Cold Mountain (2003)

Good movie about life during the Civil War

Directed by Anthony Minghella (The English Patient)

 

Based at the end of the American Civil War, it tells the story of a soldier, Inman (Jude Law), who is on a lengthy trek trying to return to Cold Mountain, North Carolina. He met Ada (Nicole Kidman), the daughter of a minister, before he left. Her life before she arrives at Cold Mountain from Charleston is fairly conservative, and she has little knowledge of how to run a farm. Ruby (Renee Zellweger) arrives and is a fairly honest and uninhibited young girl who is the opposite of Ada. She helps Ada to see life in a more realistic way, until Inman returns. Ruby also provides a bit of comic relief.

 

The movie takes place in beautiful locales. It was shot in North Carolina and much of it was filmed in Romania, which, surprisingly, resembles North Carolina in appearance.  The music is by Gabriel Yared, and it includes much music that was contemporaneous to the Civil War, from folk music to shape-note singing (in some of the scenes in a church service).  The editor is the incomparable Walter Mirch.

 

The film also stars Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote, Synecdoche New York), Donald Sutherland (M.A.S.H.), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), and Ray Winstone (Sexy Beast).