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For years my husband has been telling me I need to watch 1994’s Legends of the Fall. We’ve owned the DVD almost the whole time we’ve been married, but for one reason or another I’ve never seen this movie. Until this weekend, that is. Did I like it? Well…keep reading.

The movie opens during the Trail of Tears in the Dakotas, when General William Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins) has thrown in the towel in protest of the treatment of the Native Americans. Thoroughly fed up with the United States government and the trappings of the East, William moves his family out to a ranch in Montana Territory, where he builds a well-appointed cabin and lives a pretty luxurious life.

His three sons and his wife have different ideas, though. Isabel (Christina Pickles) dislikes the Montana winters so every year she goes back East. One year she doesn’t come back, and William is left to raise their three sons on his own. Albert (Aidan Quinn) is the dependable one, looking out for his brothers. Tristan (Brad Pitt) is the wild child, learning how to hunt and track from family friend One Stab (Gordon Tootoosis). Samuel (Henry Thomas) is the fanciful dreamer who goes back East to school and meets Susannah (Julia Ormond), a beautiful Englishwoman who becomes his fiancee.

Susannah seems to fit in very well when Samuel brings her out to the ranch. She can hunt, ride, and lasso with the best of them, and while she’s Samuel’s fiancee, the inevitable happens as it always does when marriageable albeit isolated guys are in constant contact with the one marriageable woman within fifty miles. However, Albert and Tristan look but don’t touch.

Well, I take it back. When the First World War starts, Samuel decides to join the Canadian army. Susannah is against it, but Samuel’s mind is made up, and Albert and Tristan join as well to keep an eye on him. Right before they leave Albert catches Tristan consoling Susannah in a passionate embrace.

Albert, Tristan, and Samuel are never the same after their war service. Samuel gets killed, Albert gets wounded, and Tristan is discharged after avenging his brother’s death by scalping several Germans. The latter decides not to come home right away because he’d rather take to the sea first. Albert tries and fails to take Samuel’s place with Susannah so he strikes out on his own, and William has a stroke.

The family fractures further when Tristan, who’s been Susannah’s lover, decides to go back to sea and eventually sends a letter to Susannah, telling her to act as if he’s dead and marry someone else. William can’t believe his golden boy would be such a jerk even though Albert sticks the letter right under his nose.

Tristan, when he finally does come back for the second time, is dismayed to find out Susannah has married Albert even though he was the one to let her go, but things aren’t over for any of them yet. Isabel Two (Karina Lombard), the daughter of ranchhand Decker (Paul Decker) and his wife, Pet (Tantoo Cardinal), becomes Tristan’s wife, and while Tristan seems happy for  a while, the Ludlow family still has a lot to gain and a lot to lose.

So. How did I like the movie? It’s very manly. It’s got a lot of pluses. The scenery is spectacular and used to great advantage. The acting is superb; particularly Anthony Hopkins, who gives an awe-inspiring performance, despite, or perhaps because of, acting with only half his face for a good chunk of the movie.

Overall, however, Legends of the Fall is Brad Pitt’s show, as it came out when Pitt was in his prime and the movie plays up his hotness in every way it can. I was in high school at the time so I remember it well. Seventeen and YM published stills from the film as often as possible even though most of us readers were too young to see it in the theaters.

The Pitt sell job works so well, even today, that it’s easy to overlook some of the historical liberties the film takes. Well, for me, it was two bits in particular: Tristan got to keep his flowing blonde locks while in the Canadian army and could somehow navigate through a cloud of mustard gas without dying or even wincing. So in addition to being hot, he’s also Superman. That’s pretty impressive.

Well, in most respects. My favorite character was Albert, a good guy who gets a raw deal even though he does well socially and financially. He not only loses the people closest to him in one way or another, but he’s the one who’s always having to pick up the pieces. I felt bad for Albert because he didn’t deserve any of the garbage he had to put up with.

Legends of the Fall’s biggest flaw, though, is the pacing. The movie hops from event to event with some scenery in between, and It Never Ends. It would have been better as a miniseries or a two-part film series instead of trying to squish everything into two hours plus change.

The film is based on Jim Harrisons’s novella, which was published in the January 1979 issue of Esquire. What’s different between the novella and the film? Plenty. Isabel is more involved with her family on a personal basis instead of just writing letters from the East; in fact, the characters, including Susannah, go out to see her in Boston regularly and aren’t as isolated on the ranch as in the film. It’s typical Edwardian stuff–Isabel takes lovers, usually a different one every year, and no one bats an eye.

Most of the main points in the movie are also in the novella, but in some sense the characters are even more shadowy and the reader is held at arm’s length as there’s no dialogue anywhere. It felt as if Harrison was going for a Washington Irving vibe, where he relates the events in his stories but doesn’t put the reader squarely into them. Fireworks don’t seem to be as prevalent in the novella, either, as quiet acceptance seems to be the order of the day.

Tristan is still the main event, but he’s slightly less wild and actually does right by Susannah, marrying her instead of simply being her lover. Then again, that doesn’t negate him running off to sea and leaving her; from either angle it seems flaky. I still couldn’t figure out if I liked Tristan or not. He does a lot of brooding but doesn’t seem to learn much. Tristan is eccentric and wants what he wants, leaving Albert to be the steadfast and dependable brother. Isabel Two sort of reforms him, but only just. Once she’s out of the picture, their children become subject to Tristan’s whims until they grow up.

Both the novella and the movie end when they end, with Tristan (spoiler alert) maintaining his lone wolf persona until he meets what One Stab calls “a good death.” Legends of the Fall might be enjoyable in spots and even compelling, but relief comes easy when it’s over.

For more on-the-spot picks, please click here. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you tomorrow for the Wrap-up…

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Legends of the Fall is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Amazon.

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