Disclaimer:

The film we’re reviewing this week is rated: R

While I have yet to see this movie, I’m not one to deny ratings (unless they’re dumb).

You have been warned.

Huh. I’m not sure what to say here. I was trolling through my various streaming services looking for things to watch when I randomly came across this movie. That’s all I have to say. I’d never heard of it until now and have no idea what it is, so it must be worth reviewing.

From what I can tell from the summary on IMDb, it’s a vague western. It revolves around a family trying to get by in rural Montana. That’s about it. Also, I’ve noticed that the general consensus from critics and audiences seems to be mixed at best. For a normal person, that would be cause for alarm. Fortunately, I’m not normal.

I’ve said this before, but it’s my strongly held belief that watching movies is a learning experience. Whether I would normally watch this movie or not is immaterial. Every film has a story to tell (of varying quality) and there’s at least something to take away from them. I have no clue what this movie is, but let’s find out together.

Let’s hop on our horses and ride out to early 1900s Montana in Legends of the Fall.

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Now that I’ve seen it, what’s the verdict? The first thing I noticed was the atmosphere. It seemed like the film wanted to establish a unique mood early on, but it was difficult to pin down. We begin with narration from the protagonist’s mentor named One Stab (played by Gordon Tootoosis). The protagonist in question is a man named Tristan Ludlow (played in these early scenes by Eric Johnson).

Okay, so it seems like the focus of this movie is Tristan, right? Well, once we get the full Tristan and family backstory, the narration disappears. It’ll return from time-to-time throughout the film, but whenever it does, it feels manipulative. The reason I say that is because it’s less natural. In these moments, instead of showing you the struggles and experiences of our characters, it tells you about them.

Whenever it comes to a visual medium like film, this is always something you want to avoid. Emotions and character development should come to the audience naturally and not be explained by a third party. Unless there’s a definitive reason for the narration, don’t do it. I’d also say, in Legends of the Fall, you can remove the narration and not miss anything. This is not a good sign.

Not only does this narration build up our protagonist Tristan as the main focus, it also builds up One Stab. Given the fact that he’s narrating this story, you’d think he’d be a major player in the film, right? Apparently not. Don’t get me wrong, he’s in the film, but his role is significantly limited. After we go through this introductory portion with Tristan, One Stab makes fewer and fewer appearances.

This is hard to take considering that Tristan’s life is built around his youth experiences with One Stab. Tristan was supposedly shaped and molded by him, yet he becomes steadily more irrelevant as the film goes on. Imagine if Obi-Wan Kenobi showed up only to tell Luke about The Force and disappeared? Ah well, I guess we needed a standard mentor character.

Well, that’s the intro, how’s the rest of the movie? It’s complicated. During our intro, we also learn about Tristan’s two brothers. His older brother, Alfred (played by Aidan Quinn), and younger brother, Samuel (played by Henry Thomas). Samuel’s fiancée is named Susannah (played by Julia Ormond), and he’s presenting her to their father (played by Anthony Hopkins).

Okay, that’s a lot of characters. I was actually fine with this being a story about one man. Not only would that be okay, it’s also what they were building up. After Tristan grows up (now played by Brad Pitt [last seen on this blog rigging the games in the Ocean’s Eleven reboot series]), they try to juggle all these characters simultaneously. Spoilers: they’re not very good at it.

All these characters (sans Susannah) were present from the beginning. I’ll give the movie that. However, instead of focusing on Tristan, the film shifts to the wider threat of WWI and how it affects everyone. Suddenly every character has an opinion on the war and they’re all equally important. That and the movie overloads the audience with commercial-like pleasantness. Surely this isn’t to create contrast for later.

The vast majority of the first 30 minutes of the movie involve the characters enjoying each other’s company. Whenever an emotional moment crops up, it tends to feel more like contrived writing than natural human interactions.

There’s nothing wrong with characters feeling joy. But when they show it this often, it starts to feel like there’s a hidden agenda. Enter WWI. Being the naïve younger brother, Samuel wants to go to war. Tristan and Alfred go with him to keep him safe, but that doesn’t go well. After leaving Samuel alone (for literally 5 minutes), he volunteers to go to battle in the place of another soldier. Who can guess where this is going?

