Guilty Pleasure: Legends of the Fall

This gem of a film was dropped into my DVD player for the first time last week. I have heard the title frequently before, but I had not been able to see it until a few days ago. The one word that formed and escaped from my open mouth when it finished, was "wow." "Legends of the Fall" blends beautiful landscapes and a marvelous cast into an epic melodramatic tale that will leave you searching for words when the credits roll.

Directed by Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond) with a cast including Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, the film took home an Academy Award in 1995 for Best Cinematography.

"Legends of the Fall" is a story told from a third person point of view, Old Stab, an Indian friend of the family. He says in the beginning "some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy, or they become legends..." Great, right?

The story begins in the early 1900s and chronicles the story of a family and one great member of that family, Tristan (Pitt). It begins when Tristan's father, Col. Ludlow (Hopkins), has removed himself from the military and tries to raise his three boys on his ranch in Montana. It is understood that Ludlow has a deep respect for Tristan, one that his other boys don't carry. When his youngest son returns to the ranch with his fiance, Susannah, all of the brothers form a close attraction to her, which lays the foundation for later problems in the film. All the boys head off to war, to fight in WWI and here is where the youngest, Samuel, is killed. Tristan believes that it is his fault and after he is buried in Montana, the rest of the film follows the family in the coming years, keeping a close eye on Tristan and how they deal with Samuel's death.

The music and pacing of the film creates something that we are not used to seeing very much of anymore. What may come off as cheesy looks, some might see as important breaths in the film where characters are without words and only left with silence. There is an understood code to this family. "Legends of the Fall" includes family feuds, love affairs, long trips at sea, marriages, bear fights and death; it truly is an epic tale that keeps you captivated until the very end.

If you have not yet seen this film and are ready to yell at the characters from your seat and cry at the sheer amount of tragedy one family can endure, this film is for you. And even if this does not apply or you have already seen it-it's about time you revisited this one.