Research - Cold Mountain (:

The first two minutes of Cold Mountain, consists firstly of the advertisements. A voice over comes in at 28 seconds, when the credits are still moving. Her accent is easy to distinguish as American, and she's probably from Tennessee. It sounds as though she is reading a letter because she says she's counted days, weeks, months but nothing anymore, just the hope that somebody will come back to her. There is water on screen, like in a river when the water twirls around, with a faint mountain in the background, possibly reflected. This instantly portrays the title with one simple image.

Violins kick in, as the water ripples out and the mountain disappears behind the title text. The editing includes fade out, when the water disappears, and a fade in when the men come into focus. We see a barrel rolling along the floor, which was probably filmed by a tracking shot.

Plain white, common text appears, setting the scene without an actual establishing shot. The place, which shows what the writing says, is dark, cramped and dirty. The men look as if they're working really hard for something that isn't really worth it. Their clothes suggest that the men are, more than likely, poor and forced into this hard labour. When a mouse appears on screen, this also suggests that they can't live in truly awful conditions because animals can survive there too. Even though, mice are vermin.

Outside is shown with a low, pan shot. A rabbit seems to catch the attention of the camera, and get followed to where the war camp can be seen. The mise en scéne suggests a dark time, not only in the day, but more importantly for humanity. The war's never solved anything, so they put a dullness over the world. The reason for the dark, gloomy day may also be from the bombs which are being dropped, and clouding up the atmosphere.

The field which the rabbit is followed through, seems a mess. This may represent what war is, not just a way to solve nothing and kill lots of innocent people, but a mess. As the camp comes into view more words, in the same font and colour, come up on screen. The text says that people are waiting attack, already suggesting that this film is going to be more about war than romance.


never say goodbye. because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.
- peter pan.