Tim Samoff // Weblog

Last night, my wife and I pulled a double-feature. Ok, ok ok… We didn’t only pay for one movie and then sneak into another. We also took our dinner to eat during the previews of the first movie! I feel so bad about it too… Not.

Beyond our many shenanigans, though, last night was unintentionally ironic. Our first film was Cold Mountain, starring Nicole Kidman, followed shortly after by The Last Samurai, with Tom Cruise. Wait. No! That’s got to be planned! Nope. We didn’t even think about it. I swear. Not only were both of these films dramatic period epics that took place, roughly, a decade or so apart, but they were both about war, they were both around two-and-a-half hours long, and, well…the stars of the two films used to sort of know each other, right?

Cold Mountain co-starred a man who wouldn’t let war kill him before he could return home to his loved one. The Last Samurai starred a man who would not let war kill him until he found his honor. Both men fought in the Civil War. I could go on…

But, despite the various similarities, these two films were, in fact, quite different. And, while I enjoyed both of them immensely, I think my pick for favorite will have to go to Cold Mountain. Cold Mountain contained so much stark emotional content that I felt myself taken back to the time of the Civil War — to the lives of the people involved — almost completely. The Last Samurai, while beatifully shot and masterfully produced, just didn’t totally take me there. I loved a few of the characters in The Last Samurai (namely, most of the Samurai themselves), but I came to love every character in Cold Mountain.

I highly recommend seeing both of these films.

So, while I’m on the subject of movies, I must mention one of my new favorites: Northfork. Julianna and I rented this film Thursday night. I’m not going to say too much about it, because I would like you to go rent it. It is the last in a trilogy of films about life in North America by the Polish Brothers (Michael & Mark). If you’ve ever had to suffer through loss, as we have recently, this movie is amazingly revealing. The writing was flawless. The acting was impeccable. While Northfork wouldn’t ever be considered an epic, I think that it is one; an epic of the soul.

Northfork was independently produced and it deserves your attention.

Three great movies in two days… How cool is that?