Cold Mountain

 

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

Cold Mountain (2003) has its roots in Homer’s The Odyssey, which also has a hero returning from a war to a woman he loves. In the film, however, the soldier quits the struggle before it’s over out of disgust for the horror that comes from the massive scale of violence and atrocities. The tale shows how engaging in warfare destroys the barrier of civility and decency erected to keep out reprehensible behavior which bursts in on either side of the conflict. It is also a story of female empowerment while male aggression rages.

 

The film, which jumps back and forth in time and between parallel plots, starts with a voice-over as Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman), recites a letter to the man she loves, Inman (Jude Law), about how it has been years since they have seen each other. She expresses her fears about how this “awful” Civil War may have changed things irreparably. But she has not given up hope, so her resilience is intact despite the dire circumstances. She speaks her words while there is an image of water gently flowing, suggesting the distance between them, but also the continuous, inevitable flow of time that has passed which they could not share together. 

 

The film is at the end of the Civil War when Northern troops are placing explosives underground at the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia in July, 1864. Southern troops inside their fort are on edge as they wonder when the Union soldiers will attack. The Southern men prepare coffins for the dead, showing the heavy tragic cost of the war. Inman is one of the Confederate soldiers and he receives the letter from Ada with her tintype picture. She alludes to what was left unsaid between them, which hints at their reticence when they first met. 

 

As numerous Union soldiers wait to attack as the fuse is lit to set off the explosions, a rabbit, displaced by the subterranean excavation by the men from the North, runs through the Southern trenches. The Confederate soldiers see the creature as food and chase after it. Inman smiles, because it seems like a humorous incident, but the animal, ironically, is a harbinger of catastrophe. 

 

Ada’s narration brings us back in time to when she arrived in Cold Mountain, North Carolina with her father, Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland). They came from Charleston, which she hated because it was “a world of slaves and corsets,” which indicates her feeling of being liberated by the move. But, she felt “out of place” in her new home. At that time Inman did carpentry work, helping to build a chapel for the Reverend, its religious nature contrasting with the workers’ conversation about the war. Some men have no problem fighting against what they see as Northern aggression. Others protest, saying they would be “fightin’ for a rich man’s slave,” that is, risking their lives for the wealthy. The Reverend shows up at the site with Ada, and the men comment on Ada’s beauty among themselves. Inman’s admiration of her is obvious, but he has the discretion to keep it to himself. Sally Swanger (Kathy Baker) asks Ada how she is finding Cold Mountain (the name of the place is not very inviting, but also, according to IMDb, it represents a spiritual place in Chinese poetry). After Ada says the area is beautiful, Sally says Ada could use her own beauty to get one of the admiring men to help clear Sally’s field. Sally singles out the usually quiet Inman, who has been asking about Ada. Despite the seriousness of the movie’s topic, there is humor in the film. For example, Ada brings the men some cider, and when she repeats Inman’s name after he tells her it, he says, “repeatin’ a thing doesn’t improve it.” His response and his reply that what he does is “work wood. Hunt. Mostly work wood,” emphasizes how he is a man of few words. Law’s ability to use his facial expressions to convey deep feelings despite the lack of dialogue is impressive. Even when she gives him an opening to become familiar by asking if he has something to say to her, he defers. These two seem to see themselves standing outside the society in which they live, which draws them together. 

 

The story jumps back to Petersburg where Inman excavates himself (being born again, getting a second chance?) from the rubble that buried him after the explosion. He reaches for Ada’s photograph as the soundtrack plays a song that talks of going to find one’s “true love,” which is the central plot line of the movie. The area is in flames and the air is filled with ash and dust, with bodies on the ground. It looks like a hell on earth, which is what war is. The infernal metaphor is perpetuated by the fact that when the Union soldiers attack they ironically wind up in the huge crater that the explosive created, and the Confederate men realize their enemy has “dug their own graves.” They call it a “turkey shoot” as they fire into the huge pit. Inman tries to save the youngest among them, Oakley (Lucas Black), and jumps into the crater, hoping to prevent the youth from having his otherwise long life cut short. But, a Northern soldier stabs Oakley, and as he dies he tells Inman he will get back to Cold Mountain before him, suggesting that the only way to return home is through the spirit after the body releases it in death. The scene after the battle is horrific, with bodies piled high.

