The Difference Between the Movie Cold Mountain and the Book By Charles Frazier

Adapting words to picture is often the hardest task of a movie-maker. Ask any die-hard Tolkien enthusiast what he or she thought of the Lord of the Rings movies and there will probably be harsh words thrown towards Peter Jackson. Cold Mountain, the movie, succeeds in most aspects of staying true to the book, written by Charles Frazier, it is based on. The sharpest contrasts between the two mediums, though, come in the form of the characters and how they are portrayed in the movie. The producers make these alterations, most notably seen in Burch and Ruby, though, to create a stirring and emotional climax: the "final fight scene."

In the novel, this event is merely glanced over, as it only takes a few gunshots for Inman to do away with Teague's crew. Inman, with only a non-functioning Stobrod in his fight with the Home Guard, is almost made to look like some sort of action hero The movie, however, portrays it as an intricate sequence involving all of the main characters; Ruby and Ada involve themselves in the action, as does Georgia Boy.

These changes were made to heighten the suspense of this final conflict. The producers needed something to tie in all of the relationships developed throughout the film. For example, in the movie, Teague is characterized almost as a stalker of Ada when Monroe dies. He purposely encounters her in the church and on her property and makes subtle, cruel passes at her. This character conflict would seem open-ended if Ada was not a part of the shootout.

Teague is one of a few characters who are depicted in a different light in the movie. One of the most obvious of these is Burch, a member of Teague's Home Guard. Burch's characterization in the novel can be summed up through a passage after he has shot and killed Inman.

"[Burch] sat and looked at [Inman] and then looked at the pistol in his hand and said, They God. As if he had not reckoned at all on it functioning as it had."

Burch is supposed to be received as a naive boy who has just not learned the horrors of war and of murder. Not exactly sure of what he's doing, Burch is used as a continuation of the motif of the "loss of innocence," the change we all encounter sometime in life when we feel we can't go back to the way things were.

This is a far cry from "Movie Burch." In the film, the boy is played as a cocky, brash teenager you cannot feel a bit of remorse for. The scene that best exemplifies this is the Home Guard's raid of the Swanger household. They tie Sally Swanger to a fence, with her thumbs caught in between two piece of it to lure her two sons, war runaways, out of hiding. Burch performs a balancing act on the fence post, applying pressure until the boys come sprinting out of the shed. Burch calmly back flips off of the fence and shoots one of them out of the air.

Why is it that the antagonists in the book are made to be so much eviler the movie? Even if Teague does hunt men in the novel, he is only doing his job. In the film, he is a manipulative egomaniac. It comes down to the age-old idea that "good versus evil" sells, that audiences love for their heroes to win against their opposition. That is why pity-inducing, young child Burch would not cut it with the directors and producers of the movie. It is also why scenes like Teague's encounters with Ada need to be added; you hate the characters even more after them. Consequently, you respond more when they are dealt with at the end of the film.

The character that is depicted most accurately in the film version is Ruby, the hard-working, earnest and troubled young woman that is sent by the Swanger's to assist Ada on her farm. Just like in the novel, the movie captures the teachings the girls give to one another; Ada learns from Ruby how to take care of herself, while getting her to open up in the process.

Ruby's reasons for being as serious as she is stem from the same sources in both versions of the story. Ruby was the child of a bum named Stobrod who occasionally beat her. He was also a drunk, so Ruby learned early in life to live independently. She equates working constantly to surviving, but in the process, she has never known living.

Her relationship with Stobrod flourishes in both mediums. The movie not only demonstrates Ruby's disdain for her father when he shows back up at the farm, but her realization that Stobrod is a changed man. She makes the decision in both pieces to find Stobrod in the woods when he is shot by the Home Guard.

These emotions coupled with the emergence of Georgia Boy, a member of Stobrod's haphazard band, bring Ruby to feel love, something that has evaded her for so long. This comes to a head at the battle scene, when Ruby finds out that Georgia Boy has been tortured for information. Even though this segment of story was absent in the novel, it stays true to the characterization: Ruby has finally accepted herself and now has the ability to feel.

Producers and directors make adaptations for a reason: to bring a novel to the big screen in the best, most entertaining way. Sometimes novel readers will not agree with all of the minor tweaks that are made to the story. The men behind Cold Mountain have tried to minimize the complaints on both sides of the book versus movie issue, and have made a great piece of cinema in the process.

Works Cited

Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. Grove Press, 2006.

Cold Mountain. Miramax Home Entertainment.