I give this movie 3 stars only because I loved the book sooooo much. I re-read the book about once a year. I ended up getting a second copy because the first one was being kept together with a rubber band.
The book is truely about a man who gave his word of honor to his men only to have every one of them break their word. It was an incredible book with powerful emotions and images. All of this was lost in the movie.
If the premise of the movie/book interests you, please read the book first. If you see the movie first, you are unlikely to have any interest is reading the book.
haven't read it
(...) I found it thought-provoking, moving, suspenseful, exciting, zesty, passionate, vigorous, and especially well acted by Don Johnson and Jeanne Tripplehorn. However, I would definitely read the book only AFTER seeing the movie lest you get all wadded up in frustration.
Cinematic Butchery of a Superlative Book
The Nelson DeMille novel upon which this cobbled-together made-for-TV movie is putatively based was absolutely terrific, a well-written story with several levels of narrative and rich characterization. The book, called by some reviewers "the Caine Mutiny of the 1980s," is the story of a Vietnam Vet called back into the Army years after the war to face charges that his platoon committed war crimes in a hospital during the battle of Hue. The story development and details are extremely interesting, as is the interplay of the characters -- Ben Tyson, his wife (a former war protester), his son, the investingating officer (a female major), his lawyer, and even his commanding officer while on temporary duty... at no point did the story ever drag. It's a great book, and everyone who appreciates good literature would enjoy it immensely.
Accordingly, there is no need whatever to buy, rent, shoplift, download, pirate, borrow or in any fashion whatever expose yourself to the atrocious so-called movie supposedly made from this book. Telescoped and edited to fit your standard made-for-TV-movie two-hour broadcast timeframe, the story as brought to film is bland, vapid, vanilla, jejune, formula, insipid, passionless, torpid, saccharine, predictable and a complete waste of time.
Use that two hours instead to begin reading the book. You definitely won't regret it.
Freely adapted from Charles Frazier's beloved bestseller, Cold Mountain boasts an impeccable pedigree as a respectable Civil War love story, offering everything you'd want from a romantic epic except a resonant emotional core. Everything in this sweeping, Odyssean journey depends on believing in the instant love that ignites during a very brief encounter between genteel, city-bred preacher's daughter Ada (Nicole Kidman) and Confederate soldier Inman (Jude Law), who deserts the battlefield to return, weary and wounded, to Ada's inherited farm in the rural town of Cold Mountain, North Carolina. In an epic (but dramatically tenuous) case of absence making hearts grow fonder, Inman endures a treacherous hike fraught with danger (and populated by supporting players including... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jude Law - Nicole Kidman - Renée Zellweger Director(s): Anthony Minghella DVD Release Date: Released the 29 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Superior acting, writing, and direction are on impressive display in the critically acclaimed Mystic River, Clint Eastwood's 24th directorial outing and one of the finest films of 2003. Sharply adapted by L.A. Confidential Oscar-winner Brian Helgeland from the novel by Dennis Lehane, this chilling mystery revolves around three boyhood friends in working-class Boston--played as adults by Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, and Kevin Bacon--drawn together by a crime from the past and a murder (of the Penn character's 19-year-old daughter) in the present. These dual tragedies arouse a vicious cycle of suspicion, guilt, and repressed anxieties, primed to explode with devastating and unpredictable results. Eastwood is perfectly in tune with this brooding material, giving his flawless cast... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kevin Bacon DVD Release Date: Released the 08 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Marking a welcome return to the breezy style of Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men reminds us that the director of Gladiator is equally adept with quirky comedies and offbeat characters. Smoothly adapted from the novel by Eric Garcia and set amidst the sunlit, 1950s-style architecture of L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, this gently dramatic comedy centers on Roy (Nicolas Cage), a divorcée whose career as a con artist is complicated by: (1) his ongoing struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder, which manifests itself through various quirks and rituals; (2) a wily partner (Sam Rockwell) whose criminal ambitions are greater than Roy suspects; and (3) the arrival of 14-year-old Angela (Alison Lohman), claiming to be the daughter he's never known. Turns out... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nicolas Cage - Sam Rockwell - Alison Lohman Director(s): Ridley Scott DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Critics have universally praised Charlize Theron's performance in Monster, and the praise, for once, is astonishingly deserved. The gorgeous star of The Italian Job and The Cider House Rules vanishes into the character of Aileen Wuornos, a real-life serial killer and prostitute who murdered at least seven men in Florida. Monster traces her relationship with a young woman named Selby (Christina Ricci, The Ice Storm, Buffalo 66), which intertwines with Wuornos's murder spree. This remarkable movie finds compassion for Wuornos but unflinchingly faces her brutal crimes; Theron expresses this woman's horrific life history without softening her terrifying, dead-eyed stare. This is a gripping, devastating performance, a physical and psychological... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Charlize Theron - Christina Ricci - Bruce Dern Director(s): Patty Jenkins DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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While Japan undergoes tumultuous transition to a more Westernized society in 1876-77, The Last Samurai gives epic sweep to an intimate story of cultures at a crossroads. In America, tormented Civil War veteran Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is coerced by a mercenary officer (Tony Goldwyn) to train the Japanese Emperor's troops in the use of modern weaponry. Opposing this "progress" is a rebellion of samurai warriors, holding fast to their traditions of honor despite strategic disadvantage. As a captive of the samurai leader (Ken Watanabe), Algren learns, appreciates, and adopts the samurai code, switching sides for a climactic battle that will put everyone's honor to the ultimate test. All of which makes director Edward Zwick's noble epic eminently worthwhile, even if its... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Edward Zwick DVD Release Date: Released the 04 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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