Cold Mountain - Movie Report

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                             “Cold Mountain” Review

Student Name:Lifan Liu

Synopsis:

    During the American Civil War,again and again the southern army retreated in defeat. Continuous campaign and defeat made the soldier Inman (Jude Law acts) disheartened.In order to see his lover Ada (Nicole Kidman acts) again,he left the troops and embarked on a long way back home.

    In his hometown, the remote Cold Town, Ada was also tormented with rough life and painful waiting.It proved her pampered life unsustainable that she suffered from father's death and slave’s departure.With the help from Ruby Thewes (Renée Zellweger acts),Ada gradually learned how to struggle against rough life, looking forward to the return of Inman.

Review:

Flames of war raging everywhere,Cold Mountain is the only connection between them.Even if all beliefs in former times have been shattered,here can still heal your pain.I want to start my essay with this romantic sentence to talk about the poignant love and the miserable life described in the movie Cold Mountain.This love story is described in American Civil War,revealing the extreme brutality of war.It destroyed the people, human nature, and their homes. People living in misery weariness are longing to live in peace.From start to finish,the film is full of bloody killings, alternated with love, celebration of Christmas and the hardships of war.Finally,it end with the plot that the last survivors was dining together,which represented people’s hope for future and longing for a better life.

After watching the movie,I am so interested in its background.According to the information I read, American Civil War in films or literature, has always been regarded as a just war.Northern Army should be troops representing a just cause,who were aimed at abolishing slavery and maintaining federal unification.But Northern Army in “Cold Mountain” is losing humanity same as Southern Army.They raped of women, stripped the baby warm clothing, looted of property,brutally killed others and been killed.Whether northern or southern army, everyone in the war chased survival by hook or by crook, destroying instinct.Then look at the hero Inman,actually speaking, he should be a deserter who were despised.But audience can feel the power of Inman personality, his insights on life,his determination in order to love Ada and willing to endure the difficult journey back home.In the spectator's mind, Inman gradually became a hero image,so that “Cold Mountain” will become a thrilling epic, a touching love poems.

This film gives vivid expressions to the degraded situation in the battlefield and the suffering the war put on the public,which is something of success.Admittedly, the film has a strong anti-war sentiment, based on human nature, based on the author’s deep thought of the war and the trauma of war and rational criticism emotions.But different from other anti-war movies, "Cold Mountain" did not explain anti-war theme through numerous bloody battlefields and the wounded.Although we were shocked by  destructive power of the war at the beginning of film,it is not “Cold Mountain”s implication to touch people’s heart by visual stimulation of repeating endless war and bloody shots,but to make every shot has left traces of war.So that the wounds of war penetrated into every inch of life,people can not breathe.it always felt grief and suffering caused by the war.All fine things was broken under the ravage of warfare.Ugliness of human nature was exposed to the light of the day,harsh and dark.Director uses the simple life to show the humanity of good and evil and implies a stirring force in a calm narrative,which is a poetic of grief and sorrow.Anti-war theme is illustrated by people and changed life affected by the war, to focus on the show,making audiences see that the outbreak of war stimulate complete appearances of human cruelty and  hypocrisy, so the impact is more profound and shocking.

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