 

There is a shift back to Inman clearing Sally’s field, and Ada happens by without even realizing Inman agreed to do the job. When Sally asks if men are different in Charleston, Ada says she does not know. Ada obviously has little romantic experience. Sally says if Ada likes Inman she should at least say good morning to him, but her response is that she must be on her way. This time period is very different from our own, as men and women now are much more forthright about amorous desires. The restraint between these two is excruciating to them since they obviously are very attracted to each other. There is a shot of Ada transporting her piano and playing the instrument as she passes by Inman in the field. The scene suggests that these two should be joined in loving harmony.

 At the Monroe home there is a party to show the community that the Reverend and his daughter are grateful for the chapel. Ada’s father talks highly of his daughter after she plays the piano for the guests. Inman is in the rain, outside, looking through a window, yearning for Ada, but physically and socially cut off from her. A large, scruffy man rudely enters and passes by the Reverend while he talks and grabs a glass of liquor. The Reverend learns that the man’s name is Teague (Ray Winstone), and that his family once owned much of Cold Mountain, and wanted the land that the Reverend acquired. Teague is looking for a way to get the farm for himself. Inman is soaking wet and feels embarrassed to go inside, even though Ada is welcoming, pointing out there is a warm fire blazing in the fireplace. Could this be metaphorical language for the heat she feels for him beneath the surface? As we already know she hates slavery, and was carrying root beer glasses on a tray to the “Negroes.” She found out that he enlisted in the army, and his response is that if there is a war they will all have to fight. For him, as a Southern man, it seems inevitable that he will have to be a soldier. But she is angry, and is sarcastic about the male desire to go into combat, asking if Inman’s ego made him take a photograph of himself in his uniform and gun. He sees that she is mocking him. For him, words are useless to describe how he aches for her, and says trying to say how he feels is as impossible as describing the intricacies of the color of the sky or “the way a hawk flies.” His few words are poetic. She says she understands, and he joins her generosity by offering to bring the tray to the slaves. 

 

We again have Ada’s narration of one of her letters to Inman where she states that she dreads hearing news of his death. It has been three years since he left to fight in the war, and she wants to reassure him that, despite his insecurity about her remembering him, she still is waiting for his return. Inman and other men from Cold Mountain are sent on a dangerous night mission to shoot some Yankee soldiers who are waiting to attack the next day. Inman’s comrades are killed by friendly fire and Inman is severely wounded, which shows one can't even trust the side he is fighting on to not harm a soldier. The story reverts to Inman and Ada in the chapel just before it officially opens. There is a dove inside and he says that it is a symbol of good luck, which in this story, does not turn out to be true. Later he brings his father’s sheet music to the Monroes, but again feels shy and unworthy to accept an invitation to enter the house, and thus become familiar with Ada. But she is understanding and saves him from his reluctance by saying they should all go for a walk instead. 

 

The Reverend says he was advised to move to Cold Mountain for the fresh air for his ailing lungs (which of course is a foreshadowing), but he says it's the beauty of the place that is healing. Inman offers that to save the place is the reason they are going into combat. The Reverend says he will not preach in favor of war in his church, and he agrees with Inman, who then wisely says that God probably is tired of being invoked on both sides of a conflict. He states that his father played the piano (another reason that he is fond of the musical Ada) and was a teacher, but both of his parents are deceased. There is a nice transitional shot of Ada looking out the window of the house hearing Inman’s words as she smiles and remembers that walk and holds the sheet music and a photograph of him he gave her. 

