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Further thoughts on 'Cold Mountain'.....

Since my blog (January 5) on the excellent film, 'Cold Mountain', a number of people have raised the issue of how the film addresses the subject of slavery.

I think Anthony Minghella gets this largely correct, because the story is dealing with small pioneer homesteaders, and not with the big Southern estate. It is about a Southern 'Little House' culture, not about Scarlett O'Hara's 'Tara'. I don't think that slavery was the big issue for these folks, more the 'idea' of the South, and the fact that they were not going to be dictated to by those damn Yankees. It would thus have been somewhat anachronistic, and perhaps over-PC, to have focused more on slaves and slavery. The film is essentially about the fate of the poorer independent farmsteader during the Civil War, and especially of the women who were left behind to fend for themselves. In that sense, a feminist theme, rather than a slavery theme, is the more appropriate.

Philip, enjoying a new career as film critic.