Customer Reviews

Cold Mountain (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) [Import]

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

"Cold Mountain" this Alliance release is the 2-Disc Collector's Edition. Currently AMAZON only has the generic title.

For me, this film would have had much greater dramatic impact had director Anthony Minghella not attempted to cover too much, or if that coverage had been in sharper focus and more cohesive. Adapted by him from Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain, his film examines

• a Civil War South variation on Odysseus's return to Ithaca

• an implausible romance between Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman) and Inman (Jude Law)

• the horrors of war which largely explain Inman's desertion (for many of the same reasons why John Dunbar flees from "civilization" in Dances with Wolves)

• an estranged, indeed dysfunctional relationship between Ruby (Renee Zellweger) and her father Stobrod Thewes (Brendan Thewes)

• the abusive and oppressive, at times vicious Home Guard in the Cold Mountain (NC) area under the absolute control of Teague (Ray Winstone)

• Ada's severely difficult adjustment to the Civil War's impact on her and her father, as well as her struggles to keep her farm

Of course, there are also several related story lines (sub plots, actually) but these six receive most of Zinghella's attention. As indicated earlier, I think he attempts to cover too much within the parameters of a commercial film, even one with a running time of 155 minutes which this one has.

Ada and Inman spend almost no time together before he departs for the war. They are indeed an odd couple: she is a reticent, cultured, proper beauty (the archetypical Southern Belle) and he is also reticent, almost to the point of being mute but lacks her culture and refinement. As I observed their brief and awkward interaction in the film, there seemed to be almost no chemistry between them, perhaps because there was little chemistry between Kidman and Law. My hunch (only a hunch) is that Inman's revulsion to the horrors of war rather than his attraction to Ada explains his obsession to return "home." That is, what he flees is a much greater motivation than is what (who) awaits him. One man's opinion.

All that said, I think Zellweger deserved her Academy Award for best actress in a supporting role. I also think the cinematography (John Seale) and musical score (Gabriel Yared) are especially effective. The opening sequence which includes a defining moment, indeed an epiphany for Inman, is masterfully presented. It invites comparisons with the final sequence in Glory. Cold Mountain has memorable moments and some excellent performances. For reasons indicated, however, I think the film falls short of greatness for many of the same reasons that other recent films have. (Gangs of New York, for example.) More often than not, less really can be more.

Here's my impressions I gave Cold Mountain [...]

It has an english 5.1 DTS HD-MA track (and also 5.1 English and French dolby tracks; no subtitles).
Video is 1080P MPEG4 with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1
No special features

This was an alright release all around. The movie was pretty good , picture quality was pretty decent most of the time, and audio was nicely done. I'd recommend this release.

This is an Alliance Blu-Ray release, so don't expect any extras as there are none at all, but for the low price you get a very nice video transfer and solid audio. If you're a fan of Cold Mountain, this BRD is a definite upgrade from the standard-def DVD version and well worth picking up.
Movie - ****
Video - ****
Audio - ***1/2
extras - n/a
Overall - ***1/2

so it is OK to see people maimed and killed in horrible ways, but if two people have sex it is bad? Give me a break.

COLD MOUNTAIN inspired more admiration than affection. And seeing it on Christmas Eve was a downer.
The film begins on July 30, 1864, when Union troops, having tunneled under the Confederate fortifications around Petersburg, VA, blast a giant hole in the stubborn, Southern defensive line with a monster mine. In one of the Civil War's biggest boondoggles, the Battle of the Crater, the Federals managed to transform what was potentially a war-winning assault into complete disaster. Shortly thereafter, Reb soldier Inman (Jude Law) is shot in the throat. While recovering in a field hospital, he receives a letter from his sweetheart, Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), back in Cold Mountain, North Carolina. Ada bemoans the hardships that have beset her since her father's death, and beseeches Inman to come home. Sick of war, Inman skedaddles, and begins the dangerous trudge back to Ada's Blue Ridge Mountains farm, about 400 miles as the crow flies. In the meantime, Ida, a lady of genteel upbringing, who can arrange flowers and play the piano but can't boil water or plant a vegetable, is running her patrimony into the ground.

COLD MOUNTAIN isn't the story of two soul mates together, but rather separate tales of two people desperately seeking each other out on the basis of the briefest of pre-war acquaintances - a few words and a single kiss.

