Database Correction Page

Record number: 9621

Title: Cold Mountain (2003)
Medium: Movie
Actress: Natalie Portman

Description: At one point, Natalie Portman is tied hands behind her back to a pole outside of her house when soldiers invade it. The scene lasts about a minute (maybe a little longer). She is then untied by a soldier and taken into her house where he plans to rape her but fortunately Jude Law saves the her in time.

Okay, we have to take the extraneous article "the" out of the last sentence before we add anything, but (ahem, ahem) moving on, how do you feel about adding Kathy Baker's torture scene about half an hour before Portman's performance? For those of you who haven't seen the movie, Baker plays the mother of a couple of Confederate deserters who are holed up in her house, hiding from the marauding Home Guard, who are charged with rounding up-or,at their whim, summarily shooting-any who have abandoned the Lost Cause a little early. Eventually they come calling at chez Baker, and we're treated to a dapper gent in shiny black boots dancing a jig atop a split-rail fence, the final step of which elicits a scream-from Baker, who lies beneath him with her thumbs jammed over her head between the rails and a noose around her neck, the other end of which is being manipulated by the squad's commander. The screams and the leader's taunts are meant, of course, to draw her sons out of the house and into gun range.

Granted, there's no bondage in the traditional sense, but it's not like she can get up and walk away-and certainly not like her character doesn't want to! I think we can make a better case for adding this than was made for Wende Wagner's stuck-on-a-conveyor-belt scene in a Green Hornet episode that didn't make the cut-at least as far as the Moderator was concerned. As he pointed out, Wagner ended up in her predicament somewhat accidentally, while here we have a case where the victim is clearly being intentionally physically held captive and tortured-the fact she's not tied up notwithstanding. Why don't a few of you watch the sequence and give us a yea or nay?

Also, in the DVD extras, Portman's scene is dissected in a split-screen sequence consisting of the video from the movie and its corresponding storyboards. Very interesting, if I should say so myself! I've got edit access to the database, but I'll hold off on any of this until we've got a consensus. Should one be reached before I drop in again, however, Baker's scene is at about an hour and twenty minutes, and Portman's about a half-hour later, at around 1:50.