 

A flashback of a church service follows, and it is ironically interrupted by reports that the South has seceded from the nation, the opposite of the “good news” in the Bible. This information empties the chapel, signifying a retreat from spirituality, as young men cheer, “We got our war!” They think that the fight will be a heroic affirmation of their manhood and their system of slavery. Ada knows better as her look shows apprehension. Inman smiles as the enthusiastic men grab him, but then he observes Ada’s disapproval, which affects him. Teague shows up and threatens anyone who approves of President Abraham Lincoln and abolition. Inman challenges his authority to make such a proclamation. But Teague was preparing for this day, and he has obtained the title of Captain of the Home Guard, and states, “I’m the law from today,” which is a dire fact given the immorality of the man. He says he will be staying behind to “watch over your sweethearts,” an extremely distasteful prospect. Inman, after hearing Teague’s words, is concerned about Ada’s well-being, since she, as a beautiful woman, might be harassed, and she is opposed to the war. He urges her to go back to Charleston. But she says who will be there to wait for him, as she finally announces her strong feelings for Inman.

 

Ada goes to where Inman is staying as he prepares to leave for his military service. He is bare from the waist up and quickly closes the door out of decorum. Ada, aroused and feeling guilty about her arousal, looks confused and starts to walk away from temptation. He catches her before she leaves and she gives him a book and a picture of herself. She notes she isn’t smiling in it because she doesn’t know how “to hold a smile.” Her statement reveals a sadness in her life, probably due to the loss of her mother and her father’s illness, and possibly a longing for happiness which Inman might be able to fulfill. As a parade takes place to send the men off in a naïve flourish of glory, Inman and Ada kiss goodbye with such passion it sends them to their knees. She tells him she will wait for him and it is heartbreaking to see how reluctant he is to leave her and risk never seeing her again.

 

We then shift to Inman suffering from his wounds in a military hospital uttering “Cold Mountain,” thinking of home at the same time Ada tells her father that even though very few words were spoken between herself and Inman, she thinks of him “all the time,” so strong is the chemistry between them. He understands because he was married a short time to her mother, but “it was enough to fill a life.” His words stress the quality not the quantity of the time spent between two people in love. 

 

Ada notes the toll of the war on those left behind as the men went off to fight. She says their food supply is dwindling, “with no one left to work this place, nothing to buy, nothing left to buy with.” She later notes in a letter to Inman that the war “is lost on the battlefield and is being lost twice over by those who stayed behind.” The Reverend is sorry he didn’t prepare Ada for dealing with domestic problems and having brought her to Cold Mountain, but she loves her father and is devoted to him. In another contrasting scene, Ada plays the piano for her father as he prepares a sermon, but rain starts to fall, undermining the peaceful moment, and Ada plays a discordant note as she realizes that her father has died. 

 

Inman, still bedridden, receives a letter that is several months old from Ada who tells of the loss of her father and the deaths reported of many men in the war. Not knowing of his poor state of health, she wonders why he has not written, which shows her fear concerning his well-being. As her words are narrated, the film reveals her anxiety as she looks at the listings and photos of those who have died in battle. Teague visits her as she sits in the chapel and says Inman isn’t coming back, and offers himself as a substitute, which despite his protestations to the contrary, is a terrible alternative. Ada admits that she is at “her wits end,” and is “alone” and does not like taking assistance from others who also are suffering. The dire straits she is trying to navigate through are daunting. Sally arrives with her husband, Esco Swanger (James Gammon), who observes how pitiful Ada’s place looks, and Sally notes that Ada has freed the slaves that helped work her land, which shows how she could show her sympathy for the abolitionist cause once given the opportunity. The Swangers leave some food on her doorstep since Ada is too embarrassed to receive them. She does chores in the snow-covered winter and her letter urges Inman to stop marching and fighting and come back to her, because her only hope rests with seeing him again. 

 

Inman is on his feet again and encounters a man (Tom Aldredge) who has been blind since birth, who tells Inman that he shouldn’t be in a hurry to get back to fighting since the South is losing. Inman asks what he would give for ten minutes of sight. The man basically says that short of a time would only make the pain of losing something so valued be worse than not having it at all. Inman disagrees, saying he would do anything for even a brief period with something he really wanted. This is a foreshadowing of what is to come. The blind man “sees” that Inman is talking about a woman, and he warns him they shoot people who “take a walk,” that is, desert. 

