Old Western Cowboy

This is a tragic love story that reaches through war, separation, weather, trials, death, and untold misery to touch your heart. It begins prior to the Civil War in the town of Cold Mountain, North Carolina. The three main characters are Jude Law playing Henry Inman, Nicole Kidman as Ada Monroe and Renee Zellweger as Ruby Thewes.

The first scenes are of Pettersburg, Virginia July 1864, which highlights the inhumanity of war. The movie then moves back three years to show the beginning of this love story. The sequence highlights the meeting of two young people and how it was in the mid 1850’s tradition. Visually you observe their interest and awkwardness at meeting and talking together. There are many scenes with classical music being played on a piano, bluegrass with a banjo, fiddle, and shape-note singing all of it contributing to the movement of the love story.

As Inman starts off to war Ada gives him a tintype picture of her self and a book. Inman is overcome by her innocence and beauty and they kiss only once but with a visible impact on both of them. The Home Guard is inserted at this point as a reflection of what goes bad during war on the home front.

The viewer travels back to scenes of war and mayhem. Inman gets wounded and is shipped to a hospital where he survives and hears Ada’s voice calling him home. He begins the journey back to Cold Mountain on foot, which is fraught with many encounters, roadblocks, and hardships.

Back in Cold Mountain Ada is barely surviving on Black Cove farm. Her Father has died and she has no clue how to survive. She is joined by Ruby who is totally self-sufficient but homeless. The two join together to survive the winter, which is approaching. The Home guard is like a vulture just waiting in the shadows to create problems and raise havoc.

This movie was a very compelling chronicle on the time and conveyed the loss of innocence for a country as well as pushing forth the blossoms of new love. I enjoyed the movie and would recommend it to those who are captured with this time frame in history.

Adapted from the book Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.