Law's Inman is the strong, silent type whose forte is a long-suffering perseverance that perhaps inspires viewer admiration more than sympathy, even as he encounters the varied perils of his trek: Yankee cavalry, Confederate Home Guardsman hunting deserters, a lonely war widow in distress, and treacherous homesteaders. In the meantime, Kidman's Ada is a bit more animated as she, with the help of Ruby (Renee Zellweger), learns to be a successful farmer and stay gorgeous at the same time. Ruby, an unsophisticated, proud, self-sufficient, country gal with a smart mouth and an attitude, is perhaps the story's most engaging character. Though the rural, Southern accent sometimes seems a bit over the top, Renee's role is about as distant as one can get from her triumph as bimbo Roxie Hart in last year's Best Picture, CHICAGO.

For me, the most intriguing aspect of COLD MOUNTAIN is in the production notes. The film's director, Anthony Minghella, wanted to film in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains around Asheville, but logging and modern life have destroyed the primal density of the area's forests. Then, Canada's forests were found not to be an accurate match. Now what? It wasn't until executive producer, Iain Smith, on a walking vacation in Romania, recognized the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania as resembling an untouched North Carolina. Romania!? In any case, the Battle of the Crater was shot near Bucharest, and Ada's Black Cove Farm and Cold Mountain Town were all outdoor sets constructed in the Transylvanian Alps. And the extras posing as Union and Rebel troops in the opening slaughter were the Romanian Armed Forces. How far we've come from the bad old days of the Cold War!

COLD MOUNTAIN is certainly one of the better films of 2003, but, for me, it lacked the chemistry to be nominated for Best Picture, especially when stacked up against the other exceptional candidates now in the theaters. Only Zellweger, perhaps, may come out of it with a nod for Best Supporting Actor. It's an excellent period piece worth seeing, especially if you're a Civil War buff. Must also recommend the movies THE ENGLISH PATIENT and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. Especially for those who like war movies with a twist.

cold mountain was great!!!! i saw it with my friend and we both cried!!!!!, and speacking of jude law well he was mega fit!!!, this film is great for the ladies, and the men go watch football, you just won't understand.

Cold Mountain is a very good movie. The only problems I have with the movie is it takes so long to get into (but once you do it's so worth it) and the fact that they barely met and were already madley in love!

As a previous reviewer mentioned there is a very explicit love scene. It is my opinion that the love scene is so very important to the movie. You almost feel the love between the two. The movie would not have made such an impact on me without this scene.

A separated 'sort of' boyfriend and 'sort of' girlfriend become all and everything to each other while struggling their way through the devastations of the Civil War. Inman (Jude Law) is a poor carpenter in a small North Carolina mountain town who has a strong mutual attraction to a 'better class' girl named Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman). Social status dictates and the proper decorum of the day prevent them from plunging forth in the direction their hearts want to go, but when Inman leaves for war, they lay bare their passion and agree to correspond during his absence's duration.

Upon her father's death, Ada finds herself alone and penniless in the world, and unable to manage her large farm on her own. In a letter, she asks Inman to return to her, and he, no longer able to tolerate the depressing daily horrors of war, obligingly abandons his post to tramp home on foot. Now a deserter, he is hunted by the law and encounters obstacle after obstacle on his journey toward his 'ain true love'. Back at the farm, a no-nonsense, take-charge young woman, Ruby (Renee Zellweger), has appeared, and is as determined to build helpless Ada up from being a self-sorrowful belle into a self-sufficient survivor as she is to save the farm from ruin with hard work. Ruby becomes Ada's bonded friend and essential helper, while Ada and Inman become each other's goal to live and strive for.

The cast does a flawless job with their roles and the costumes, location shots, and music are all top quality. Phillip Seymour Hoffmann proves yet again that he's the greatest character actor of modern times. He's always brilliantly playing somewhat unsavory fellows with mental issues. And Charlie Hunnam, usually G.Q.-style gorgeous, usually a 'good guy' onscreen, so efficiently turned himself into one of Cold Mountain's most sinister creeps, I didn't even recognize it was him until the ending credits!

This movie reminds me of a contemporary version of 'Gone With the Wind', much more raw and real, and without the soap operatic flourishes. Those with intellectual minds, sentimental streaks, or both, shall not be disappointed.

In which Nicole Kidman defends her home against cartoon villains and Renee "Look at me, I'm ACTING" Zelwegger's performance, while Jude Law wanders the wilderness and meets eccentric people (including an old woman who bears a suspicious resemblance to Clint Eastwood in drag).

During the way, the movie pauses to explicitly note that one of the reasons Nicole is struggling so to keep the old homestead running is that she SET HER SLAVES FREE as soon as her Daddy the preacherman died (and of course the script never refers to them as "slaves", but as "negroes" or "coloreds"), because of course she is a GOOD Confederate, you can't have your major motion picture stars whipping the darkies behind the barn, now can you?