 

But Inman wants to honor Ada’s request to return to her. He runs off at the same time that a proclamation is read in Cold Mountain that a deserter is guilty of treason and anybody who helps him is likewise culpable. In his position, the corrupt Teague has unrestrained power to enter a person’s home to investigate to see if a deserter is there. He is looking to recruit volunteers to help carry out his duties. In effect, those men left behind are given license to exploit their own people. Teague keeps hovering over Ada like a buzzard, waiting to feed on her desperation. In Odyssey terms, she is the Penelope character fighting off suitors as she waits for her man to return to her.

 

At supper with the Swangers, Esco, who thinks Ada waiting for Inman is futile, injects a bit of supernatural lore into the story, saying that looking into a mirror while leaning backward over their well will reflect what’s in store for Ada in her future. She tries it and sees the shadows of many birds flying around a man walking toward her who falls. In her narration of a letter to Inman she interpreted what she saw as him coming toward her. Her vision adds a sense of destiny to their story. She knows that she may have seen only his ghost, and doubts whether she can survive on her own. She feels as if she must have his presence, or at least the hope of it, to persevere.

 

Destiny then intervenes to help her with her despair about surviving. Feisty Ruby (a precious jewel?) Thewes (Renee Zellweger, in a Best Supporting Actress Oscar performance) arrives, sent by Sally, and immediately shows her practicality by announcing that the cows need to be milked. She injects much needed energy and humor into the story with her dialect tinged observations. Her small stature is deceptive as she announces how she can plow all day and there is no man better than her because, “there ain’t no man around who ain’t old or full of mischief.” Her observation is quite accurate given the circumstances. She gets down to basics right away, making it clear she is no servant and expects her and Ada to share the work, eat at the same table, and empty their own chamber pots. The rooster that has attacked Ada in the past crows, and Ada says the devil lives inside the bird. Ruby shows that even Satan is no match for her as she grabs the animal and breaks off its head, announcing that the rooster will be used for food. The rooster may also symbolize those men full of “mischief” who would harass and control women, and Ruby is the female force that will not allow that dominance. The director and screenwriter, Anthony Minghella, said that he saw Ada as “air” and Ruby as “earth,” which is an economical way of describing the differences between their backgrounds and temperaments.  

 

Inman encounters Reverend Veasey (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is the demonic opposite of Reverend Monroe. He has drugged a slave he has impregnated and to get rid of the evidence of his lustful ways, prepares to compound his transgression by killing the woman by throwing her into a gorge. Inman, a far more moral man than the hypocritical Veasey, prevents the crime. They go back to his home where Veasey notes that they shouldn’t wake his wife. This information only adds more feelings of disgust for the slimy Veasey (whose name sounds like “weasel” or “easy,” as in being lax in his ethical behavior). Inman dispenses moral justice by tying him to the fence outside, gagging him, and placing a note that describes Veasey’s despicable actions.

 

Ruby puts Ada through farming boot camp, telling her about all of the tasks that they must perform, including what crops to plant and repairs to fix. Ruby marches around the area, spouting orders like a drill sergeant. Back on the road, Inman and slaves are hunted, put in the same category as runaways. While in flight, Inman again runs into Veasey, who is also a fugitive after Inman revealed his despicable actions. The fugitive reverend knows a woman (Jena Malone) who can take them across the river by boat. She wants money to do the job, which Inman gives her. The constantly horny Veasey starts to make advances on the backwoods woman. She is not religious and reflects the fallen spiritual state of the times when she says, “I’d say these days, the devil rules the roost.” (Her remarks remind us of the demonic rooster). To validate her statement, she is willing to prostitute herself for another thirty dollars, and Veasey comically asks Inman if they have the money. But that light moment quickly turns to one of danger as men on shore fire upon the boat, wounding the woman, and she falls into the water, as if she must be baptized in death for her sins. 

 

As Ruby quizzes her about what grows on the land, the frustrated Ada notes she was only prepared to be a woman of culture, reading books, speaking Latin and French, and cutting flowers for display, not growing them. The disparity in these two women shows as their skill sets are vastly different, with Ruby’s being the one needed once civilization is stripped away. Ada admits that her training was not practical and says the fence they are building is the only thing she has done, “that might produce an actual result.” The earthy Ruby asks, knowing the answer from her sophisticated co-worker, if Ada ever “wrapped her legs around” Inman. Ada is outraged by the remark, but then smiles at the thought, and probably finds Ruby’s candid words liberating. She later plays her piano, and Ruby enjoys the music, so Ada is also rubbing off on Ruby.

