An American Odysseus from Penelope's Perspective

Rating: 9/10 (13 July 2005)

I hesitated to see Cold Mountain. I figured it for a heroic tragedy from an officially sanctioned Southron viewpoint in the vein of Gone With the Wind. But to my pleasant surprise Cold Mountain was very different anti-heroic and anti-war to the point that I'm surprised top see that the Bush administration allowed it in the theatres. Perhaps Cheney left no instructions.
Cold Wind is an ant's eye view of the Civil War's impact on the Carolina Highlanders, an everyday in the life of story of the frightening last days of the Confederacy. The Highland lads have been dragged off to fight for slaves they did not have. Many included Inman (Jude Law) have become disillusioned and have deserted the Lost Cause. Rebel officialdom has branded them traitors and ordered them hunted down and shot or returned to the crumbling front lines breaking under the pressure of Yankee raiders.
Back home genteel Ada (Nicole Kidman) sits on her front porch reading books as she pines away awaiting Inman's return and as the farm goes to seed. Wooed by an offensive, murderous member of the home guard, Ada is content to live off the generosity of neighbors who have little to spare. There is only hope for Inman's return; no word has been heard; postal service has deteriorated from sporadic to non-existent. Outside of die-hards in the Home-Guard freed from service at the front, most locals are praying for the cause to be lost and the end of the war.
Enter roughneck Ruby (Eileen Aikens) who forces Ada off her pedestal into the real world of living off the sweat of the brow and brings the farm back to productivity. Ruby came from a family dysfunctional even for its times and despite her hatred of her Pa, she saves him from capture by the Home Guard. Ruby says of the men who planned the war being lost that "They go out into a thunderstorm; stand there till they're drenched and all they can say is 'Sh - - it's raining.'"
Inman's Homeward Odyssey is laden with traps: sirens, the home guard and yankee raiders.
Will Ada and Inman survive the tempest? See the film which is steeped in the local color and Keltic styled music of the Highlands.