lukewarmed over cold mountain

Rating: 6/10 (27 December 2003)

I read the book nearly four years ago. I very much enjoyed that and seem to recall it had much more interiority for Inman, whereas this film seemed focused on Ada/Ruby for character development. Jude Law was left to speak in silence too much of the time. He was longing embodied, though righteous (overly so at times).
I almost wish they had given the narration of letters to Inman rather than Ada, it would have helped with his character as a deserter who has seen too much disaster. The interplay of Ada/Ruby seemed to work well-enough on its own.
Also in the novel, the trek seemed more arduous, with more on the isolated survival of Inman. And I recall passages that felt quite poetic, that helped to distract me from the distinction what on film seemed to much like the good characters and the bad characters. Maybe more strife and chafing between Ada and Ruby would have helped? More dishonor for other deserters, as opposed to Inman??
That said, this certainly makes fine use of the music cited in the text. And enough of the quirky encounters are decently recapped here. Seemed like an awful lot of close-ups, playing up the romance angle. The eventual sex scene was funny to me, as it seemed out of place with an edit of the two just laying in what I thought was post-coitus first and then into the beast with two backs and plenty more wounds.
Sex was not a problem for me, but a brutal beginning bugged some with me. Actually I recall the book being far more visceral, but reading pages of slaughter and amputation provides a better barrier of distance than on screen jump-cuts and gouges.
This will win awards as a treacly epic when its really one of those not-so-bad, not-so-great films, I'd rather it had more of the arty starkness of Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man."
Who will make "Blood Meridian" into a film, one frets.

If you are inclined to read the novel first, I urge you to do so. I know that's a pretty easy rule, but I think it is apropros here more than usual. Meanwhile, I give this a
6/10