Cold Mountain: A Screenplay

Rating:
Summary: Anthony Minghella King of the Adapted Novel!
Review: Anthony Minghella brings a rich prespective to his adaptation of the Charles Frazier novel "Cold Mountain". His screenplay is an adaptation true to the spirit and themes of the novel. The story involves Inman a Confederate soldier who has been injured in battle and decides he has had enough fighting. He begins his long journey back home to Cold Mountain and the woman he left behind there, Ada. Along the way he meets a bunch of characters looking to both help and hinder his journey home. Ada too is experiencing a journey of her own. The journey to survive after the death of her father something she is not accustomed to being a high society girl from Charleston. She must learn to care for her house and farm. One day a rural girl named Ruby shows up and ends up teaching Ada the survival skills to survive in a world where all the certainties of the past have been swept away.

Now, when I heard Minghella had optioned the rights to make this movie back in 2000, I immediately read the novel. I fell in love with the way it was written by Frazier and the themes he uses in the novel. I also, liked the idea of the Civil War as the setting. The amount of loss and destruction to the South during this period of American history is very intruiging to me.
After reading the novel I was interested in finding out how Minghella was going to translate this material to the screen. After reading the screenplay, I think he has accomplished a great feat of adapting yet another novel into a winning screenplay.

You will find some different things in the screenplay not in the book. For example, there are some very detailed scenes of Inman's fighting at Petersburgh. These scenes are mentioned in the book, but are fleshed out more by Minghella in the screenplay. I can't wait to see these Civil War battle scenes on the big screen! Also, if you read the book you probably noticed there is not a whole lot of dialouge in the book. I thought Minghella did a great job of fleshing out the dialouge in the screenplay. The exchanges between Ruby and Ada are very funny and it will be interesting how these characters are played by Zellweger and Kidman. Most of the key scenes and characters are in the screenplay and lovers of the book will be pleased to know that it stays true to the novel's spirit and tone. I am very interested to see the finished film on Christmas. It is receiving a lot of positive buzz from Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (#5 on his top ten list!), the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and the National Board of Review (#7 on their top ten list). From reading the screenplay I think Anthony Minghella has crafted another winning adapted screenplay, look for this to receive an Oscar nomination in January for Best Adapted Screenplay. If you are at all interested in the movie or the original novel this screenplay is highly recommended. It has all the key elements that make movies great adventure, drama, comedy, romance, and great characters. The themes of the novel continue to stay with me and this screenplay reinforces these themes. Cold Mountain is truly a work of art.

Rating:
Summary: Anthony Minghella King of the Adapted Novel!
Review: Anthony Minghella brings a rich prespective to his adaptation of the Charles Frazier novel "Cold Mountain". His screenplay is an adaptation true to the spirit and themes of the novel. The story involves Inman a Confederate soldier who has been injured in battle and decides he has had enough fighting. He begins his long journey back home to Cold Mountain and the woman he left behind there, Ada. Along the way he meets a bunch of characters looking to both help and hinder his journey home. Ada too is experiencing a journey of her own. The journey to survive after the death of her father something she is not accustomed to being a high society girl from Charleston. She must learn to care for her house and farm. One day a rural girl named Ruby shows up and ends up teaching Ada the survival skills to survive in a world where all the certainties of the past have been swept away.

Now, when I heard Minghella had optioned the rights to make this movie back in 2000, I immediately read the novel. I fell in love with the way it was written by Frazier and the themes he uses in the novel. I also, liked the idea of the Civil War as the setting. The amount of loss and destruction to the South during this period of American history is very intruiging to me.
After reading the novel I was interested in finding out how Minghella was going to translate this material to the screen. After reading the screenplay, I think he has accomplished a great feat of adapting yet another novel into a winning screenplay.

You will find some different things in the screenplay not in the book. For example, there are some very detailed scenes of Inman's fighting at Petersburgh. These scenes are mentioned in the book, but are fleshed out more by Minghella in the screenplay. I can't wait to see these Civil War battle scenes on the big screen! Also, if you read the book you probably noticed there is not a whole lot of dialouge in the book. I thought Minghella did a great job of fleshing out the dialouge in the screenplay. The exchanges between Ruby and Ada are very funny and it will be interesting how these characters are played by Zellweger and Kidman. Most of the key scenes and characters are in the screenplay and lovers of the book will be pleased to know that it stays true to the novel's spirit and tone. I am very interested to see the finished film on Christmas. It is receiving a lot of positive buzz from Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (#5 on his top ten list!), the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and the National Board of Review (#7 on their top ten list). From reading the screenplay I think Anthony Minghella has crafted another winning adapted screenplay, look for this to receive an Oscar nomination in January for Best Adapted Screenplay. If you are at all interested in the movie or the original novel this screenplay is highly recommended. It has all the key elements that make movies great adventure, drama, comedy, romance, and great characters. The themes of the novel continue to stay with me and this screenplay reinforces these themes. Cold Mountain is truly a work of art.

Rating:
Summary: Just what it takes...
Review: Anthony Minghella is no stranger to film adaptations. He did the impossible when he translated the very poetic and cahotic The English Patient to the screen, and he did worders with a little gem called The Talented Mr Ripley (in my opinion, one of the best thrillers made during this last decade). Now Minghella tries his hands at translating the epic journey that is Cold Mountain to the screen and succeeds... somewhat.

To really appreciate a film like Cold Mountain, you need it all; the script, the actors, the set, the costumes, the locations, the score... Everything has to be balanced just right in order to achieve greatness. Some have complained that the movie is shallow because you never truly feel the love between our star-crossed lovers. But I think that's the whole point of the story. Inman is really in love with the idea of a woman he has known for a very brief time, and Ida loves the idea of that man. Is it true love? I don't think so. What these characters need is to cling on to each other in order to survive the ordeals they are facing.

