Legends of the Fall (film)
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Legends of the Fall is a 1994 drama film based on the 1979 novella of the same title by Jim Harrison. It was directed by Edward Zwick and stars Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Aidan Quinn. The film won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, but it did not do as well as expected at the box office.[1]
The movie's timeframe spans the decade before World War I through the Prohibition Era, and into the 1930s, ending with a brief scene set in 1963. The film centers on the Ludlow family of Montana, including veteran of the Indian Wars Colonel Ludlow, his three sons Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel, and object of the brothers' love, Susannah.[1]
Cast
Anthony Hopkins as Col. William Ludlow
Gordon Tootoosis as One Stab
Brad Pitt as Tristan Ludlow
Aidan Quinn as Alfred Ludlow
Henry Thomas as Samuel Ludlow
Paul Desmond as Decker
Tantoo Cardinal as Pet Decker
Karina Lombard as Isabel Two Decker Ludlow
Julia Ormond as Susannah Fincannon Ludlow
John Novak as James O'Banion
Robert Wisden as John T. O'Banion
Plot
Colonel William Ludlow, sick of the betrayals the United States government has perpetrated on the Native Americans, retires with One Stab, a Native American friend and narrator of the film, along with his hired hand Decker, Decker's Cree wife, Pet, and their young daughter, Isabel Two, to a remote part of Montana, where he builds a ranch. His wife, Isabel, does not adapt well to the harsh winters and leaves for the East Coast. Colonel Ludlow has three sons: Alfred, the eldest, is responsible and cautious; Tristan is wild and well versed in American Indian traditions; the youngest, Samuel, is educated but naive and is constantly watched over by his brothers.
At about age 12, Tristan tries to hunt a wild bear. He is injured but manages to cut a claw off the bear's paw, and the bear flees. As the boys grow up, Samuel returns from Harvard College with his fianceé, Susannah Fincannon. She finds Tristan's wild and charismatic personality captivating, and she is conflicted over this because she loves Samuel. Before the two can marry, Samuel abruptly tells his family he is leaving for Canada to join the Canadian army, and help England in the fight against Germany. Much to their father's displeasure, Alfred and Tristan go off to war with him.
During World War I, the brothers find themselves in an infantry unit. Alfred, commissioned as an officer, leads a charge in a large battle scene, possibly an offensive during the 2nd Battle of Ypres (see below), although the date in the narration is given as February 1915, rather than the actual date of April-May. Tristan abandons his own unit to be by Samuel's side. The attack is repulsed with heavy casualties, and Alfred is wounded. While visiting Alfred in the field hospital, Tristan learns that Samuel has volunteered for a dangerous reconnaissance mission. He rushes off frantically to find his younger brother but arrives too late to save him from machine gunners. He holds Samuel until he dies and then cuts out his heart, later sent home to his father for burial purposes. (The viewer is left to assume that this is an Indian tradition that Tristan learned from Stab -- cutting out the heart freed his spirit per the beginning of the movie) Soon after, Tristan sneaks behind enemy lines. He returns to camp the following morning with the scalps of many German soldiers hanging around his neck. He is discharged from army service but cannot go home yet. (A scene on the DVD, deleted from the theatrical version, shows him as a patient in a psychiatric hospital.) Alfred returns to Montana and proposes marriage to Susannah, but she declines.
Tristan returns home, where eventually, he and Susannah become lovers. A jealous Alfred confronts Tristan and later leaves to make his name in Helena. Tristan's relationship with Susannah is doomed by his guilt and pain over failing to protect Samuel, as well as his feelings of responsibility for driving Alfred away. These demons force him to leave the family home, and they chase him all over the globe. Back at the ranch, Susannah waits for him. Finally, she receives a letter from him: "Everything we had is dead, as I am dead. Marry another." Alfred finds her weeping on the porch and tries to comfort her. Colonel Ludlow walks out onto the porch to find Aldfred soothing Susannah, and the two have a huge falling out. The old man has a stroke that night. He doesn't speak for years, and the ranch goes to seed. Eventually Susannah agrees to marry Alfred, who is now a congressman. Alfred's politics cause him to become embroiled with the O'Banion brothers, Irish-American gangsters.
Tristan finally returns from his world travels during Prohibition, bringing life back to the ranch and his father. He accepts Susannah's marriage to Alfred, falls in love with and marries Isabel Two, and they have two children. Life seems to settle into an air of normalcy as Tristan finds solace in his young wife and children. During Prohibition, Tristan becomes involved in smuggling bootleg liquor and finds himself at odds with the O'Banion brothers, who are also bootleggers. Tristan's wife is accidentally killed by a corrupt police officer working for the O'Banions and in a fit of agonized grief, Tristan beats the officer and serves time in jail. Susannah visits, but Tristan refuses her advances and insists she "go home to Alfred," her rightful husband. After his release from jail, Tristan and his father-in-law kill those responsible for Isabel Two's death. Haunted by her own demons, Susannah then commits suicide out of guilt and inner conflicts. When the remaining O'Banion brother comes for Tristan, he and his men are shot and killed by Colonel Ludlow, then Alfred when Tristan steps in to save his father. Alfred is finally forgiven by and reunited with his father and brother. Tristan, knowing he will be blamed for the men's disappearance, leaves for the mountain country, after asking Alfred to watch over his children. The film skips ahead, showing the gravestones of all those in Tristan's life who died before him. Now an old man in 1963, Tristan is fatally attacked in the mountains by a bear.
References
Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legends_of_the_Fall
