Legends of the Fall **** (1994, Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Henry Thomas, Julia Ormond) – Classic Movie Review 688

Director Edward Zwick’s 1994 moving, beautifully crafted, old-style romantic adventure epic tale of three brothers and their father living in the American 1900s wilderness details how their lives are affected by nature, history, war and love.

Brad Pitt is at his most dashing and handsome as Tristan Ludlow and Anthony Hopkins impresses too as his father, Colonel William Ludlow. Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas are the two other brothers, Alfred and Samuel, and Julia Ormond plays Susannah Fincannon, the crucial woman in the saga.

In screenplay by Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff, based on the novel by Jim Harrison, family patriarch Colonel Ludlow decides to raise his three sons  in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, away from government and society. When young Samuel returns from college he brings with him his beautiful fiancée, Susanna.

But the eldest son, Alfred, finds himself in love with her, and then he is shocked to discover a growing passion between Susanna and the wild Tristan. As the brothers plan to set out for Europe to fight in World War One, they are being torn apart.

The film won a single Oscar – for John Toll’s remarkable Best Cinematography, but the sumptuous Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Lilly Kilvert, Dorree Cooper) was also acknowledged with a nomination.

Jim Harrison, the author of Legends of the Fall, died on 26 March 2016 at his home in Patagonia, Arizona, aged 79.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 688

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