Cold Mountain was a very big and busy book. Minghella needed to do choices when he adapted the story, cutting down what he deemed not as important. And I think the choices he made were the right ones. The story flows quite nicely and never stalls.

But the real thing that drives this movie are the performances. The script might seem a bit stiff on the page, but an epic story is about the whole of it all. Minghella did wonders with a book that must have been very hard to adapt for modern audiences, and succeeded quite nicely.

Rating:
Summary: Cold Mountain not so Hot!
Review: I must admit that I enjoyed the movie (and thus the screenplay). The big problem is, the screenplay is hardly anything like the book. One must wonder if Minghella read the book! In some cases, the story is NOTHING like the book. For instance, in the screenplay, the immoral preacher is about to throw a slave girl in the river when in fact she was a dark-haired white girl. The way Inman and Ada meet is NOTHING like the book. Example after example can be given of how poorly the movie represents the book. If you haven't read the book, get it instead of the screenplay or seeing the movie. It is fantastic (why it won the Pulitzer). If you have read the book, keep in mind that the movie is hardly anything like it. Otherwize, it was a great film (although there were some "hot" scenes that were totally unnecessary, giving the movie an "R" rating when it could have easily been a PG13). In other words, if you can "pretend" that the movie is not based on the book, you may enjoy this screenplay. If you are a die-hard Cold Mountain fan, you are sure to be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Differnt, but....
Review: Okay, I admit that when I first read this screenplay, I wasn't exactly thrilled with how it came out. I read the book when it first came out and feel in love with it. So when I read the screenplay, I was a little shocked by how different it was. But then I realized something- of course it's different! It's a movie! Films can never truly depict the emotions and feelings of the characters in a book. So its necessary to add different things in, and to find a way to show those emotions. Once I realized that, I began to appreciate the screenplay all the more....
Let's face it.. Cold Mountain can only be described as a descriptive book. Which is great, but when you make a movie about it, descriptions aren't going to cut it. You need to show action and dialogue to get the point across. Which is exactly what Anthony Mingella did when he wrote the screenplay. This was HIS adaptation of the novel and what he thought should be shown. And I thought it was great. Yes,he changed some things, but I don't believe that readers of the book should automatically think this is a bad thing. If you like movies, you have to realize that you need to show more than people's thoughts. You need to show their actions. Which I believe was shown very accurately.
Readers of books that are made into movies need to realize what I realized a long time ago:

NO FILM WILL EVER LIVE UP TO THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE BOOK!
You know why? Because everyone will interpret a book differently. Thoughts, feelings, emotions.... everyone experiences things differently when you read a book. So when someone does adapt a book to turn into a screenplay... of course it's going to be different from what you were expecting! Because no person is the same as you.
I thought this screenplay was amazing, as well as the movie. Sure it was different from what I was expecting, but what is wrong with that? To those of you who hate how it's different from the book, let me just tell you this:

Open your mind and heart and realize that no one is going to think the same as you. And try to appreciate that fact. Accept that for what it's worth and just enjoy that person's thoughts and hard work. Cold Mountain is an excellent screenplay and one everyone should read :)

Rating:
Summary: Bitterly disappointed in this screenplay
Review: What I'm looking for is a way to contact Charles Frazier and chastise him thoroughly for allowing Minghella to completely TRASH his book. I sat in the theatre yesterday (a matinee, thank god) and watched a beautiful piece of art (Frazier's book) be transformed into utter hollywood garbage.
Did Minghella even READ Cold Mountain? He has no understanding of the characters, turning them into caricatures (Ruby, Ada) and completely missing what draws Inman and Ada (not their fabulous looks and some kind of war-time lust) but because they were different and understood each other.
So much was changed unnecessarily, that altered the characters completely. Ada was not a typical "Southern belle" announced in a voice over at the beginning, Inman and Ada were shy together because of their time, not because Inman was retarded (he nearly comes off that way) There is potty humor (Veasey) that wasn't in the book and is again un-needed, there are other ways to show he is an idiot, Ruby is some kind of hillbilly freak offering comic relief, not the wise woman, neighbors are brutalized (when in fact they were safer from these horrors) Teague becomes some kind of mustache twirling Lothario who's after Ada--Minghella throws slaves into the picture without showing the ir humanity (as in the book) plus the mountain people didn't own them...
WHAT GIVES HERE? Frazier should be outraged, and Minghella should be ashamed at what he's done. I can't believe Minghella didn't at least ask Frazier how to write the language so it sounded authentic (the awesome beauty of the book is due to this authenticity.) I couldn't believe the trite garbage that came out of the character's mouths after the poetry of the book.
You really see that when you gut the language of the book you gut the character development, Kidman and Zellweger careen sloppily through the whole thing, Law retains some dignity at least (perhaps because he doesn't have to mouth any of the terribly written dialogue); The love/sex scene is the worst-all the modesty, and intensity, was lost. You really have no idea why these people want to be together. Except of course that they look good.
I read reviews for this movie, re-read the book over the winter holidays, looked forward to it, and was utterly shocked at what trash they put out. What a WASTE.
The only thing that was kept successfully from Frazier's story is the upside down view of Inman in the well. That part was interesting to see on film, for the rest, stick with the book! Talk about the Emperor's new clothes-I can't believe the reviews so far, obviously none of the fancy reviewers have read Frazier's book either. Once again, Hollywood crassness trumps humanity and high art.