YMMV / Cold Mountain

• Complete Monster: Captain Teague is a vicious, opportunistic man who uses the war as an excuse to take the Home Guard in the town of Cold Mountain, formed to defend the people from the war, and turn the group into a marauding band of villains. Under Teague, the Home Guard relentlessly pursue and kill "deserters" and anyone suspected of harboring them, while Teague confiscates their properties for his own. In one instance, Teague has the family patriarch murdered and the wife tortured to lure out her sons before gunning them down. Later, Teague executes a man, who is clearly mentally handicapped, even though he was clearly enjoying his music, and then shoots the man's partner in the back before abducting and torturing the final musician so he'll have an excuse to steal the property of Ada, and take revenge on Ada for rejecting his advances.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Stobrod only shows up about 1/3rd of the way through the story in both versions, but is viewed as a fascinating character for getting some of the funniest lines in the story, getting Character Development by seeing the effect his beautiful music has on people, and evading the Home Guard while staying in one region, in contrast to Inman taking a long trek.
  • The goat-raising herbalist who nurses Inman at one point is only in one scene but is among the most iconic characters from either version of the story.
  • Mrs. Morgan is a Canon Foreigner who only appears in a few early scenes of the movie, but her Nice Girl moments while reading Inman his letters touch a lot of people.
  • Wise, spiritual anti-war neighbors Esco and Sally make a powerful impression in the book and we’re given equally well-received expanded roles in the film.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The deleted scene (adapting a moment from the book) where Inman goes to the farm to meet Ada and finds Georgia there is quite well-liked. Many feel that its presence would have helped better explain how Inman finds Ada and Ruby, as well as giving Georgia a brief moment to shine.
• Funny Moments:
  • Most of Ruby's scenes. "So you never wrapped your legs around this Inman?"
  • "The Israelites! The tribes of Israel are about to flee from the banks of Egypt! Hallelujah!" "He's got a shit coming on. It's overdue."
• Genius Bonus: Two of the Union soldiers that Sarah kills are named Bardolph and Nym, the same names as two of Sir John Falstaff's sidekicks in Henry IV.
• Memetic Mutation: On The Late Show with David Letterman, shortly after the film's release, David Letterman would frequently play audio clips of Renee Zellweger saying "If you need help, here I am," and "There ain't no man better'n me," from the movie, completely without context.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Charlie Hunnam, who plays the minor but notable role of Bosie, was a few years away from breaking into the mainstream in Sons of Anarchy.
  • Emily Deschanel plays a nurse who reads Ada's letters aloud to Inman.
  • Jena Malone plays a girl who offers to ferry Inman and Reverend Veasey across a lake and is killed by the Home Guard.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: In the film, some fans feel a little too much time is spent on Inman as a soldier and hospital patient before he starts on his trip back home (which leads to the omission of many of his book encounters for pacing) and things really get interesting.
• Tear Jerker: Probably easier to make a list of moments that were Heartwarming. What do you expect? It's set during the American Civil War.
  • In the film, Sara (the widow who grants Inman shelter for the night) asks Inman to just lie next to her. She takes his hand after a moment's hesitation and cries, thinking of her dead husband. Inman confesses that he has someone back home waiting for him and gets up to leave. Sara asks him to stay. It does lead to a Heartwarming Moment though when Inman drapes his arm around Sara as she cuddles into his chest and tells her to try to sleep.

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