Novel Versus Film
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Cold Mountain was originally a Civil War novel written by Charles Frazier. Director Anthony Minghella takes this best-selling novel and tries to retell the story through a motion picture. Cold Mountain tells the story of Inman, a wounded confederate soldier who is on a death-defying journey home to his mountain community, with the hopes of finally reuniting with his pre-war sweetheart, Ada. Ada, caught in the middle of the Civil War struggle, tries to revive her father's farm with the help of Ruby, a friend of the Swangers. Like any other movie that is based on a novel, there are bound to be distinct similarities and differences between the two. There are even some differences that are more surprising than others, which may lead to which version of the story was better than the other.
As far as the contrast between the movie and the book goes, it's understandable if minor changes are made between the book and the movie, such as the different order of events. For example, in the book Frazier wrote that Inman met the girl in charge of the river crossing before he had met Veasey, and the movie showed that Inman met the river girl after his encounter with Veasey. There was also the part in both movie and the book when Inman and Veasey are captured by the Home Guard, and the prisoners plan to escape from them. In the book, it was supposed to be that the Home Guard shot Veasey and the prisoners, not the Yankees (in the movie, the Yankees saw that there were Confederates caught by the Home Guard and started shooting)...