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Cold Mountain
In this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P. Inman deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada, who he left behind to tend their farm. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby, a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.
2003 · Directed by Anthony Minghella · 154 min · War · History · Adventure · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 9 frames
Tagline
Find your way home.
Plot
When North Carolina secedes from the Union on May 20, 1861, the young men of Cold Mountain enlist in the Confederate States Army. Among them is W.P. Inman, a carpenter who has fallen in love with Ada Monroe, the preacher's daughter who came from Charleston, South Carolina, to care for her father. Their courtship is interrupted by the war, but they share their first kiss the day Inman leaves for battle. Ada promises to wait for him.
Three years later, Inman fights in the Battle of the Crater and survives. He then comforts a dying acquaintance from Cold Mountain, while fellow soldier Stobrod Thewes plays a tune on his fiddle. Inman is later wounded in a skirmish, and as he lies in a hospital near death, a nurse reads him a letter from Ada, who pleads for Inman to come home to her.
Inman recovers and deserts. Embarking on a long trek back to Cold Mountain, he encounters corrupt preacher Veasey and stops him from drowning his impregnated slave. Exiled from his parish, Veasey joins Inman on his journey. They meet a young man, Junior, and join him and his family for dinner. Junior betrays the duo to the Confederate Home Guard, who take Inman and Veasey away along with other deserters. Veasey and the group are killed in a skirmish with Union cavalry; Inman is left for dead. An elderly hermit finds Inman and nurses him back to health. Inman eventually meets grieving young widow Sara and her infant child Ethan, and stays the night at her cabin. The next morning, three Union soldiers arrive demanding food; they hold Ethan hostage and try to rape Sara, which forces Inman and Sara to kill them.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Anthony Minghella
- Cinematography: John Seale
- Edited by: Walter Murch
- Music: Gabriel Yared
- Production design: Dante Ferretti
- Produced by: Sydney Pollack, William Horberg
Cast
- Jude Law as Inman
- Nicole Kidman as Ada Monroe
- Renée Zellweger as Ruby Thewes
- Eileen Atkins as Maddy
- Brendan Gleeson as Stobrod Thewes
- Philip Seymour Hoffman as Reverend Veasey
- Natalie Portman as Sara
- Giovanni Ribisi as Junior
- Donald Sutherland as Reverend Monroe
- Ray Winstone as Teague
Production
- Country: United States of America, United Kingdom, Romania, Italy
- Language: English
- Studios: Miramax, Mirage Enterprises, Castel Film, Cattleya
- Budget: $79,000,000
- Box office: $173,013,509
- Themes: civil war, love of one's life, loss of loved one, desertion, north carolina, rape attempt, somber, early america, intimate, complicated
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