Cinepals - LEGENDS OF THE FALL (1994) Movie Reaction & Review! | Brad Pitt | Anthony Hopkins | Aidan Quinn

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

Jaby and Michael watch Legends of the Fall for the very first time! Legends of the Fall is an epic drama about three brothers and their father living in the remote Montana wilderness, whose lives are torn apart by love, war, and betrayal during the early 20th century. Legends of the Fall was directed by Edward Zwick (Glory, The Last Samurai, & Blood Diamond). The film stars Brad Pitt (Fight Club, Se7en, & Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) as Tristan Ludlow, with Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day, & The Father) as Colonel William Ludlow. Aidan Quinn (Benny & Joon, Michael Collins, & Practical Magic) portrays Alfred Ludlow, while Julia Ormond (Sabrina, The Barber of Siberia, & My Week with Marilyn) plays Susannah Fincannon. Join our Patreon https://www.cinejump.com or become a YouTube member for access to full length watchalong reactions! Cutdown reactions to our reviews can also be found on our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/@cinepals SOCIAL MEDIA: ~CINEPALS~ YouTube: @CinePals Insta: https://instagram.com/TheCinePals Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheCinePals ~MICHAEL~ Insta: @booseisloose

Senna. Pals. We are two dudes watching Legends of the Fall. That's what's happening right now. So, because Michael and I finished our assignments, and then I turned to my sister, I'm like, so what are we watching next? And she's listed off a bunch of stuff, and I'm like, two dudes watching Legends of the Fall sounds hilarious. We've been left to our own devices. So that's what we're going to do.

In the interest of full transparency, I saw, like, a sliver of this as a kid, not the whole thing. Just like, I know something that happens late in the film. like one aspect of it relating to a young girl that's all I remember from this movie I don't know like the first or second act or the end of it like I don't remember most of the film

just a thing that kind of like made me twitch as a kid like that's what happens so you'll see it you'll know but anyway let's jump into this thanks so much for hanging with us here we go

oh my god What a warrior wants? The warrior wants Dang, what a movie That was a whole experience Jesus Christ We went through a lot Michael didn't even know what this movie was until today

No, I had no idea this movie existed Yeah Wow, damn I liked that a lot more than I was expecting to I didn't know what tox I didn't know how much I was gonna I liked it a lot Yeah I really like just based based off of the, you know, Splash cover alone on Amazon when we pulled it up, I was like,

oh, this is going to be like, maybe not notebook-esque, but like more notebook romance, cowboy vibes rather than like the saga that we just experienced. It's no wonder I don't remember this movie from when I was a kid because this is boring to kids. Oh, yeah, for sure. It's just like as a grown up, you can, well, for me anyway, because you grew up in these sorts of environments, but like for me, like, I didn't learn how to appreciate the beauty that is nature until I got older. And so seeing all this, I'm just like, whoa, like, this is beautifully

shot. I could only imagine how, like, wonderful it would have been, like, to go to set each day and it's just beautiful. Oh, my God. If that was my day-to-day, like, going to work for however long you got to film that film, oh, I wish. My, my big dream is to one day be able to film something in Alaska, so I just get to, like, you know, spend however many weeks or months. So I was on point when I was drunkenly shouting at you at my birthday party then. Yeah, no, no, fully, fully, a thousand percent. I was like, Michael, you need to go make a movie that takes place in Alaska. Yeah, it was well acted as well.

The relationship stuff, it's like, it kind of, it kind of hurt me a little bit because I didn't like it, but it was realistic, I guess. Right. You know, it's just like, it's just so wildly selfish to me that, but people are making their choices knowing what's happening. Right. You know, in that mental atmosphere? You know what I mean?

Like, she, Alfred married Susan, Susanna. Yeah. Full well knowing, she was still hung up on, you know, his brother. It's like, if he comes back, it's going to be, it's going to be, I mean, I guess in one of those situations, if you're Alfred, you marry her hoping that your love will be enough to temper those feelings and like those feelings to go away. I mean, 100% naive, but that's who Alfred was. That's who Alfred is as a character. I mean, you can kind of get that vibe from the moment she steps off the train, and he just is absolutely, like, gobsmacked by her.

And it's like, okay, you're going to be the little puppy, like, constantly tailing after her, just desperate for her attention. Like, he wants so badly to be loved by her that he's willing to kid himself, I guess, that she, those intense feelings she has, for Tristan would go away over time. I think the hardest part about watching movies like this is seeing yourself and the flawed characters. It's like, oh, God, it's too familiar.

I don't like that at all. Put it away. I thought movies were escaping some. What are we doing here? Why are we dredging up my deeply held insecurities? Dang it. Yeah. And what's fascinating is you could kind of see the writing on the wall from the word go with

certain things. But despite what you could see because of the foreshunds. shadowing of the story, it still was painful to go through, which to me says a lot about good filmmaking, writing, and acting, that all of it came together, the Holy Trinity. All of it came together exceptionally well in certain moments. Like, what happened with the brother was like, we all saw that coming, but it still was just like so gut-wrenching because of the performance, you know? Yeah, definitely. And we sort of, being from the future, we sort of, you know, with regards to the characters, like, we sort of have a sense as to like, oh, that's, that's not

going to play out very well at all. Like, we know exactly what that's going to be like. But it was even worse than I thought with the gas. I didn't know he was going to blind him. Stuff snarly. What would happen with Samuel. But anyway, there's a sense of, it might have something to do with the fact that it's film and it's an older movie.

