Adapting words to picture is often the hardest task for a film-maker. The portrayal of the true characteristics and feelings of each character will almost certainly change due to the wider audience the movie is reaching out too. In the novel, the writer attempts to fully develop each situation with every twist and turn that follows it, while in the film the ideas are dulled down in order to reach an audience more interested in visual stimulation. The movie Cold Mountain, by Anthony Minghella, is fairly accurate in depicting the true aspects of the book; however the most noticeable contrast between film and novel is character development. Considering it would be difficult to fully develop each character in the movie due to time constraints, there are still some differences included in the film to make it more interesting to its viewers.
One of the most visible changes in the film version is the ending. In the novel Inman and Stobrod find the Home Guard and kill them quickly, excluding Birch who escapes shortly until getting shot in a duel with Inman. It is a minute portion of the novel’s ending and depicted solely as Inman’s death. In the film, the entire story leads up to a final battle scene between the Home Guard and all of the major characters, including Ada and Ruby. These changes were made to heighten the suspense of the final conflict. The film producers needed some way to tie in all of the main characters and their relationships developed in the film, and this was it. One of the characters who changes from novel to film is Teague, the leader of the Home Guard. In the movie he is characterized as a stalker of Ada after her father dies, as he will occasionally stop by and make cruel remarks to intimidate her. This could have been done to develop a tension between the two characters leading up to the final scene, where Ada attacks Teague and assists in his death. If Ada had not been a part of this battle, the conflict between...