 

But the music doesn’t last as practicality will not allow for such extras. Ada sells the instrument so they can have food. Ruby says she had to sell her hair once for money, showing her level of personal sacrifice. Her father was a more pedestrian musician playing fiddle, but she believes he was killed in the war. She says her father left her in the woods as a child so her experiences have hardened her. She sums up his priorities when she says, “My daddy, he’d walk forty miles for liquor and not forty inches for kindness.”

 Inman and Veasey meet a wilderness man named Junior (Giovanni Rabisi), and they help him remove his dead bull from a stream. Junior brings the two men to his house for a meal. If there is a parallel to Homer’s epic here, then the women in Junior’s house would represent the seductive Sirens. Lila (Melora Walters) is Junior’s wife and her three sisters and children live there in this R-rated full house. After a boisterous meal accompanied by a lot of booze, Junior says he’s going off to tend to some traps. The women put the children to bed, and the females easily seduce Veasey, while Lila wants Inman, who is very drunk, for herself. Even though Inman is momentarily tempted by the undressed Lila, he is more concerned about keeping his letters and book from Ada. Junior bursts back in with the Home Guard. Junior scammed the men so he could receive a reward for their capture. So, on his virtuous journey back to his true love, Inman must endure and overcome the corrupt nature of people.

 

When the Home Guard hides Inman and the other chained prisoners he is attached to from Yankee soldiers, Inman says he refuses get shot again for a cause he does not believe in. He now voices his opposition to the South’s defense of slavery. He gets the other captives to make a run for it. When the Union soldiers hear the commotion they come back and a gunfight ensues and all the bound prisoners have no means to defend themselves. All, except Inman, are killed. Meanwhile Ruby and Ada visit Sally who uncharacteristically does not invite them in and says that her husband missed seeing them since he was not at home. Ruby is suspicious as she smelled Esco’s tobacco, so he was there, and the fields have been worked, which Esco could not have done himself. 

 

That conclusion is also reached by Teague and his men as they visit Esco’s ranch, and Teague says the Swanger boys left the military and are hiding there. The ruthless immorality of these men is depicted. They murder Esco, torture Sally, and kill their two boys when they come out to help their mother. Teague says he can confiscate the land, which is why he took the job in the first place, for selfish gain. Ada and Ruby heard the gunshots and run to the Swanger farm. They rescue Sally from the noose around her neck. Ruby announces, like a prophet, what is going on around them in the South, that thrived because of slavery and has become diseased with evil, when she says, “This world won’t stand long. God won’t let it stand this way long.” 

 

An old woman (Eileen Atkins) rescues Inman. She is a cantankerous angel, one of a few, like the Sangers, Ada and Ruby, who fight the wrongdoing taking over the land. She uses homemade remedies to treat his wound and injuries. Inman wonders why he has been spared during the time he was a soldier. The old woman, echoing the destiny theme, says everything in nature has a job, and so does Inman. He again expresses his anti-war feelings when he says he is different and is not “like every fool sent off to fight with a flag and a lie.” He seems to suggest that false appeals to patriotism may be a means to deceive others to defend a corrupt system. He tells her about Ada and even though he hardly knows her he feels compelled to go back to her. She represents what he now sees as his home.

 

There is an appropriate transition from Inman’s convalescence to Ada reading to Sally as the woman recuperates from her ordeal. Ruby and Ada catch a man trying to steal some of their food and it turns out to be Ruby’s father, Stobrod (Brendan Gleeson) who is still alive, and is a deserter. Ruby’s harsh initial response is to kick her old man because he “beat,” “abandoned,” and “ignored” her, and now puts them in jeopardy for being wanted for treason for running away from his military service. Stobrod says the war has changed him, he seems contrite, and says he wrote many songs about his daughter. Ruby isn’t willing to forgive his past transgressions, but she does start to sob as he tells her he loves her as he leaves. She is funny after he leaves when she says “he’s so full of manure, that man. We could lay him in the dirt and grow another one just like him.” There is another light moment when later Ruby’s father and a banjo player he teamed up with named Pangle (Ethan Suplee) serenade the women, and thank them for a coat Ruby made and food they gave the men.

