Cold Mountain (2003)

running time 152 mins
production company: Miramax

written by Anthony Minghella from the novel by Charles Frazier
directed by Anthony Minghella

Movie's Official Website

The Cold Mountain trailer is now online. It has a brief shot of Ray, and you can hear his voice on the soundtrack.
You can watch the trailer here.

Report on Ray at the UK Royal Premiere in Dec:

Winstone, who has appeared with [Jude] Law in previous films, joked: "He drives you mad. He just goes on like an old woman. He was a fantastic. It's the third or fourth time I've worked with him, he follows me everywhere."

Speaking of [Anthony] Minghella [the director], he added: "He put his whole life and soul into it, but he never let you feel that, which is a great testament to him."

Prince Charles also met Winstone, and enquired as to how he had mastered an American accent. "I'm going to find out tonight," Winstone said, revealing that he had yet to watch himself in his latest picture.

Charlie Hunnam on Ray from The Oregonian:

Hunnam praises writer-director Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley"), and co-stars, specifically Ray Winstone, who plays the head Home Guard bad guy. "He's an old boxer from the East End," Hunnam says of Winstone, best known as the would-be retired safecracker in "Sexy Beast." "He's a genuine tough guy."

Matt Zoller Seitz comments in New York Press:

Ray Winstone and Charlie Hunnam are scary as the leaders of the Home Guard, a band of old or physically unsuitable men deputized to keep watch over the home front while the young fighting men are gone. But they’re scary in that cornball, Dirty Harry villain way. They don’t truly represent historical forces, social pathologies or particular human weaknesses; they’re just big meanies.

Robert Horton in The Herald writes:

British actor Ray Winstone (the wonderful gangster of "Sexy Beast") shared most of Hunnam's scenes. "I couldn't think of a better actor than Ray to hang out with," Hunnam remembered, adding they spent much time with the performers who play the musicians in the film, including Irish veteran Brendan Gleeson.

At one point, with a 3-week hiatus in production, the actors were "stuck up a mountainside in Transylvania. The nearest movie theater was seven hours away.

"So by 10 o'clock, all the instruments were out, and the music was playing. By 2, we were dancing on tables. I like to drink, but Ray and Brendan have been drinking for 25 years, so I'm not as professional as them."

Anthony Quinn in The Independent writes:

I wasn't convinced, either, by Ray Winstone's impersonation of a bully from the Home Guard who leads a murderous pursuit of deserters; the cockney vowels keep slipping through the Southern drawl. On the other hand, Winstone does get one of the best scenes in the movie: having hunted down a fugitive fiddle-player (Brendan Gleason) and his pals to a lonely mountain clearing, he hesitates over their execution when he finds himself moved by an old folk tune recalled from better days. Even in his flinty heart music can strike off sparks of humanity.

Calendarlive (subscription only) writes: In smaller roles, Ray Winstone and Charlie Hunnam, both unrecognizable, are excellent.

John Boonstra of Valley Advocate writes: Teague (Ray Winstone, eminently hissable), a proto-fascist Home Guard officer who covets her body and her property.

Mark Hinson of Tallahassee Democrat writes: Hidden beneath a woolly beard, veteran English character actor Ray Winstone ("Sexy Beast") is nearly unrecognizable in his menacing turn as the reprehensible leader of the all-powerful Home Guard on Cold Mountain.

Tim Hager of zwire.com writes: Winstone plays the evil Teague, head of the local militia, because every movie needs a bad guy. I liked the way Winstone kept Teague's motivations secret, so you were never sure if he wanted Ada or her land. In reality, bad guys rarely tell you what they are thinking.

Below is a selection of reviews:

Financial Times (UK)
The Telegraph (UK)
The Independent (UK)
The Guardian and Observer (UK)
The Times (UK)

Orange County Weekly
Chicago Tribune
FilmJerk.com
espmagazine.com
NYPress
Rediff.com
Washington Times
The Seattle Times
Tallahassee Democrat
Theage.com.au

Internet Movie Database Entry

ZReview page