"Cold Mountain" film review

[Matthew.Rector]

Re: "Cold Mountain"

2)The Yankee offensive had mostly US Colored Troops. None in the movie.

Mark Berrier
North State Rifles
combinations@northstate.net

Actually...you might have blinked when they showed a USCT soldier. Inman's Native American comrad battled a black soldier with a knife. Just for a second though.

[Enfilade]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

Duly noted. However, I was reading eyewitness accounts from the NC Troops present. By accounts from William Day of the 49th NCT....

And to note, there were very few Black people at all in this movie. But hey, my wife liked it. So what are ya gonna do?

Mark Berrier

[LWhite64]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

Just a little tidbit for everyone. William P. Inman, Private, Resided in Haywood County where he enlisted at age 22 in June of 1861. He was wounded at Malvern Hill and deserted on Sept 5, 1862. Returned to duty on Novemeber 19, 1862 and fought at Fredericksburg. Wounded August 21, 1864 in the neck at Petersburg. Deserted from hospital at Raleigh on November 2, 1864 and took the Oath of Allegiance in eastern Tennessee in December of 1864.

[shubal]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

A good book to look at if you are interested:
The Heart of Confederate Appalachia by John Inscoe.

One not to consider is the book by William Trotter, Bushwackers, which Fraizer did indeed use as a source.

The movie, I liked it for several of the reasons mentiond above. I was amazed at how closely it stuck with the book. The silly historic stuff that they could have gotten right like the gazillion forage caps at the Crater puts a big black eye on everything Trioni says in the article a few pages back.

Peter Koch

[Bob McDonald]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

Fellow AC'ers:

Don Troiani and I chat on the phone a couple times a week, and he had happened to call last night after I read the above. I wanted his thoughts on the issue, and forwarded the post, to which he responded by e-mail today. Although I've not as yet seen the film, I found Don's perspectives pretty illuminating as to the way Hollywood approaches the portrayal of history and what it is like to serve as an historical consultant for such a project. Securing his OK to do so, I'm passing this along for any and all pards interested.

Cordially,

Bob McDonald



Roberto:

It’s impossible to know whether he’s speaking of the Federal or Confederate troops. If it's the Yanks, the data show that most the enlisted men of the 9th Corps were wearing forage caps. There are numerous AOP orders regarding the wearing of caps and even an instance or two of officers actually ordering that any slouch hats in use be collected and burned. Were there Federal soldiers wearing hats? Sure, but not very many, and it all depended on the leniency of the commanding officers.

If the fellow’s speaking of the CS troops, the film ended up with a too large proportion of Confederates wearing caps. This appears to have been due to misunderstandings from Connecticut to Romania. (One of the reasons that the principals and supporting cast members wore caps in the Petersburg scenes, I was told, is that it was difficult to see the actors’ faces under the brims of slouch hats.) In going over the National Archives’ clothing returns of CS units at the Crater (which I did for the movie project, and also planning for the painting) it became very evident that some of the regiments involved were heavily supplied with caps at that time. Based on the data, I would have much preferred a mix of about 60-40 with hats in the majority. From what I saw of the still shots, about one-third of the Confederates are in hats.

Although that be the case, I thought the extras were the most accurately presented large group of Confederates (with the exception of the leather suspenders!) that I've seen on film, by a long shot. In the version as released, many good Crater scenes have been edited out from the rough cut I saw in July, including some of the nice corps badge shots and the Massachusetts state and corps flags. Hopefully, a good bit of this will be added back in for the DVD. One thing you will never see - and I consider this our major contribution to the film - are the awful things we were able to stop them from doing! Hope this answers your question. DT

[shubal]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

Yeah, I was referring to Confederates in caps.
Difficult to see faces? Once the action started, it was all going so quickly etc., it was difficult to see faces even in forage caps.
Prior to that, in the scene in the trenche, with the wheelbarrow full of clothing (used or newly issued?), a 60-40 to hats would have improved things greatly. But then I'm a viewer not a moviemaker.

Peter Koch

[OleMissRebel]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

I really thought the movie was an excellent period piece. Lots of things really great about it. Several things bad also. A few of the bad things: I didn't like how the women weren't wearing the accurate hairstyle for the time period. The only woman in my opinion who had the period "look" was the woman in the hospital who read Ada's letter to Inman. She looked like your average plain Jane you'd see in a CDV or something. I didn't like the heavy set people in the film aka Pangle and the hillbilly trash lady in the "harem". If they went to all that effort to be accurate, why not just have average or thin sized people instead of HUGE people like both of them were.

