"She was like the water that freezes inside a rock and breaks it apart. It was no more her fault than it is the fault of the water when the rock shatters." – One Stab, Legends of the Fall
If you ever find yourself with 2 hours and 7 minutes to fill, and want a front seat on the sort of emotional rollercoaster that will leave you weepy and drained, then look no further than Legends of the Fall.
It has all of the elements that are needed for a real epic. Stunning scenery well thought out characters, a story that spans decades, war, death, passion, madness and most of all tonnes of insight into the human condition. If my description alone doesn’t do it for you, well it also won the 1995 Oscar for Cinematography, and was nominated for 8 other awards, so that gives you an idea of quality.
Plot outline *************** From the 17th century onwards wars were fought between the indigenous people of America and the colonial Amercian powers. This continued until 1890 and the Battle of Wounded Knee, the last major armed conflict between the Dakota Indians and the US Government Army.
Colonel William Ludlow (played by Anthony Hopkins), a veteran of these wars, and totally sickened by his own government's actions, decides to leave military life and retire to the remote lands of Montana. He takes with him his life long friend, a Native American named One Stab (played by Gordon Tootoosis) One Stab is the omnipotent narrator whose wise words we hear throughout the film.
The
back story is given that Colonel Ludlows wife, Isobel, found the winters too harsh on the their new ranch home, and so after many years of raising their three sons together, she leaves to move back to west coast America, although the Ludlows remain married and correspond frequently over the years. This leaves Colonel Ludlow to look after his three sons with One Stab, a white man named Decker his Native American wife Pet, and their daughter Isobel Two.
At the start we learn that the middle son, Tristan, has always been wild and wayward, and more in tune with One Stab and the ways of the native Americans, than with his own peoples. This is conveyed through a scene where a young Tristan (maybe 12 or 13) steals out into the dangerous woodland around the ranch at night, and has a run in with an old bear. During this, the bear lashes out at him, wounding him badly, but Tristan manages to dig his knife into the bears paw, and in doing so cuts off one of its claws. He is later rescued by his father, Decker and One Stab, who concludes in his narrative, that the voice of the bear was always loud in Tristan from that point.
Fast forward many years and we watch a scene of a steam train drawing into a station, and the youngest Ludlow son, Samuel, coming back from college to present his fiancée Susannah Finncannon, to his father and brothers. Waiting on the platform, Colonel Ludlow and his eldest son, Alfred (played by Aidan Quinn) are both obviously delighted to see Samuel, and are subsequently stunned by the beauty of Susannah, and the sheer size of her pet Irish wolfhound. Samuel (played by Henry Thomas) seems much younger than Susannah, who is played wonderfully by Julia Ormond. His rabbit in the headlight demeanor shows the viewer that he is truly stunned to have found himself engaged to such a woman. We learn from the narrator that although Susannah appears worldly, her loss of family early in life has left her fragile underneath the façade. At this point the conversation turns to why Tristan hasn’t come to meet his brother's train, and Colonel Ludlow comments that he expects him there or he'll want to know why. With that we see a horse and rider appear in the distance, and coming closer see that it is Tristan, (played by Brad Pitt) Springing from his horse, long hair bouncing, Tristan hugs his brother, who he obviously adores, and then turns to Susannah. There is a tangible sense of chemistry between the two from first glance. The viewer knows at this point, as someone once sang, ' there may be trouble ahead' and that would quite frankly be an understatement. Oblivious to anything going on Samuel tells his elder brother that he stinks and asks, 'hung-over?' to which Tristan grins and replies 'still drunk'. The more chivalrous and serious Alfred tuts and the family heads off together.
There is a wonderful scene which follows that shows the happy family having a picnic, at which a photo is taken of all smiling and carefree.
Back at the ranch, Susannah quickly settles into the family, and we see scenes of her playing tennis dressed in the cumbersome long white dress of the time with Alfred and Samuel. We also see her shooting a gun, and learning to lasso cattle as she boisterously throws herself about on her horse, long dark curls bouncing wildly, as the colonel and sons look on impressed.
On one such occasion, Samuel confides in his brother Tristan that Susannah is some what passionate of nature. There is a humorous exchange between brothers as Samuel blushingly admits that he is still a virgin, and wonders whether he can wait for marriage before 'being with' his Fiancée as he puts it. At this his somewhat coarser brother laughingly asks whether Samuel plans to 'f@ck her' ' God lord Tristan' is the response in reply.
There is a sense during this stage of the film that this happy time won't be sustained, and sure enough it isn’t.
Without wanting to give away too many crucial details of the film, the First World War breaks out, and Samuel is desperate to sign up for duty. Much to his father's horror and disgust. Nothing can be done to persuade Samuel otherwise, and so he signs up.
The night before he is due to leave for the war, a distraught Susannah finds herself alone with Tristan, and breaks down in tears at the thought of her beloved going to fight, and possibly dying. She goes to Tristan, who holds her tenderly and tries to calm her down. But the tension between them is there, and with faces inches from each other the scene is interrupted by a shocked Alfred who sees what was about to happen and storms out leaving the pair mortified.
The following day all three brothers head off for duty, accompanied by One Stab, to bring back their horses at the Canadian border.
Susannah remains behind on the ranch with Colonel Ludlow.
I won't give anything else away as I truly love this film and want you to discover the details for yourself. Suffice to say I find it one of the most moving films of all times, and I defy any woman to watch a certain scene in the film and not cry at least a little.
My heart always goes out to the sensible, long suffering Alfred, who in my view has the best line in the whole film ' I followed all of the rules, man's and God's. And you, you followed none of them. And they all loved you more. Samuel, Father, and my... even my own wife'
Now go and buy this film now!!!
Thank you for reading
Shoka
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melodrama may get sillier as its plot progresses, but it's the kind of lusty, character-based epic that Hollywood should attempt more often. It's also an unabashedl...
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