Although critics constantly announce their discovery
of fashions and trends, as Senator Eugene McCarthy noted of the New Hampshire
primary, what looks like ground swell may turn out to be merely a frost heave.
It may seem remarkable, however, that two grand military epics set in the 19th
century should open within weeks of each other in the same final month of the
year. Coupled with the comparable visual splendor and enormous length of the
violent and bloody conclusion to The Lord
of the Rings cycle, also a December baby, the appearance of The Last Samurai and now, Cold Mountain at least hints at some new
treatment of the war story in keeping with the mood of the time.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Based
on a best-selling, award-winning novel, Cold
Mountain deals with one of the greatest and most enduring American
calamities, which we will never entirely overcome: the Civil War. Following the
dominant vision of American literature, it considers that conflict from the
Southern side, a circumstance that as William Faulkner suggested, results from
the ineluctable fact of defeat: When a nation, a culture, a people win a war,
they wind up only with victory, but when they lose, they can cherish so much
more, like a need to keep the past alive, a sense of lost honor, a permanently
wounded pride. (Skeptics should consider the history not only of the American
South but of Ireland, or the Arab countries, along with present conditions in
Iraq.)
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Although
it employs two major characters, like the most famous of all Civil War novels, Gone With the Wind, Cold Mountain concentrates particularly on the role of women in the
conflict. Nicole Kidman plays Ada Monroe, the proper daughter of a minister —
what else? — who falls in love with a young townsman in Cold Mountain, South
Carolina just as the war breaks out. The young man, Inman (Jude Law), seriously
wounded in the butchery of battle in Virginia, deserts from a military hospital
and embarks on a long odyssey back home to Cold Mountain and Ada.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
picture rapidly settles into a series of long intercut sequences of pain and
suffering: the genteel Ada’s difficulties with farm life; shortages; the menace
of the Home Guard, a gang of sadistic thugs who seek out deserters and torture
anyone assisting them; Inman’s apparently endless trek through cold and snow
— in the South at that; and his numerous encounters with people who obstruct
his journey.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Near
starvation, Ada finds a friend and helper in Ruby Thewes (Renรฉe Zellweger), an
uncompromising, no-nonsense young woman who teaches Ada how to grow crops and
care for animals. Together, the two women scratch out a living and, with a
neighbor, eventually form something of a community. Meanwhile, Inman meets a
strange variety of people, including a goatherd with healing powers, a lusty
preacher, a family of sirens who betray him, and a squad of Union soldiers who
attempt to rape a young woman who shelters him. Ultimately his Homeric quest
ends, somewhat ambiguously, in Cold Mountain, with more violence, a moment of
bliss in the arms of Ada/Penelope, and some hope for a peaceful future in the
new community.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Despite
its length, the movie proceeds, assisted by its many exciting episodes, without
establishing that solemn air of boredom that accompanies substantial, allegedly
serious works of film. Some brief and efficient characterization and a good
deal of violent action enliven the long progress of Inman’s various adventures.
The director, Anthony Minghella, employs a number of sweeping panoramas,
exploiting the visual and dramatic possibilities of the rivers and hills of the
purportedly Southern landscape. The one great battle scene shows something of
the slaughter that passed for combat during the Civil War, with a set piece of
the dead, dying, and wounded reminiscent of a famous shot in Gone With the Wind.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Whatever
its merits, the picture demonstrates over and over a dreadfully bleak view of
human nature, showing just about all of its people, Union or Confederate, as
vicious, brutal, rapacious beasts, quite willing to steal, betray, or murder
just about anyone they encounter. The book, I am told, emphasizes even more
strongly the cruelty and inadequacy of all its males, and contrasts with that
the resourcefulness, goodness, and wisdom of its females, and the movie
continues something of that vision. Only the gentle, noble, longsuffering Inman
(should that be Unman?) emerges with any grace or glory.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Jude
Law and Nicole Kidman make a perfect couple — handsome, decent, and decorous
— whose love consists mostly of burning glances and modest proposals. Their
passivity contrasts nicely with the work of Renรฉe Zellweger, who overacts
entertainingly as the tough little Ruby Thewes, the only person who can rescue
Kidman from her predicament and hold off the predators threatening all the men
and women in Cold Mountain. Like the many other supporting actors in this vast
movie, she makes the principals seem bland and colorless, cardboard characters
in an excessive if generally entertaining picture.
Cold Mountain, starring Jude Law, Nicole
Kidman, Renรฉe Zellweger, Donald Sutherland, Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson,
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Kathy Baker, Giovanni Ribisi, Eileen
Atkins, Charles Hussman, Ethan Suplee, Lucas Black, Jack White; based on the
novel by Charles Frazier; written and directed by Anthony Minghella. Cinemark
Tinseltown, Hoyts Greece Ridge, Loews Webster, Pittsford Plaza Cinema, Regal
Culver Ridge, Regal Eastview, Regal Henrietta.
You can hear George and his movie reviews on WXXI-FM
91.5 Fridays at 7:20 a.m., rerun on Saturdays at 8:50 a.m.
This article appears in Dec 24-30, 2003.