This plot point is so textbook they actually have Tristan scream “No!” upon Samuel’s death.

When I first saw this scene, I actually burst out laughing due to how clichéd it was. Not just that, but it also made me think of an important question. Do we even know who Samuel is? I mean, he’s Tristan’s younger brother, but who is he?

This made me realize that Samuel never had any character outside of this. He supposedly has a moral compass based on him volunteering for war, but his reasoning is never explored. All he ever says is that it’s his “duty” to fight. Sure, but why does he think that? This is what I mean when I say Legends of the Fall isn’t great at balancing its characters. It’s also at this moment I realized all of them could drop dead and I wouldn’t care. Not good.

To some degree, this is a blessing for the story. Now that Samuel’s dead, the focus goes back to Tristan with him taking revenge on the Germans that killed him. In brutal fashion, too.

From here on, if the movie became about this, I’d be satisfied. A broken man “taking out his anger” on the war that killed his brother would be compelling. Unfortunately, this is the last time we’ll see Tristan fly off the handle for a long while. It’s also where the story gets bogged down by a lack of focus again. Also, I have a hard time remembering everything that happens after this point because it feels so inconsequential.

Alfred returns from the war due to an injury. Eventually Tristan joins them after being dishonorably discharged. Everything after that is a complete blank. There are a few moments that stand out here and there, but overall it left no impact on me. Once again, the characters aren’t fleshed out enough to warrant my interest in anything that’s happening on screen.

Alfred loves Susannah.

Alfred and Tristan have several fights over Susannah and Samuel.

Tristan goes on a journey overseas.

The biggest thing that happens is Tristan’s marriage to his childhood friend Isabel Two (played by Karina Lombard). First, Isabel Two? I thought name suffixes like that were reserved for pets and deep-voiced alien plants. This should be considered child abuse. Second, earlier in the movie we see Tristan and Isabel Two together. Here’s what that looks like –

Third, she’s another character whose only purpose is to die.

It’s hard to get invested when there’s nothing memorable about these characters and they’re all on the chopping block. They’re essentially idiot teenagers in every hokey slasher film ever made. The movie gets fun when Tristan goes full John Wick on the moonshiners who killed his dog – I mean wife. That’s when this movie is the most entertaining: when it’s raw action and revenge kills.

Once that’s done, Alfred redeems himself, Tristan goes off on his own (for the third time) and…becomes a legend?

Was I supposed to take anything meaningful away from that experience? Let me explain.

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If you take this movie at face value, it comes across like a haphazard drama. There’s no real point, it comes and goes, leaves small you with small memorable moments, but overall feels empty. However, I’d like to give this movie some real credit. If I look past the surface errors and analyze some of the setups and plot threads, there is something here. Something that has the potential to be really good.

As I think about it now, there were genuinely scenes that had me engrossed from time to time. It seems the director, actors, music conductor/orchestral performers and cinematographers had a clear vision for this story. Unfortunately, that vision got muddled by unclear pacing, underdeveloped characters, misplaced focus, and mediocre writing. Overall, the final product to me constitutes a “good first draft.”

When I look at Legends of the Fall that way, it has a lot of potential. If you make several revisions and tighten everything up it could’ve been a modern western game-changer. Imagine it filled with pathos, gripping drama, and a gut-wrenching take on the human condition. That’s what I’d love out of a movie like this. It seems like, for what we got, there are some good ideas there but they aren’t fleshed out enough. That’s the best I can say.

I’ve been going back-and-forth on how to rate this movie for a while. Although, my final answer is a 2.5/5 pitchforks. As I mentioned, there was some great potential here. For what was presented, either it was critically underdeveloped or didn’t land properly. If I were to workshop this movie, I’d suggest doing more with WWI and/or Prohibition. Those historic periods appear in the movie, but they feel more like set-dressing. Get creative!

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)

(Yet)