ends with a decisive Confederate victory. As the Confederates are cleaning up after the battle, Inman comforts Oakley as he is pulled to the hospital on a cart. Later that day Oakley dies in the hospital with Inman and Stobrod Thewes (Brendan Gleeson) beside him.

The next night, Inman, Swimmer (Jay Tavare) and his platoon are sent out to kill surviving Union troops trapped behind the lines. During the raid other Confederate troops open fire killing several Confederates and wounding Inman. While lying in the hospital he has letters read to him from Ada, who pleads with him to stop fighting, stop marching, and come back to her. Inman then decides to desert and go home to Cold Mountain.

On his journey he meets the corrupt preacher Reverend Veasey (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who is trying to kill his pregnant black lover. Inman stops Veasey, and leaves him tied up to face the town's justice. Exiled from his parish, Veasey later rejoins Inman on his journey. They help a young man named Junior (Giovanni Ribisi) butcher his cow and join him and his family for dinner. Junior leaves the house after the feast, and the women in Junior's family seduce Veasey, and Junior's wife, Lila, tries to seduce Inman. Junior returns home with the Confederate Home Guard and both Inman and Veasey are taken prisoner.

While the home guard officers attempt to hide from a group of Union soldiers, Veseay is killed, but Inman is able to escape with a wound. An old and wizened woman (Eileen Atkins) finds him and nurses him back to health.

Inman later meets a grieving young widow named Sara (Natalie Portman) who is raising her infant child alone; he stays the night at her cabin. The next morning, three Union soldiers arrive demanding food. Sara rushes Inman away to avoid his being killed, but he hides only a few feet away from the house. Two of the soldiers harass Sara and leave her baby in the cold, though one (Cillian Murphy) attempts to keep the baby warm. The lead soldier attempts to rape Sara but is killed along with the other soldier by Inman. The kindhearted soldier is shot by an enraged Sara.

Parallel with Inman's adventures, the film follows Ada's wartime experiences. Ada is a city woman who only recently moved to the rural farm named Black Cove. She met Inman on her first day at Cold Mountain, and had a brief romance with him the night before he left for the army. Shortly after Inman leaves, her minister father (Donald Sutherland) dies, leaving her alone on the farm and with little prospect for help, as the young, able-bodied men are off at war.

She is completely inept at working the farm, having been raised to become a southern lady. She manages to survive thanks to the kindness of her neighbors, one of whom eventually sends Ruby Thewes (Renee Zellweger) to her. Ruby is a young woman who has lived a hard-scrabble life and is very adept at the tasks needed to run the farm. Ruby lives at the farm with Ada, and together they take the farm from a state of disaster to working order. Meanwhile, Ada writes constant letters to Inman in hopes of meeting him again and renewing their romance.

The two women form a close friendship and become each other's confidantes. They also are friends with the Swangers (James Gammon and Kathy Baker), who live down the road from Black Cove. It is at the Swangers' well that Ada "sees" a vision of Inman coming back to her in the snow along with a flock of crows.

During the war, Ada and Ruby, and other members of their community, have several tense encounters with men of the Home Guard. This branch of the Home Guard is led by Teague, whose grandfather once owned much of Cold Mountain. He and his deputies hunt deserters partially with the goal of Teague seizing their land. Teague also lusts after Ada.

Although the purpose of the Home Guard was to protect the south and its citizen population from the North, they have become violent vigilantes who hunt and often kill deserters from the Confederate Army and terrorize citizens they believe are housing or helping the deserters, including the Swangers' sons, who by torturing their mother they coax out of hiding to be killed. Esco Swanger - the family patriarch - is also killed protecting his sons.

Ruby's estranged father Stobrod (Brendan Gleeson), also a Confederate deserter and a violin player, arrives and reconciles with her. He convinces her to make a coat for his intellectually devoid banjo player Pangle (Ethan Suplee). Ruby also finds herself drawn to mandolin player Georgia (Jack White).

While camping, Stobrod, Pangle and Georgia are cornered by the Home Guardsmen led by Teague. Pangle unintentionally reveals the band as the deserters Teague is seeking. Georgia is hidden a few feet away, and witnesses the shooting of Pangle and Stobrod. He informs Ruby and Ada, who rush to the campsite to find Pangle dead and Stobrod badly injured. They decide to stay at some cabins in the woods to avoid Teague and his men.

