Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain tells a simple love story, but dresses it up in classical garb so it seems far weightier than it is.

In director Anthony Minghella's hands it becomes even grander, more epic and more sweeping.
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Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain is a stunning, if utterly gut-wrenching and heart-breaking Civil War drama.

I'm wary of even mentioning the U.S. Civil War, one of the bloodiest and most wasteful conflicts in human history. That is because Cold Mountain, more like Gone With The Wind and less like films such as the stalwart Gettysburg or the failed Gods And Generals, does not dwell on the battles. Instead, it is a human saga behind the lines, set among people profoundly affected by, but not actually in, the war.
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