Legends of the Fall (1995)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Tristan Ludlow	Brad Pitt
Colonel William Ludlow	Anthony Hopkins	½
Alfred Ludlow	Aidan Quinn
Susannah Finncannon	Julia Ormond	½
Samuel Ludlow	Henry Thomas	½
Isabel Two	Karina Lombard	-
Pet	Tantoo Cardinal	-
One Stab	Gordon Tootoosis	-
Isabel Ludlow	Christina Pickles	-

Review

Edward Zwick (About Last Night…, Glory) has directed this overneat would-be-epic, which is American romantic nationalism at its most vapid. It's a bleeding-heart western about the establishment of a nation of brave soldiers, one-dimensional Native Americans and spiritual grizzly bears. The film is based on the novel by Jim Harrison, but no matter what screenwriters Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff tried to do with the adaptation, they didn't succeed. This picture has so many melodramatic turns and teary-eyed character relations that the perpetual funeral which it soaks in, doesn't reach a higher dramatic level than it does in Mike Newell's Four Weddings and a Funeral. Oh, but isn't it sad? Oh yes, it's as sad as the latest Harlequin novel. Brad Pitt plays the pretty-boy lead-character with his typical charisma, which is anachronistic here. His character is about as interesting as that wretched narrator named One Stab, who tries to give you some poetic words of wisdom, but really just cites clichés. The film's only redeeming quality is the relation between the characters of Aidan Quinn and Anthony Hopkins, who have a couple of valuable moments together towards the end.