At the Movies
Cold Mountain got the shaft:
“Cold Mountain,” Anthony Minghella’s $83 million Civil War epic failed to nab key nominations for best picture, best director, or for its screenplay or lead actress Nicole Kidman. It received nominations for actors Jude Law and Renee Zellweger, and for cinematography, editing and music, but that’s all. Was it a snub of its studio, Miramax, considered the most dominant player at recent Oscar ceremonies?
There’s another possibility.
I haven’t seen the movie, so what I’m about to say is based solely on the trailer (which I saw at a screening of Return of the King). If the trailer represented the movie properly, then the theme of the thing seemed to be “war is so terrible, that there’s nothing worth fighting for.”
I could be wrong. I only saw the trailer. But the message it sent was enough to put me off seeing the movie. And maybe enough to put off Oscar voters?
Anyone here seen it?
Don’t bother. Your impression from the trailer is dead on! I felt the anti-war undertones overshadowed a pretty good story. Renee does deserve the supporting actress nomination though! She was the best part of the movie.
Nicole won last year, why should they nominate this year?
Warble Augur had a very interesting discussion on Cold Mountain here in which a number of interesting points and problems are raised, some of which might explain the lack of Oscar nods.
Myria
Huh, apparently you have to scroll down to “Cold Mountain” as that isn’t a direct permalink.
Myria
movie sucked.. way too long (like lotr ish) very stridently anti-war
waste of 3.5 hours and 30 bucks
renee.. ok but she’s done much better, though she always seems to get nominaitons… should have gotten it for down with love, rather than this
Haven’t seen the movie, but the notion that Hollywood would be turned off by an anti-war theme seems unlikely. But ROTK and Master & Commander received the most nominations and both involved righteousness in war themes. So who knows.
What I thought was interesting was that the 2 most nominated movies combined for 21 nominations, but none for acting. Personally, I though the blond kid from M&C gave the most compelling performance I saw all year. Paul Bettany was darn good too. But neither of them got much buzz, so no surprise. I was highly disappointed that Sean Astin was snubbed.
I haven’t seen the film either, but Anthony Minghella, its director, is quoted on The Internet Movie Database as saying, “The only lesson to extract from any civil war is that it’s pointless and futile and ugly, and that there is nothing glamorous or heroic about it. There are heroes, but the causes are never heroic.”
Gee, I guess freeing the slaves doesn’t count as heroic in Mr. Minghella’s eyes.
Ed
“Cold Mountain” arguably the most boring and badly written book ever.
The filmakers turned their noses up at Civil-War recreators willing to work for free and instead used Romanians…
Way to build an audience.
I did not like the film.
Yes, the anti-war jive beats you over the head and the attempts at ‘galvanizing’ sappy emotions are forced and dull.
Also, if you have any respect for a southern accent, steer clear of this film. Jude Law, Renay Zell, and nicole kidman all butcher it.
OTOH,
I would probably see a movie that was based on the good parts of screwing Natalie, Renee, and Nicole.
Drop the war bits.
I saw this movie and kinda liked it. It wasn’t great, but I liked it better than I expected.
I didn’t think it was anti-war so much as against the Confederate side of that war.
Dunno about the movie, but Minghella’s parents make some of the best ice cream in the world (he’s from my home town). Not exactly germane, but…mmm, ice cream.
I didn’t see the movie, but I did read the book. I thought it was very much like “Going After Cacciatto”. Not neccesarily anti-war, just a strong desire to believe that there has to be something better, somewhere, and that it’s never “here”. The term we use in the Army is called “over-bitching”, where no matter how crappy things were at your last posting, they are somehow worse at your current assignment. I think the book followed that premise right to the end, and if the movie did as well, I can see where folks would find it hard to get excited about it winning an Oscar.
My wife knew it was a kiss of death as she was going on and on and on, turned to me and asked, “Well, what did you think?”
“Reminded me of ‘The English Patient’.”
A more devastating review could appear nowhere else on this earth.
The movie just dragged on and on, and yeah, there was definitely a theme of the pointlessness of war. Not great timing for that theme. What bothered me more was how they made it seem like the war was all about slavery. Right. Personally, I thought Jude Law’s performance was great, while Renee’s was crap (and I’m a hetero guy). She just seemed like a Hollywood actress playing a role, and making it really over the top. Just my opinion, but for me she actually detracted from the movie.