Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 14, 1995 TAG: 9501170110
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Director Edward Zwick certainly lets the camera flatter his star. In fact, he's so interested in sexy, scenic compositions that at times the silver screen looks like a Calvin Klein ad with pretty, long-haired men and women in rugged jeans posed in front of rugged mountains.
In effect, the film pauses to admire itself in the mirror, and that makes for a ponderous pace and lightly sketched-in characters.
Beginning in 1914, the story revolves around the three Ludlow brothers; Alfred (Aidan Quinn), Tristan (Pitt) and Samuel (Henry Thomas). They've grown up on a Montana (actually Calgary, Alberta) ranch under the gruff guidance of their father, William (Anthony Hopkins). After going east to college, Samuel returns with a fiancee, Susannah (Julia Ormond), and a burning desire to fight in World War I.
When he volunteers, against his father's wishes, his two brothers agree to accompany him. By then though, both have fallen for Susannah.
For viewers who might have trouble following the predictable plot, writers Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff have included a convenient voiceover narration that explains what's about to happen. That narration becomes more useful toward the middle when the action slows to a creep. For reasons best left undescribed, Tristan leaves home for adventures in far-flung exotic places, but the movie stays in Montana.
When he returns, the pace picks up considerably, but by then, it's late in the game.
The source material, Jim Harrison's novella, might have attracted John Ford with the brothers' complex relationship, the family's place in the landscape and the father's Army career as an Indian fighter. Whenever Zwick gets around to telling that story, it's pretty good. Too often though, he settles for postcard pictures, emotional music and his cast's carefully groomed beauty.
Noticeably absent are the realism and passion that made Zwick's "Glory" so memorable. He approaches that intensity in some scenes but never maintains it for long. And there's the casting of the lead. Pitt is certainly one of the hottest young actors in the business, but he's not really right for this part.
Other characters and our narrator constantly describe Tristan as a larger-than-life, semi-mystical, wild, elemental macho force. No matter how many soulful gazes Pitt aims at the camera, he doesn't have it. Handsome? Yes. Great hair? Definitely. Mythic? No way.
Legends of the Fall
** 1/2
A Columbia release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 133 min. Rated R for strong language, violence, sexual content.
by CNB