365 High-Def Days of Oscar: Day 19
Year: 2003
Oscar Wins:
Best Supporting Actress
Oscar Nominations:
Best Actor
Best Cinematography
Best Original Score
Best Editing
Best Original Song
Best Original Song
THE PLOT THUS FAR
In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
“Cold Mountain” revolves around Inman and Ada Monroe, who are smitten with each other for very simple reasons. As this young romance begins to bud, Inman enlists in the confederate army, taking with him a book Ada has given him and a photograph of her. Ada’s character is one of the most brilliant aspects of the film, which is important because the audience experiences this film from a third person perspective, but the story is clearly hers from the beginning to the end. Ada is an intelligent southern belle and daughter of a liberal minister. She begins the film as a daddy’s girl skilled in many of the arts that southern women who have been surrounded by servants most of their lives were expected to learn.
It’s fascinating to watch the couple adapt to situations beyond their control and to study the emotional and behavioral attitudes of two human beings altering at such opposing magnitude as a result of one war. Observe how the once popular Inman slips into desolation in the battlefield, becoming even more tormented from his world as he meets up with some very strange characters. Will he ever find solace with these characters, or with Ada at the end? Will Ada, while feeling alienated from her new abode, at the beginning of the film and with the death of her father, be able to battle her insecurity to become spiritually enlightened and physically capable with the help of her new acquaintances? Is she able to embraces what the farmland has to offer her? And will Inman be capable of escaping what the gruesome battlefield has come to mean to him? This film lays out an enormous ground for the examination of the effects a war on different individuals.
The film continues to remind the audience that Ada and Inman are bound together by their haunting memories of one another. That, indeed, is beautifully captured by the expressions on Law and Kidman’s faces. The symbolisms, throughout the film, are plentiful and brilliantly ascribed, allowing the audience to join the dots to the destinies of the couple. Even crows, clearly suggesting doom and destruction, never fail to demonstrate the dark instincts that trouble a man’s soul. And those women Inman meets in his journey seem to trigger the expectation of the audience to see him drawing closer to the woman he loves and to home. Even these characters, encountered by Inman, provide a picture of how different people react to the war. But will war ultimately bring peace and safety to its protagonists? This film is a masterpiece that will provide much food for thought.
The Blu-Ray comes with the commentary, featurettes, deleted scenes and trailers ported over from the Collector’s Edition DVD. The DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track comes to life during the opening battle and helps the classic gunplay come to life throughout the movie. All of the special features are in standard definition and some of the footage is windowboxed. However, the 1080p transfer for the feature is approaching reference quality. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: 01/31/2012