 The old woman gives Inman some supplies and he resumes his journey. Ada’s influence on Ruby is demonstrated as Ada reads to her from Wuthering Heights and wants to continue reading after Ada finishes for the night. The novel is a romantic story of doomed love which resonates with the plot of the film. This point is reinforced by Ada using Inman’s photo as a bookmark. Ruby’s animosity melts as she, Ada, and Sally welcome Stobrod, Pangle, and another one of their companions, a mandolin player, Georgia (Jack White) on Christmas. The men play music and they all dance, trying to escape the coldness and danger that lives outside. Ruby is still the pragmatist and forbids the men to sleep on the property for fear of the Home Guard finding them there. But they covertly stay overnight in the mill and leave tracks in the snow which allow them to be followed. Ada tells the members of her sisterhood that she loves them as she, Sally, and Ruby have joined forces to be survivors of this horrible time.

 

Inman seeks shelter at the cabin home of a woman named Sara (Natalie Portman), who lives there only with her sick baby. She wants to trust Inman, but when he hands her his gun to gain that trust, she is repulsed by the weapon. The war has made her angry and says she wishes all metal would be banned, “every blade, every gun.” Her husband died at the Battle of Gettysburg, and she says that is the repetitive nature of war, where a man dies, and a woman is left alone. Her lonely situation has made her bitter and sad. But Inman is grateful for the food she offers, as well as the clothes of her dead husband. His trying on the deceased soldier’s clothes probably makes Sara yearn for the man she has lost. She asks Inman to come inside from the corn bin to just lie next to her in bed so she could capture something of what it was like to be with her husband. She cries and doesn’t want him to leave. He holds her and comforts her but tells her that he loves another, which lets her know he will not betray his love.  

 

An alarmed Sara wakes Inman and warns him that Yankees are coming which will be a threat to both of them. War, by its very nature, strips away human decency, and terrible crimes are perpetrated on both sides of the conflict. The starving Union soldiers drag Sara out of her home and tie her to a tree. They want whatever food she has and bring her ill baby outside and put it on the cold ground to get Sara to say what she has to eat. She admits to having a hog, but that and some chickens is all she has left to get her through the winter. One of the soldiers takes Sara inside and starts to rape her. But Inman is hiding there and kills the soldier and another who enters the house. One of the soldiers, Bardolph (Cillian Murphy) is upset about what his fellow soldiers are doing and tries to warm the baby. Inman tells him to leave his clothes and boots and head out, but the incensed Sara brings out her rifle and shoots Bardolph. The movie implies that when violence rules, nobody is safe, not even the well-intentioned. 

 

Stobrod, Pangle, and Georgia build a campfire and go to sleep, but Georgia gets sick from the meal they cooked and wanders off just as Teague and his Home Guard men, including the murderous Bosie (Charlie Hunnam), show up. Their disreputable nature is shown as they make homophobic statements concerning Stobrod and Pangle. Unfortunately, the mentally challenged Pangle reveals that they had been staying in a cave where Teague noted deserters might be hiding out. He also says that Ruby made him his winter coat. The film suggests that it is a sad state of affairs that honesty turns out to be deadly. After playing a mournful song fitting what is about to happen, the Home Guard men shoot Stobrod and Pangle. Georgia tells Ruby and Ada what happened. Ruby acts tough on the surface, humorously saying, “If I cry one tear for my daddy, I stole it off a crocodile.” But then she breaks down and vents her anger at men who wage war and then complain about its effects when she says, “Every piece of this is man’s bullshit. They call this war a cloud over the land, but they made the weather, and then they stand in the rain and say, “Shit, it’s rainin’!” 

