LEGENDS OF THE FALL is a soap opera set on a ranch in Montana at
the turn of the century. It goes from the age of cowboys and Indians
with everybody on horseback to World War I and beyond. It is a large
movie painted on a vast canvas ultimately spanning almost a century.
At the core of the piece is the story of a young man, played by
heartthrob Brad Pitt, his family, friends, and lovers.
The movie starts with his dad (Anthony Hopkins) fighting for
Indian rights by quitting the army in protest. It then immediately
switches to an isolated ranch in some of the most beautiful Montana
landscape you have ever seen. At the ranch are his two brothers (Aidan
Quinn and Henry Thomas) and an old, wise, trusted, and heavily cliched
Indian friend (Gordon Tootoosis). Eventually, there are two girlfriends
(Julie Ormond and Karina Lombard) as well plus lots of other minor
characters.
The biggest attraction for the movie is watching the visuals. The
landscape chosen was stunning. The cinematography was perfect with 90%
of the outdoor scenes carefully filmed in the last twenty minutes of
twilight and always with the actors' hair back-lit by the setting sun.
The indoor scenes were dark with the glow of candles or with light
streaming in from the outside. Travelogues never looked better. I
expected to see someone selling land in Montana in the lobby after the
show!
Unless you are a big fan of seeing hearts cut out of the bodies of
animals and people or unless you feel you must see all of Brad Pitt's
movies (he is major handsome), I can see no reason to see this film
other than as a long travelogue.
The biggest problem I had with the movie was the script (written
by Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff) and to a lesser degree the
directing (by Edward Zwick). There are so many ridiculous and
unbelievable things these characters do that I ran out of fingers and
toes counting them. Totally unbelievable. I did not care about any of
them.
After forty-five minutes, I was looking at my watch hoping it
would get better (it actually got worse), and wondering when it would
end. Sad to say it ran for an incredibly long 2:13. Perhaps they are
going to make it into a TV mini-series which is what it looked like
anyway. It is correctly rated R for heavy violence. If your teenager
wants to see it, buy her a poster of Brad Pitt instead for her room and
suggest she pass on the movie. I recommend this movie only to those
interested in relocating to Montana. I award the movie * 1/2 and
suggest all of the proceeds of the show be paid directly to the
cinematographer.
Copyright © 1995 Steve Rhodes
out of 4
