well you have me there ~ i would rather be trapped in a room strapped to a chair and forced to watch Cold Mountain for eternity than some of what passes off as entertainment these days. hahahahaha ~

as to the cliché of the "men of color" i think it's pretty common for Civil War fiction to include the sympathetic "colored" person. in Cold Mountain you have the native american fighting in Inman's company ~ more often the defender is on the homefront (the old butler who defends the homestead, etc. ~ but mind you, he's not an uncle tom!!!) meh ~ i have no problem with it if it's done well and serves (as it does in Ride with the Devil ~ it's an important part of the story. it's less forgiveable when it's there just for the pc pat.

and just to clarify: any of these clichés are really fine, if done well and plausibly. and i am a huge sucker for all of them, frankly. but when you have this many of them basically forming the backbone of a story (as in Cold Mountain), it's just egregious.

: D