 Ada and Ruby discover the dead Pangle, but Ruby’s father crawled away after he was shot and Ruby finds him still breathing. They take care of him and Ada goes off to shoot a turkey for food. She sees a man at a distance coming towards her and given the dangerous times fires a warning shot and shouts for him to turn back. Inman has long hair and a full beard at this point, and is not easily recognizable. He calls her name, but when she tells him to leave, his fear that she would have forgotten him seems realized and he turns to go. But, their fate will not allow that, and Ada seems to know it is Inman and she calls to him. There is a modest show of relief on his face. 

 

They seek shelter in an abandoned building to care for Ruby’s father. Ruby says she had plans for the farm, and thinks the return of Inman will ruin what she wants for her and Ada. But Ruby gets reassurance from Inman that he has only good intentions toward Ada. He only received three of Ada’s numerous letters and she saw none that he sent. He tells her that her words helped him get through his dark times. She says how, since they had only a few moments together. He disagrees and says in that short period there were a thousand memories packed into that brief time which were for him like “a bag of tiny diamonds.” They then pull those little jewels out of their memories and smile as they relive them and the viewer sees the depth of the love between them. The irony is now that they are reunited, Inman fears that what he experienced in the war, what he had to do to survive, may have destroyed his soul and made him unworthy for her. 

 

Ruby then bursts out of the room which she was to share with Ruby and makes fun of all the sentimental love talk she had to endure hearing. She says she might as well stay where her father is resting so as not to listen anymore. Of course, she is just freeing up the room for Ada to share with Inman. When they are alone, Ada says that even her father, a reverend, would agree that war makes a marriage impossible sometimes. She is allowing for the consummation of their love because of extenuating circumstances. They profess their desire to be married and spend a passionate night together. But it turns out to be a brief Romeo and Juliet love interlude.

 

They head back to the farm, but Ruby and Ada travel on foot while Inman takes Stobrod on a horse separately because it is safer for the two deserters to travel alone. There is some sexually suggestive talk as Ada teases Ruby about her feelings for Georgia. This fun moment is quickly dispelled by the arrival of Teague and his men who have the tortured Georgia slung over a horse after he was forced to admit the two women looked for the bodies of Stobrod and Pangle. Teague says that making the coat for Pangle showed that the women conspired with deserters and were also guilty of treason. Teague says Ada’s prediction that there will be a reckoning doesn’t pertain to him, as if he is above the law, man’s and God’s. 

 

But a reckoning comes quickly, as Stobrod slouches and rides the horse up on a ridge as a diversion as Inman confronts the Home Guard men with gunfire and is aided by the women. Ada attacks Teague with her rifle butt and Inman shoots the man dead. The only one who gets away is the sadistic Bosie. Inman follows him and tells Bosie to give up his horse and his gun and he will not shoot him. Inman’s decency is punished instead of rewarded in this upside-down world. Bosie draws instead. They fire at each other, and Inman kills Bosie. But Ada sees the crows of her vision where she thought she saw Inman falling. She cries out and finds a replication of what she viewed looking in the mirror. Inman is framed by crows as he staggers toward her in the snow and falls, a portrait of a mortally wounded soldier/lover. But there is a smiling triumph on his face as his last words are, “I came back,” something that could be said by a returning hero after his time at war.

 

Ada’s voice-over returns as she realistically concludes that “what we have lost will never be returned to us.” She says, “all we can do is make peace with the past. And learn from it.” Unfortunately, history shows that humans are not good students when it comes to the lessons that war teaches. The film ends after several years have passed. But Ada has learned a great deal about farming, and she has Inman’s young daughter, born after his death, with the spiritually hopeful name of Grace, by her side to connect Ada to the man she loved. She finds a great deal of life still flourishing around her, and she is still writing letters to Inman, saying how she finds him in all that flourishes. 

 

Sally is there, and Ruby and Georgia are together and have a baby. Ruby’s father plays the fiddle and Georgia his mandolin as they sing about climbing a mountain (a reference to the film’s title) together. The song suggests overcoming obstacles with others, as these people have done. It is Easter, a time of resurrection, with new life carrying on despite the toll taken by the bleak season that came before.

The next film is Inception.