CINEMA: Stanley Peskin
LEGENDS of the Fall has the look and feel of a film made=20 in the 1950s. Its emotionally overwrought style, replete=20 with biblical echoes, is resonant of Elia Kazan’s self- important adaptation of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden=20 (1955) in its treatment of sibling rivalries and love.=20 Most of the characters have biblical names or names taken=20 out of classical mythology. The film is also reminiscent=20 of George Stevens’ version of Edna Ferber’s Giant (1956).=20 Like the earlier film, it is glossy, handsome and=20 politically correct in its response to the plight of the=20 Red Indians in America.
Jim Harrison’s novella, which is the source of Legends of=20 the Fall, has been transformed by screenplay writers=20 Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff and director Edward=20 Zwick into an epic. The lushly scored musical background=20 written by James Horner tells us every inch of the=20 laborious way that this is an important film. The action=20 encompasses some 50 years, from 1913 to 1963, in the=20 tormented lives of a colonel (Anthony Hopkins) and his=20 three sons.
The title of the film refers to the old Cree scout One=20 Stab (Gordon Tootoosis) who in the present recalls with=20 infinite wisdom those events (which are also recorded in=20 letters written by different members of the family) which=20 were crucially important in the history of the family.=20
The narrative device is meant to confer legendary status=20 on the film. It also draws our attention to a pastoral=20 world — there are many shots of autumnal landscapes=20 which are a reminder of man’s fallen state — which=20 gradually succumbs to the vices of the city, which is a=20 place of prohibition, bootlegging and the Irish mafia. A=20 sequence which shows the disastrous effects of World War=20 I confirms the director’s vision of man’s loss of both=20 innocence and the American Dream.
The colonel’s wife Isabel, who likes the idea of her=20 husband more than she likes the man himself, has=20 abandoned him and her sons, returning only at key moments=20 in their lives. The colonel is anti-war and he has the=20 proper attitudes towards the government’s unjust racial=20 policies. He protects a man on the run who has married an=20 Indian woman and he rejoices in the marriage of his son=20 Tristan (Brad Pitt) to their half-breed daughter, Isabel=20 Two (Karina Lombard).
Hopkins is splendid as the patriarchal head of the family=20 and he is given many opportunities to show off his skills=20 as an actor. He is both stern and compassionate and when=20 he has a stroke, he manages slurred speech to perfection.=20
Pitt is Tristan. The film describes his initiation from=20 boy to manhood with the help of a bear; in fact, Dances=20 with Bears would have been an appropriate subtitle. Pitt=20 is not allowed either by the script or by the direction=20 to become a tragic icon in his own right. Playing a=20 misunderstood character, he is often violent and spends a=20 good deal of the time weeping. I lost count of the number=20 of times he says: “I’m sorry.”=20
The other two sons, Alfred and Samuel, are played by=20 Aidan Quinn and Henry Thomas. Thomas was the little boy=20 in ET. Here he looks almost extra-terrestrial, but=20 unfortunately he does not enjoy the benefits of=20 supernatural aid.
Zwick attempts with little success to imbue Legends of=20 the Fall with epic stature and poetic fervour. The vistas=20 are suitably broad, the sound is impressive, and there=20 are some intimate moments that are almost moving, but on=20 the whole inflation gives way to flatulence.