BY LOIS WADSWORTH
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5:10, 7:20 & 9:30 nightly
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coming: THE COOLER
PG-13
returning: THE CREATURE FROM
THE BLACK LAGOON in 3D!!
PHIL BRAY. MIRAMAX, 2003.
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE
ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED FILM
AMORES PERROS
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exact moment of our death...
5:00, 7:30 & 10:00 nightly
Sat & Sun Mat 2:30
R
SCHEDULE FOR 1/8-1/15 • [ ] SATURDAY-SUNDAY ONLY
HARVARD CINEMAS
3161 W. Harvard • Roseburg • 673-6604
*CHASING LIBERTY – PG-13 (1:40) 4:15
INMAN (JUDE LAW) AND
ADA (NICOLE KIDMAN)
MEET IN COLD MOUNTAIN,
NORTH CAROLINA, BEFORE
THE WAR.
Surviving War
At home and on the road home.
6:45 9:10
COLD MOUNTAIN: Directed and written by
ROSEBURG CINEMA 7 1750 NW Hughwood • 673-6604
*BIG FISH – PG-13 (12:55) 3:40 6:25 9:10
*CALENDAR GIRLS – PG-13 (1:40) 4:20 6:50
9:20
COLD MOUNTAIN – R (1:50) 5:10 8:30
LAST SAMURAI – R (1:30) 5:20 8:40
MONA LISA SMILE – PG-13 (12:40) 3:25 6:15
9:00
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN - PG (1:10) 3:35
5:55 8:15
SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE – PG-13
(12:30) 3:15 6:05 8:50
PAYCHECK – PG-13 (2:00) 4:30 7:00 9:30
STARTS 1/16: "ALONG CAME POLLY",
"TORQUE"
www.catheaters.com
AVALON
C I N E M A
2nd & Jackson • Corvallis
"Award-winning
caliber performances
from the entire
cast and stellar
writing/direction
from Sheridan.
What a wonderful
film!"
"No one has ever
told an immigrant
story quite
like this."
IN
AMERICA
% the station agent
PG-13
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Bill Murray
DOLBY in STEREO SURROUND SOUND
$6.50 General • $5.50 Student • $4.50 SC, Matinee & Wed.
752-4161
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v
m
18 JANUARY 8, 2004
Anthony Minghella, based on the novel by Charles
Frazier. Produced by Sydney Pollack, William
Horberg, Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa. Executive
producer Iain Smith. Cinematography, John Seale.
Film Editor, Walter Murch. Production design, Dante
Ferretti. Costumes, Ann Roth. Composer, Gabriel
Yared. Music producer, T-Bone Burnett. Starring
Jude Law (Inman), Nicole Kidman (Ada) and Renée
Zellweger (Ruby). With Eileen Atkins (Maddy),
Brendan Gleeson (Stobrod), Philip Seymour
Hoffman (Veasey), Natalie Portman (Sara), Donald
Sutherland (Reverend Monroe), Giovanni Ribisi
(Junior), Ray Winstone (Teague), Kathy Baker
(Sallie Swanger), James Gammon (Esco Swanger),
Jack White (Pangle), Charlie Hunnam (Bosie).
Miramax Films, 2003. R. 154 minutes.
A
nthony Minghella’s screen adap-
tation of Charles Frazier’s lyrical
novel Cold Mountain is an elegy
for the Civil War — the bloodiest war this
country has ever fought. One man survives
the war and walks a thousand miles to find
the woman he left behind, and a plucky
woman lives through hard times with the
help of unlikely female comrades. Their
stories are told in parallel.
In a good year, at least one film affects
me so deeply that I can’t shake off the
spell it casts, and this year it is Cold
Mountain, which shows the deep suffering
of the people of Appalachia during the
Civil War, as well as realistic battle scenes
and the random killings war masks.
War not only dissolves the fragile infra-
structure of society but also the sense of
common welfare that cements communi-
ties together. The war happened long ago,
but the film is made now, in our newly
uncertain world. Life changes drastically
in war — no currency, nothing to barter or
sell; food production halted; armed vigi-
lantes roaming the country; no transporta-
tion. Social bonds of tolerance, sharing
and helping others fray when people strug-
gle to survive each day, yet pulling togeth-
er is the only way to make it through.
During the Siege of Petersburg,
Virginia, in what is known as the Battle of
the Crater, a horrific scene begins as
Union soldiers dig a tunnel under
Confederate defenses and explode it on
July 30, 1864. The blast creates a crater
135 feet in diameter and kills many
Confederates. In the chaos that follows,
Union soldiers charge into the crater,
instead of around it, where 4,000 of them
are picked off by surviving enemy troops.
Inman (Jude Law) is seriously wound-
ed in the battle. He wakes in a military
hospital to realize he will be sent back to
the front. Before his wounds are healed he
receives a letter from Ada (Nicole
Kidman), whose picture he carries. Ada
asks Inman to come to her, to help her.
Inman deserts, knowing he’ll pay with his
nearly starves to death before Ruby
(Renée Zellweger) arrives. A tough-talk-
ing, self-reliant mountain woman without
a home, Ruby teaches Ada to build a
fence, the first practical thing that cul-
tured, city-bred Ada has ever made. Ada,
her friend Sallie (Kathy Baker) and Ruby
form a community of civility. Itinerant
musicians, fiddler Stobrod (Brendan
Gleeson) and Pangle (Jack White), bring
music to their lives, but the women are ter-
rorized by Home Guard head honcho,
Teague (Ray Winstone), and his kill-for-
fun sidekick, Bosie (Charlie Hunnam).
The simple beauty of Frazier’s timeless
story, the superior performances by each
RUBY (RENÉE ZELLWEGER)
IS A SELF-RELIANT
MOUNTAIN WOMAN.
PHIL BRAY. MIRAMAX, 2003.
PETER PAN – PG (12:45) 3:25 6:05 8:45
LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF
THE KING – PG-13 (12:00) 4:05 8:10
STARTS 1/16: "TEACHER’S PET"
life if he runs into Union soldiers or the
marauding armed men who claim to “pro-
tect” the civilian population.
Inman’s journey across Appalachia, like
that of Odysseus before him, brings him clos-
er to the natural world, which is neutral
regarding his survival, as well as a few amaz-
ing people. Among them: a man of the flesh
passing as a man of the cloth, Veasey (Philip
Seymour Hoffman); a wild, carnal man who
pimps his wife and her sisters, Junior
(Giovanni Ribisi); a hermit healer, Maddy
(Eileen Atkins); and a homesteader widow
with a sick baby, Sara (Natalie Portman).
Meanwhile, Ada writes to Inman and
actor, landscapes made more magical
through John Seales’ cinematography, and
Anthony Minghella’s overarching vision
bring Cold Mountain into the best picture
of 2003 range.
Ignore critics who tell you not to go.
They’re just pissed at Harvey Weinstein
and Miramax Pictures’ annual Oscar push
and too cowardly to admit it. They serve
the public poorly. If you love the movie, as
I do, read or re-read the book for its lucid,
unforgettable language. Now playing at
Cinemark and Cinema World, Cold
Mountain gets my very highest recom-
mendation.
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