It is at this moment that the two story lines reconverge: Inman finally reaches Cold Mountain, and is almost killed by Ada before she recognizes him. They later consummate their love and spend the night together.

The Home Guardsmen, however, soon find the couple in the mountain and determine to kill Inman, as they know he's a deserter. While fighting off the hunters, Inman is shot by the young and violent Bosie (Charlie Hunnam), but manages to kill him as well. Ada goes to him, and finds him just as she saw in the well earlier when he was coming back to her. He dies in her arms.

The film ends several years later with Ada, Ruby and their families celebrating Easter. Ruby has married Georgia, and the two have an infant child. Her father Stobrod is revealed to have survived, and it is revealed that Ada's night with Inman had given her a child, Grace Inman.

Cast

• Jude Law as W. P. Inman, a confederate soldier who deserts the war to be with Ada
• Nicole Kidman as Ada Monroe, a young woman who lives on Cold Mountain and is Inman's love interest
• Renée Zellweger as Ruby Thewes, a woman who helps Ada work on her farm after her father's presumed death
• Eileen Atkins as Maddy, an old shepherd woman who nurses Inman back to health
• Kathy Baker as Sally Swanger, an old woman who lives on Cold Mountain and is Ada's friend
• James Gammon as Esco Swanger, Sally's husband who is also Ada's friend
• Brendan Gleeson as Stobrod Thewes, Ruby's father, who faked his own death during the war
• Philip Seymour Hoffman as Reverend Veasey, an immoral preacher who befriends Inman
• Charlie Hunnam as Bosie, a member of Teague's home guard
• Cillian Murphy as Bardolph, a Yankee (Union) Soldier soldier who, with others, comes to the home of Sara
• Natalie Portman as Sara, a widowed woman who lives with her infant son
• Giovanni Ribisi as Junior, a woodsman who shelters and betrays Inman and Veasey
• Donald Sutherland as Reverend Monroe, Ada's preacher father
• Ethan Suplee as Pangle, traveling companion of Georgia
• Jay Tavare as Swimmer, Inman's best friend and a soldier in the confederate army
• Jack White as Georgia, a confederate deserter and Ruby's love interest
• Ray Winstone as Teague, the sadistic captain of a confederate home guard unit
• Lucas Black as Oakley, a teenage confederate soldier from Cold Mountain who is killed in battle
• Emily Deschanel as Mrs. Morgan, a volunteer at the confederate hospital where Inman recuperates from his injuries
• Jena Malone as a ferry girl who is killed in an ambush while helping Inman and Veasey
• Melora Walters as Lila, Junior's attractive wife, who tries to seduce Inman
• Taryn Manning as Shyla, one of Lila's three sisters who seduces Veasey

Awards

The film was nominated for more than seventy awards, including seven Academy Award nominations. Renée Zellweger won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in the film.

In addition, the film was nominated for the following Academy Awards:

• Best Actor (Jude Law)
• Best Cinematography (John Seale)
• Best Editing (Walter Murch)
• Best Original Score (Gabriel Yared)
• Best Original Song (T-Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello for the song "The Scarlet Tide")
• Best Original Song (Sting for the song "You Will Be My Ain True Love")

Production

Cold Mountain, where the film is set, is a real mountain located within the Pisgah National Forest, Haywood County, North Carolina. However, it was filmed mostly in Romania, with numerous scenes filmed in Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The film was one of an increasing number of Hollywood productions made in eastern Europe. This is occurring as a result of much lower costs in the region; and in this specific instance, Transylvania was less marked by modern life than the Appalachians (fewer power lines, electric poles, paved roads and so on).

Filming locations

• Carpathian Mountains, Romania
• Carter's Grove - 8797 Pocahontas Trail, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
• Charleston, South Carolina, USA
• College of Charleston - 66 George Street, Charleston, South Carolina, USA
• North Carolina, USA
• Potigrafu, Romania
• Richmond, Virginia, USA
• South Carolina, USA

Editing

The film also marked a technological and industry turnaround in editing. Walter Murch edited Cold Mountain on Apple's sub-$1000 Final Cut Pro software using off the shelf G4s. This was a leap for such a big budgeted film, where expensive Avid systems are usually the standard editing system. His efforts on the film were documented in the 2005 book Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple's Final Cut Pro and What This Means for Cinema.

