Cold Mountain

Well, I broke down and got this movie from Netflix (the greatest invention since the car!). I saw it when it came out about 6 years ago....and I wasn't impressed. But I decided to watch it a second time. I have new knowledge of the time period, the Civil War, and life in general...so I was hoping to gain new insight into this movie. And I did.

First, I'm no prude, but some of the scenes in the movie were a bit "over the top" for me. I don't appreciate all that nudity...if it doesn't really enhance the movie. I'm not sure, maybe the movie was cleaned up a bit for DVD but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I remember. Still some nudity, but not anywhere near as bad as I remember.

The scenes of the Crater are more intense than I remember. I think that since I understand the Civil War so much more than I did a few years ago, the intensity of the battle scenes horrified me. Not that they shouldn't. War is horrific. Seeing the dead and dying lying on the field....even if they were just pretending....made me feel so horrible. I found tears streaming down my face before I realized what was happening. Then I started thinking about the fighting at Gettysburg and I got even more upset. These poor men who fought.

But living the Civilian experience is what really went through me. I never really understood just what these people experienced. Even when the war wasn't in their backyard, they were still hit head on by the war. The men were gone and the women had to keep the farms going. These were tough women....but they didn't have the strength to keep a big farm running. And somehow, through desperation, they did what they had to do in order to survive. I admire these women more than I can ever describe. How did they do it?

After watching the movie this morning, I decided that it isn't nearly as bad as I remember it being. It's funny how sometimes you have to watch a movie a few times in order to fully understand it. This was definitely one of those movies. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in the Civil War...because this will show just what kind of suffering took place...both on the battlefield and on the home front.