I have to say that the Oscar winning cinematography just blew me away in Legends Of The Fall. With British Columbia standing in for Montana of the early
20th century it's not called The Big Sky country for nothing. My guess though
is Montana now is a bit too developed now to get the proper feel for atmosphere
in which Anthony Hopkins raised his three boys all of whom turned out quite
different.
The three sons in Legends Of The Fall are Aidan Quinn, Brad Pitt, and Henry
Thomas chronologically. Quinn is the solid and reliable eldest who becomes
one of Montana's Representatives in Congress. They usually had and still have
only two of them. Henry Thomas can't get out from under being the baby of
the family. The other two are constantly looking out for him.
It's Brad Pitt as the middle son who is our brooding protagonist and the closest
thing Pitt ever did on screen as a romantic idol. Brad's like something out of
one of those romance novels.
The brothers start showing their differences when Henry Thomas brings home
Julia Ormond as his intended bride. She gets all their hormones in overdrive
and when Thomas fails to return from World War I the rivalry between Pitt
and Quinn drives the rest of the film.
Anthony Hopkins who served in the Indian wars in the cavalry was disillusioned
by said conflicts and built his own empire where the native Indians share in its
bounty. His kids however grew up in the era of Theodore Roosevelt where you answered your country's call no matter what. And like TR all three Ludlow
boys are imbued with the idealism of the Allied cause. All three go to Canada
and enlist in their army and defy their father. It all becomes a Greek tragedy of sorts in the end.
The Oscar winning cinematography is just breathtaking. The vastness of God's
earth will dazzle the viewer and you might become an instant conservationist.
Legends Of The Fall also won an Oscar for Art&Set Design which is also wonderful and I think that TR's Sagamore Hill might have been a model used.
Sad though that Hopkins, Pitt, Quinn, and Ormond got no Oscar recognition
for this film. Even watching it on television without the big screen Legends Of
The Fall still blows me away.