Reception

Cold Mountain was met with overall positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a grade of 71% "Fresh" from critics. On Metacritic, the film received a grade of 73 out of 100 points possible based on 42 generally favorable reviews.

Popular film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four possible, noting that "It evokes a backwater of the Civil War with rare beauty, and lights up with an assortment of colorful supporting characters." Richard Corliss, film critic for Time Magazine, went even further, giving the film a 100 points out of 100 possible ; he called it "A grand and poignant movie epic about what is lost in war and what's worth saving in life. It is also a rare blend of purity and maturity"?the year's most rapturous love story."

Soundtrack

Cold Mountain: Music from the Motion Picture shares producer T Bone Burnett with the soundtrack for O Brother Where Art Thou?, a largely old-time and folk album with limited radio play that still enjoyed commercial success, and garnered a Grammy. As a result, comparisons were drawn between the two albums. The soundtrack, however, also employs many folk and blues elements.

It features songs written by Jack White of The White Stripes (who also appeared in the film in the role of Georgia), Elvis Costello and Sting. Costello and Sting's contributions, "The Scarlet Tide" and "You Will Be My Ain True Love", were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and featured vocals by bluegrass singer Alison Krauss. Gabriel Yared's Oscar-nominated score is represented by four tracks amounting to approximately fifteen minutes of music.

Historical Accuracy

Several scholars reviewed the movie for its representation of historical studies on North Carolina during the Civil War, especially the mountainous western region of the state. Their justification is the effect popular media has on national and worldwide perceptions of Appalachian people, particularly southern Appalachians in this case. The opinions vary, but the consensus among them is that the historical context of the movie is close to the scholarship.

These scholars admit that the film misrepresents some aspects of the region during the time. "Neither slavery nor slaves play much part in the film, with only fleeting references to both," says John Inscoe. John Crutchfield notes that "we see a thoroughly contemporary understanding at work?that views slavery in decidedly moral terms." Another negative criticism is that it is nowhere close to a faithful representation of the geography of North Carolina, especially the town in Cold Mountain, which plays a major role in story. Silas House claims that "For a story that relies so much on sense of place, it was obvious throughout that the majority of the film had been shot in Europe." A native of the area, Anna Creadick, says, "?the film's geography was annoyingly off-kilter. True, the Carpathians are somebody's mountains, but they're not mine." Lastly, Martin Crawford claims, "the novel's underlying sentimentality limits its value as historical fiction and thereby undercuts its representational authority." For Crawford, the story is far too romantic and emotional for the historical context.

On the other hand, they praise the film for its conformity to the historical scholarship in other subjects. Inscoe asserts his astonishment that "the final product should?provide so unflinching a portrayal of the bleak and unsettling realities of a far-less-familiar version of the Civil War, but one that would be all too recognizable to thousands of hardscrabble southern men and women who lived through it." Focusing on the impact of the war on women, he adds, "Even more powerful " and more historically based " are other incidents that convey the brutal toll taken on mountain women, who as mothers, wives, and widows are forced to protect their families, sometimes by violently retaliating against their tormentors." Silas House says, "for the most part I thought director Anthony Minghella did an honorable job of portraying our region." He agrees with Inscoe on the subject of the area's population, stating, "most of all the characters are dignified, determined, and intelligent human beings, like the vast majority of Appalachians, and I am glad that this movie exists." For House, the film goes beyond the people of western North Carolina to include all Appalachian communities.

As for the music, House states that "most of the songs in the film were written specifically for the movie," but traditional forms of singing in the region make up for it. Jack Wright expresses that the film honestly represents the music of the region, even with a couple of non-regional additions, like "Sittin' On Top of the World" and "Great High Mountain." In contrast to House's remark, Wright says, "some of the best of the soundtrack was not composed for the movie but garnered from the body of time-tested and proven masterpieces of an earlier rural American culture."

Although these scholars disagree about the accuracy of particular elements of the movie, they agree that the story gets at least some things right.

See also

• Captain Daniel Ellis