One of the best war movies

Rating: 8/10 (22 August 2011)

My mother told me that I would probably not like "Cold Mountain", because the love story in it, the romantic part would be too big for a male audience. But I have nothing against a nice romantic part, as long as it does not get corny or is filled up with bad clichés. "Cold Mountain" does not.
The focus of this movie is war. Every scene seems to be connected with the civil war and like "Saving Private Ryan" showed us the cruel nature or World War II, "Cold Mountain" shows the cruel nature of any war, led by human fate and desire.
The battle scene at the beginning makes ourselves think: why should anyone go voluntary to war? Jude Law's character refuses to go and he deserts. Now, it is like the Greek story of Odysseus. He needs to go through a strange scenery and country and of course the military is hunting him because of his desertion.
Meanwhile, we see Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger back home at the plantation. This part could become a true cliché, but it does not, because the audience needs a refuge of the war. It is quit peacefull, until the war strikes there, too. But in fact, the civil war did not elide any part of the country or any person at all. Everyone gets tortured, psychically or physically. Or both like the Jude Law character.
I liked "Cold Mountain" because of its universal message about war. What is war? This movie does not say yes or no to one party, it just shows the nature of war and how it horrors. No way out.
Another positive point was the work of the director of photography, John Seale. He gives them all an epic touch. Director and writer Anthony Minghella did nothing wrong and I found it almost surprising that "Cold Mountain", a movie with no Best Picture nomination at the annual Academy Awards is in fact such an essential war movie that contains without any doubts to the best of his genre.
The actors are also very well. Law, Kidman, Zellweger and Ray Winstone. They are all great and there is no negative comment for them.
Finally, "Cold Mountain" does of course use a good-and-bad scheme, but the realistic environment and the refusing of an happy-ending make it to a very fine production.