The battle scene I felt was very very powerful. And yes, Rector is right when he mentions that you can briefly see a USCT fighting with Inman's indian compadre. I wish they had showed regular rebels flinging the "javelin rifles" into the crater. The person they showed doing it was the Native-American confederate. My girlfriend asked me afterwards about that, as she thought it was particularly brutal. I explained to her that alot of confederates did it during the battle and also at the Mule Shoe at Spotsylvania. Reason why I say they should have showed your typical rebels throwing the rifles was because she thought that the reason he threw the rifle was because he was an Indian and was treating it like a spear.

The acting was very good especially Renee as Ruby and Portman as Sarah. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was a great Veasey as well.

Best thing about the film was the confederates during the battle looked very good...despite the amount of caps which DID bother me a bit. Best Confederates i've ever seen in a Major Motion Picture.

good flick.

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

My wife and I finaly saw Cold Mountain lastnight. Over all I found it to be beautifully shot, well acted (especially Zellweger) and I will be buying the soundtrack this afternoon. The only major glaring farbism that really bugged me was the Weimar period ponyfur backpack that Jude Law carried after his encounter with the "goatlady". I loved alot of the touches that were missed by the adverage viewing public, such as the NC sackcoats that the men marched off with, the fact they are wearing NC shell jackets in 1864, and the P Tait jackets the "heavies" were wearing. I also noted several USCT troops in the crater, and more than the Indian guy using muskets as spears. In all I really enjoyed the movie.

[D1861]

Re: "Cold Mountain"

During the opening vistas of the scene of the crater is appears as if the Confederates have constructed large observation towers? Is that historically correct?

[JimConley]

Re: "Cold Mountain"

During the opening vistas of the scene of the crater is appears as if the Confederates have constructed large observation towers? Is that historically correct?

My Dad owns the DVD and we have poured over it a couple of times. Watching the extras we found out that the battlefield in the film was entirely constructed in Romania to fit the actual battlefield as closely as possible. Now, I do not recognize the film makers as historians by any means, but of course they hired historians to help with their lack of knowledge, one being Brian Pohanka. I would imagine that if those towers were not historically correct, he would have spoken up. But, of course, they may have been added as part of the set and Pohanka was only used for the battle sequence, who knows? Sorry that I do not know for sure whether or not such towers were constructed. Having said that, it doesn't seem implausable. The Petersburg siege did last for 10 months, plenty of time to have built such a tool for battlefield recon under sufficating circumstances.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

Signal Towers at Drewry's Bluff/Fort Darling.

The image is of one at Bermuda Hundred.

[shubal]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

Great picture find.
I guess the question now is how close to the front lines that tower was...

Its so easy to be a critic. I need to look at the DVD soon to see what DonT was talking about...some of the good scenes being cut out of the theater version.

[NC5thCav]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

I thought it was a good movie, for a movie. Like many people here have said, I think it is an improvement over earlier CW films, but I don't think we'll ever see a TRULY accurate movie. One thing I didn't like is that most of Inman's bsckground in the army prior to The Crater is missing. The book talks about earlier battles, like Fredricksburg, and his wounds. I think this would have helped people better understand his motives for deserting. But once again, this is a love story, not a CW story. The NC issue sack coats for early war was a nice touch, however. One thing that I noticed as a resident of the western NC mountains is that the mountains in the film lacked something that is more than common here-you can't go anywhere in the woods here without running into jungles of mountain laurel! :)

[shubal]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

Good point on the Mountain Laurel and also Rhododendren.
The mountains just had a different feel than the ones in wNC. It was like a dream where things are just a bit out of wack but you can't put your finger on it.

Seeing the NC sack coats at the beginning is interesting. It makes one wonder when and where these coats were first issued to the men from the mountains. Whether they were carted up the gaps to be issued in Asheville...or whether the western companies got uniformed after they went east to Salisbury, Raleigh, etc etc.

[Vuhginyuh]

Re: "Cold Mountain" film review

Seeing the NC sack coats at the beginning is interesting. It makes one wonder when and where these coats were first issued to the men from the mountains. Whether they were carted up the gaps to be issued in Asheville

...NO...

...or whether the western companies got uniformed after they went east to Salisbury, Raleigh, etc etc.

The '61 warrant uniforms were issued in camps along the rail line in Raleigh, Goldsboro, New Bern and Morehead City. I'm not sure about Wilmington and foothills. This uniforms went north-east int tidewater VA with our boys and saw little service in large numbers outside of there.

I'm confident Henry L. Wyatt was wearing one of these sets when he was killed. http://www.civilwarhome.com/bethelbattle.htm
There is also a good chance these were not uncommon as late as the fall of New Bern.

Not enough emphasis is placed on these uniforms in the early theaters and too much is given after the Fall of 1862.