Much more vivid and enthralling than the book

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2004)

I read the book and found it tedious. The movie, though, is magnificent. The author, Charles Frazier, seems like one of these guys who really gets into describing everything--each action, each button, each leaf. As well as the thoughts of the characters about these items. Now, part of the plot is about the importance of knowing the names of things (Ruby knows the names of everything; Ada knows the names of nothing; Ada becomes one with her new land when she knows what things are called). But reading this stuff was a horror, while watching it played out in widescreen technicolor with wonderful actors made it a fascinating element of a grand movie.
The battle scene in the book is practically un-envisioned. It's a vague memory in the mind of Inman, which he wants to forget. The directors wisely decided to include a battle scene, and it is one of the best ever. Two segments in particular--where the US troops appear out of the smoke, and where the troops get trapped in a ditch and a "turkey shoot" begins--are among the best I've ever seen.
Visualizing the battle scenes makes the character of Inman seem so much more real. You get a full sense of the horror he's experienced. All his other actions afterward are understandable and seem trivial compared with the horror that happened all around him.
The book did one scenario a lot better than the flick: Inman's transition from a soldier to a deserter is poetic in the book, mundane in the movie. Inman is in a hospital, looking out the window toward Cold Mountain. One day, he feels that he must go back to Cold Mountain. He wills himself from the hospital room out into the world beyond the window. The window goes from a frame for something distant, to a gateway to Inman's new reality. The movie treats this as an ordinary escape from captivity to a tenuous freedom, whereas the book made it magic.
But the movie has so much other magic--it contains the best Phillip Seymour Hoffman performance ever--he's the perfect clergyman with no scruples. Eileen Atkins as the frontier woman who can fend for herself is memorable.
Especially great was Rene Zellwegger--it's a role meant for Mary Steenburgen or Holly Hunter, and she plays it to perfection. It's hard to believe she was ever the star of a splashy musical. She embodies the self-sufficient country woman, and deserves Oscar No. 2.