Legends Of The Fall

Edward Zwick is a director well-versed in the modern Hollywood spectacle (e.g. Glory,1989 and The Last Samurai, 2003). Here, with the help of John Toll’s evocatively picturesque cinematography and James Horner’s lush score he delivers an elegiac Western melodrama that despite being unremittingly, even embarrassingly, manipulative is at least enjoyable on that level, one which might be called “the bleeding obvious”.

Legends of the Fall tells the story of the Ludlows, well-to-do ranchers in Montana in the 1920s. Anthony Hopkins, in an unusual but effective performance plays the paterfamilias Col. Ludlow, once an officer in the US Army who quit in disgust with its treatment of the Indian Nations. He has turned his back on civilization and lives in rural tranquility with his three sons: Alfred (Aidan Quinn), Tristan (Brad Pitt) and Samuel (Henry Thomas). They are a close knit family but when Sam comes home with his bride-to-be (Julia Ormond) they welcome her with open arms to their inner circle. The idealistic Sam decides, against his father’s wishes, to sign up for the US Army to fight in WWI. His devoted brothers go along with him but their best efforts can’t stop him being killed. Despite the heart-break life back at the ranch goes on and Alfred tries to take Sam’s place in Susannah’s heart but she’d rather be with Tristan. Love stinks and then some.

The traumatised Tristan’s comings-and-goings are the structuring device for the narrative which spans many years (over which Tristan doesn’t age a day). In what can deservedly be described as “woman’s” Western, Pitt with his long, golden locks and designer cowboy duds looks probably as gorgeous as he ever could and has at least as many, if not more, fetishistic close-ups than Ormond who herself has an appealing Isabella Rossellini-like beauty (and a surprisingly well-stocked wardrobe).

One of the problems with a set-up like this is how do you suggest earth-shaking passion when your protagonists are a) so beautiful and b) so obvious in their romantic preferences The script by Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff suggests a certain star-crossed quality to the love between Tristan and Susannah but for all their good looks Pitt and Ormond don’t really generate much heat.

For most audiences for this film however good looks will be enough and there's a surfeit of them to be had here.

 

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