A fine, old fashioned epic

“Legends of the Fall” has high ambitions and grand designs. It wants to be this big Western epic of family strife, large battles, heavy emotions, and of course soaring romance. Does it succeed? Yes and no. It’s predictable and messy but gorgeous looking and refined. It’s admirable, but also kinda sappy and trashy.

It has Anthony Hopkins playing William Ludlow, a Colonel in the early 1900’s so fed up with the U.S. Cavalry’s treatment of the Indians that he moves his three sons to a remote part of a Montana Ranch. The sons are Alfred (Aidan Quinn), Samuel (Henry Thomas), and the rugged, bear-fighting, horse-wrangling ranch hand Tristan (Brad Pitt).

Samuel’s soon to be wife is Susannah (Julia Ormond), a young woman who grew up in a boarding school looking forward to being a part of a family. She is able to keep up with the three boys in all manner of riding, roping, and shooting but we can see the rift incoming when sexy, sweaty, rugged Tristan catches her eye.

The film takes place at the beginning of World War 1, something which both Samuel and Alfred feel is their destiny to join. The Colonel hates war and moved the sons to this place to avoid it, and is so reluctant to let them go. For Tristan, it seems he can’t wait to get his hands on Susannah. When he decides to join his brothers in battle- we wonder if it’s for a sense of solidarity to prevent temptation with Samuel away.

The movie was made by Edward Zwick, who made the powerful Civil War film “Glory”. Here he has a good feel for the grit of war as well but his action is more epic- Tristan gallantly rides his horse as things explode around him, the all around devastation more severe, and the result of that leads to scenes of even greater darkness.

Based off a novel by Jim Harrison, this Western saga doesn’t leave out the Native American. The Ludlow’s are a family of equality. We’re given portentous narration from family friend One Stab (Gordon Tootoosis). And there is a mixed race family living on the ranch. Tristan also takes their customs to great extremes.

As he returns home from war, Tristan’s demons begin to intermingle with his lust for Susannah. A trauma and primal violence takes over and he winds up leaving for a while, again, to find himself. It’s an inner turmoil that I think Pitt plays well as it becomes the most engaging part of the second half of the film.

There’s some question as to whether Pitt and Ormond strike a believable chemistry. I’m not really sure they do, and there were other times where I wondered if they were even supposed to. Both characters seem to be taken by a moroseness as the film goes on that kills passion, yet on some level, we're also supposed to feel a tragicness to their love story which never materializes because the love was never very strong to begin with.

Of course the rest of the plot kinda works against it as well. It’s sprawling with a lot of disparate elements focusing on not just mental trauma but love triangles, going into politicking, bootlegging, falling into failing health, bad marriages, births, and even more death that needs to be avenged.

The cast is quite good though, with Hopkins playing the magnanimous but discerning patriarch of the family. He is particularly good with Quinn, who becomes more and more it’s contentious black sheep. Thomas is good as the runt looking to prove himself and Ormond as the woman who winds up loving and finding heartbreak with all three sons.

It should also be said many times over that the film looks gorgeous, making perfect use of the Montana skyline, mountain ranges, and hell..just about everything. And count James Horner’s rich musical score among the things making this horse opera way more sumptuous and moving than it really deserves. It’s not a great movie, but it certainly tries.