“The men of the Ludlow family. A woman’s grace brought them together. Then her passion tore them apart.”
Legends of the Fall is an epic drama about the three Ludlow brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness in the 1900’s. Alfred (Aidan Quinn) , Tristan (Brad Pitt) and Samuel (Henry Thomas) are very different brothers who are quite content to live a life of little concern for the real world on their ranch-style home. Their father, Col. Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins ) and Susannah (Julia Ormand) make up the main characters and around whom the story continuously revolves.
Alfred is the eldest brother that has aspirations and illusions of grandeur, always wants his family’s approval and who is the most “grounded” of the three brothers. Samuel, the youngest, is the one with illusions of grandeur of a different sort. He defies his father and leads his brothers in the war in which he loses his life. The story truly begins with him. He is the love interest of Susannah, who each brother wants for himself. Samuel is the sweet, intellectual and spiritual one. When he is killed in the war, several things happen:
Tristan takes his brother’s death personally because he could not save him from being killed and, in fact, watched his brother be riddled with bullets. With his long hair and even wilder behavior, he is in constant search for the meaning of life and how all relates to his brother’s death. Tristan also has a passionate affair with Susannah. That eventually ends as he continues his search for his lost soul.
After his brother’s death, Alfred tries to assume Samuel’s role as a suitor to Susannah and again after Tristan leaves and fails miserably even when after many years, she does choose to marry him, the last brother and her last hope. Alfred does not care if to Susannah loves him, he wants what Samuel and Tristan had.
Legends of the Fall begins to tell the story more definitively of these three brothers and as each goes through their growth, their father ages with grief and finally has a stroke. With the news that Alfred will be leading a life of politics, he is outcast, his cronies linked with organized crime. The remaining brothers and father’s relationships once close are now very strained and in some cases not even communicative.
After all three brothers have a different life experience and relationship with Susannah, comes the third part of the epic. The reconciliation.
I’ll stop here because this is a movie to experience and not just read about. Each character has great depth and detail as an epic story should. The tragedy and passion are really deep and the background: views, natural ambiance and authenticity are truly grand. The final stage of the story ends in a way that we are both emotionally drained with sadness and grief and at the same time applauding the actions as each one grows, progressively stronger than they had been in the beginning.
This is one movie that I came upon in my vast collection of movies and just happened to play it. I found myself glued to the TV and consider it to be an all time great film. It is long and truly an epic. For an afternoon, a great way to spend time.
By the way, the other movie listed in this topic is not the same! Legends of the Fall earned several academy awards and nominations!!!