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.
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.