This year on Christmas Day (exactly 5 months to the day that I read about it) one of my all time favorite movies will be 10 years old. Ten! One Decade! I'm not ok with this revelation. Of course I knew that the movie was getting older, but I had no clue that it had been that long since it came out. No clue! I guess I just never really put that much thought into it. I'm talking of course about Cold Mountain. I didn't believe the article that I was reading, I guess I thought that it was some kind of Government Conspiracy that the CIA had concocted so that I would doubt everything including my own existence. Why the CIA cares about Myself and Cold Mountain is beyond me, but who am I to question their motives? So in true "I don't believe you" form I Googled it. You know, because they can't put anything on the internet that isn't true. Sure enough the title followed by 2003 popped up. Not cool Google!
For all ya'll that have been living under a rock for the past ten years let me just go ahead and let you know that this posting of mine is going to contain some Serious SPOILER ALERTS!!! So, if you still have yet to see the movie and now you really want to, I suggest stopping now, watching the movie, and then coming back to this post so that you can completely agree with everything that I say. Trust me after you watch it, you will completely agree with me. Yes, I'm sure.
Immediately I fell in love with Jude Law. I mean come on have you seen him? He was so handsome and brooding and strange that immediately I was all "What are we going to name our children?" Yeah, I was that serious about it. See what I mean? Check out that sexy/adorable half smile.
I still remember watching the trailers for it, and wanting to go see it in theaters so bad! I was going to read the novel first (like I usually do), but I wanted to be completely surprised from the movie, so I decided against it. I should've read the book!! Seriously! I'm not playing, I should've read the novel because had I'd have known how it all ended I would've straight up boycotted it. I of course didn't get to go see it in theaters. Living where we did at the time (dead center in the middle of the Southern Bible Belt) the one theater that we had refused to play it. According to them it depicted The Civil War all wrong, and there was no way that they were going to let a movie that "came down on the South" and showed people "fornicating" (just for the record their words not mine) be shown in their town. Now that I think back on it they really needed a hobby. Since the one theater we had didn't show it and you had to drive at least two hours to get to another one I had to wait for the DVD. Technically, the first time I seen it was on VHS (yes old school), but when I wore the VHS out and we eventually got a DVD player (for the record I was almost 17 when this happened) I bought it on DVD. It was one of the first movies that I did buy on DVD now that I think about it. I'm surprised that they even sold it in our town. Growing up there was kind of like Footloose, but without all of the cool dance numbers, there were way more drugs, and no happy ending. Just crazy religious folks, hypocrites, meth heads, and alot of kids that got away with everything because their parents were to busy doing everything else than raising their own kids. But moving back to Cold Mountain.
I do remember watching the trailers for it on TV though and thinking to myself "Wow that looks like a fantastic movie. I wonder if all of that really happened during The Civil War. Those poor people! That's love right there". I was a bit of a Romantic by the age of 13 and never quite grew out of it. Don't tell though. I waited and waited, and finally the day came for me to watch it. Can you say? ExFreakinCited? Yeah, I made up a word. Deal with it. I watched it by myself in our living room at night. (I like it dark when I watch movies). I was so impressed! That movie had me tapping into every emotion that I have. I cried, I laughed, I cried, I asked Why? alot, I covered my eyes, I shook my head, I cried, yes I cried quite a bit during that movie. I'll admit it, I'm not ashamed! Come on! I'm not the only one that's ever cried watching that movie!
REMEMBER I FOR-WARNED YOU ABOUT SPOILER ALERTS!!
All that the people in that movie wanted was to be happy, live their lives peacefully, and be loved. Did they get that? No! I think Not!! Ada lives with her father on Black Cove and Inman is from Cold Mountain. They fall in love, then he gets called away to war. Ada constantly writes to Inman while he's away at war, but he receives very few of her letters. Inman watches everyone he knows die on the Battlefield. Ada's dad dies leaving her alone and at the mercy of everyone because she doesn't know how to be self-sufficient. Inman receives a letter from Ada asking him to leave the war and come back to her, he loves her and in his mind agrees. Inman gets wounded a bunch of times in the war and on his journey trying to get home to Ada. Ada almost starves to death. The Swanger’s send her Rubby Thewes. Ruby has had a horrible life. She moves into the farm with Ada, and two of them become confidants and best friends.On his travels back Inman encounters many terrible things. He saves an African American woman who's White/Preacher lover is trying to kill her because she is pregnant. The Preacher is banished from the town. He joins Inman on his journey, they get taken in, kidnapped and the Preacher gets killed. Inman escapes, but is shot in the neck. An old woman finds him and nurses him back to health. Ruby’s dad and his two friends come to the farm to find Ruby. She had been estranged from her dad for a long time. Ruby falls in love with her dads violin playing friend (Georgia). The Home Guard kills the sweet/loveable/adorable big guy (Pangle) and steals his coat that Ada/Ruby made him. You think Ruby's dad (Stobrod) is dead, even though he's really alive they make you think he's dead and you cry. Mrs. Swanger watches her husband get stabbed through by a group of psychopathic vigilantes (The Home Guard) that have decided to take the "law" into their own hands. If that wasn't good enough she also has to see her sons killed by the same men after they tortured her and her sons tried to save her. Ada and Ruby find her and nurse her back to health. Inman wanders upon a cabin and asks for shelter for the night. The woman (Sara)’s husband had died in the war after she has had their newborn son, she lets Inman stay with her for shelter, but the next morning Soldiers come, put her baby in the cold, and try to rape her. Inman saves her by killing them all but the youngest boy, but in all of her rage she grabs her husbands rifle and kills the young Soldier. Inman continues to make his journey home (both parties weary , sad, and damages from the affects of war) and finally makes it back to Cold Mountain. Ada and Inman are finally reunited, Ruby gives her blessing, the two "spend the night together", and they make plans for spending the rest of their lives together. However, the next day "The Home Guard" wanders upon them and tries to kill them all. The group fights off the hunters, but Inman is shot by the youngest/most violent one (Bosie), Inman also shoots him and kills him. Ada finds Inman shot and wait for this. Are you ready for this one? He dies in her arms! Dies! After all of that, after all he has been through, after the thousands of miles he's traveled! After surviving war, vigilantes, snow, cold, psychopaths, heartbreak, and everything else, he gets killed the day after he gets home!! Dies!! In the love of his life's arms!! Dead!! The movie ends showing Ruby, Georgia, their child, Mrs. Swanger, Stobrod, Ada, and another child living a nice life on the rejuvenated Black Cove. It just so happens that her one night “spent” with Inman had resulted in a child. That was her piece of him that she could keep forever. You know what would’ve have been a nice piece of him to keep forever? Uh, him! He could’ve lived!! I call Bullshit!! It so didn’t end the way I wanted! It was sad and I cried a whole bunch!! Damn that Charles Frazier anyways!! Renee Zellweger won 3 awards from this movie, but I think Jude Law played just as good of a role as her. I so wanted him to live!! Just saying.
The point of this (besides me going crazy and venting about how one of my favorite movies didn't end the way I wanted) is to celebrate and reminisce on it. It's been 10 years (on Christmas) since it was released and I still love it. I have since read and own the novel, and it pisses me off too. But, leaving that alone both are very good and I still recommend both the film and novel to people. Enjoy the photos. Some of them are blurry, for that I am Sorry, but what is a girl to do?
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