Cold Mountain - Come Back to Me

Cold Mountain has been filled with wonderful scenes and one of my favorite is the one where a letter from Ada is read to Inman by the nurse. It is, I think, my most favorite love letter in a movie. The audience can really feel how Ada long for Inman and Inman too as he listen to the nurse that reads the letter.

This was the letter:

Dear Mr. Inman,

Since you’ve left, time has been measured out in bitter chapters. Last fall, my poor father died. Our farm at Black Cove is abandoned. Every house in this mountain is touched by tragedy. Each day we dread of learning who has fallen, who will not return from this terrible war. And no word from you. Are you alive? I pray to God you are. This war is lost on the battlefield and is being lost twice over by those who stayed behind.

I’m still waiting, as I promised I would. But I find myself alone and at the end of my wits, too embarrassed to keep taking from those who can least afford to give.

My last thread of courage now is to put my faith in you, and to believe I will see you again. So now I say to you, plain as I can. If you are fighting, stop fighting. If you are marching, stop marching. Come back to me. Come back to me is my request.

Full Metal Jacket - Get Some Scene

Full Metal Jacket is one of my favorite movie. I am not sure if it was the first movie I have ever watched but I cannot remember any movie I watched before it. I was around 10 years old, and I watched it in a movie theater. If I remember it correctly, there was a scene where the soldiers entered people’s houses and they inspected every corner. They even shot at the ceiling to make sure no one was hiding there. But, I cannot find a copy with that scene now. I also feel that in my copy now, the scene where the black soldier was shot in the foot was slightly edited. The one I have watched in the theater was more violent because of the blood that burst from the boot.

But, the scene that I always remember was the “get some” scene. It was the scene where Rafterman and Joker were riding a helicopter and the machine gunner was shooting Vietnamese farmers.

Here is my take on that scene:

On the surface, we see that Rafterman was gagging because he was experiencing motion sickness while the machine gunner was shooting farmers. However, the gagging was also showing the audience that he was repulsed by what the gunner was doing. Then the camera cuts to Joker. If we look at Joker’s face we can see that he was avoiding to look at the gunner’s direction. We see that he was avoiding the wind from the open door. However it was also showing the audience that Joker was repulsed by what the gunner was doing. We get that confirmation when Joker turned his head and we see the look on his face. Then, Joker asked the gunner if he shot women and children, the gunner says, “sometimes,” and Rafterman coughed as if to puke. The gunner said, “Ain’t war hell?” and laughed.

When I was attending IYAS, a national writing workshop organized by University of Saint La Salle, I asked a panelist regarding the use of symbols. He said that symbols should not be forced into the story. In the get some scene, the use of imagery was clearly not forced and we understand it immediately when we see it. Of course Full Metal Jacket used many other imagery and some of those needs some in depth analysis. The get some scene does not. It tells us that war is hell in less than three minutes in a way that is not forced and easy to comprehend.