You know, like sometimes when I watch old westerns, it feels like I literally am watching something from that era. The Wild West, yeah. Like, it was literally like they brought a camera back in time. I forget that that was shot in the 70s or the 60s and they were on sets and, you know, they drove cars, you know, and had houses, regular houses. Yeah. And so, yeah, like, this film being so far removed from us now, it's like, it really

feels like I was watching something from way back in the day. They do a really good job of, like, again, it's just the entire movie basically takes place in the wilds of Montana. So, like, you get an open area enough. It's just, you can make it whatever you want. Sure. And, like, it's really easy to be transported back to a time when most of America, or at least most of, like, Central U.S., looked like that.

Yeah, yeah. You know, you think about, I, one of the, like, final places that's sort of untouched wilderness is my home state of Alaska. And so, like, I have a reasonable amount of experience with, like, open tracks of, like, nobody being there. But it's, it's kind of interesting to watch this and be taken back to that era where it's like they had to provide all of their own food, really. I mean, like, they've got that little farm on there, and they probably have their own cattle that they slaughter as well as the cattle that they sell. it's like it's such a being transported back into that lifestyle of like you have to be so incredibly self-sufficient compared to like life today where everything's so interconnected and like I don't even know if I'd have the remotest idea how to build a homestead out there that would last generations I can survive I can make it but I'll have to like my goal will be finding civilization again yeah yeah you know it's kind of like a lost art and so watching it in this film feels like you get to be kind of part of that again you get to experience like that Wild West open country,

build it from the ground up sort of lifestyle. You mentioned something very interesting that I didn't really think about, which is like where the film starts and what we kind of think of with regards to that era. Oh yeah. You know, it's like it's this very kind of old development

of America and it's like when you think about the year, it doesn't seem like that when you reflect on it watching documentaries and photographs and stuff like that necessarily. The thought that had occurred to me when you mentioned and that this is kind of off topic, but there's a Vsos video that kind of talks about how we reflect on history and, like, weird stuff.

And I think, if I recall correctly, he mentions that Anne Frank and Martin Luther King Jr. are the same age. Yes, they are. And it's just weird because you think of Anne Frank as a child and Martin Luther King Jr. as a grown-up. And, like, that's our memory of them, right? And so when you see stuff like this that kind of contrast very harshly with what you think of that era,

it's like, when I think of 1910, I'm thinking of World War I and airplanes, And stuff like that and like stuff that maybe isn't modern, but is more modern than that. And like skyscrapers being built in New York. You know, you get those like pictures of the guys sitting on the eye beams with eye above the city and things like that. I fully agree. And so the cognitive dissonance, but also the like kind of reminder that it gives of having

a Western that is set during the World War I era and post, it really is kind of like rattles you, but it is also a nice reminder that like time overlaps, eras overlap. Yeah. Which I think was an interesting, you know, sort of nod to actual history and, like, reminder. This is a film of its time. I really like the movie a lot. I did notice, this is like me projecting my modern lens onto the movie, and I recognize that before I say, you know, what I'm about to say. But I noticed that Karina Lombard, who played Isabelle, hardly had any lines.

And that did bother me, because I'm like, okay, we're watching her fall, you know, them fall in love, but I'm like, I'm not, I don't really know her. She's just a function of his story. And whereas by contrast, you know, we had so much time with Susanna, played by Julia Ormond, you know, I'll be it. She's the star. But, you know, it's like it would have been cool to like get to know her more to really feel her death. Because like while it shocked me, like, you know, it was very surprising when it happened. It would have hurt me a lot more if I knew her more. Yeah.

You know. It did feel a little bit like she got fridged at the end just so we had a. a reason to create conflict again. Yes, exactly. Like, she was entirely brought in to be ripped away from him. So that way we could have, again, that moment was Susanna and in jail. And then, you know, the bear comes back and he has to deal with the other bootleggers. I agree.

I would have liked to see more from her. And I guess, technically speaking, they had her character a little more established as the 13-year-old. Yes. So, like, technically her character was in there a little bit. But, yeah, I would have liked to see more from Isabel too. I understand the burden on the movie when she's brought back into the story. It's like there's phrase in writing called Kill Your Babies, right? Because like you have all this good stuff and you have to decide what to keep.

And it's difficult because everything's good. And so as a writer, you sort of have to kill your babies because it feels like that, right? Because you're killing all this golden stuff that people will never see because you're taking it out of the story. And when you get to that part of the movie, there's so much that we've covered already and it might feel exhausting to then spend time developing that relationship. And so we sort of have to fast track it through montage. And I'm like, okay, I understand. It's like, so there's, it's sort of like, I have two minds about it.

Like, on the one hand, I get it. And it was well done. On the other side, I'm like, yeah, but it would have been cool to know her more. So that would have been more impactful. That's all. I agree. I agree. It's, like you said, we got to take what we can get.

And ultimately, like, the overall film, I don't feel was hurt by her long. or like her fridging. I think it was still a really masterfully done movie and it allowed for some really excellent emotional beats on Tristan's part as well as Susanna's part.

I think my favorite scene of Susanna is when she's talking to him in the jail cell. Okay, I want to hear this. She's having this breakdown. Like I get it. Like it sounds unreasonable. Like she's objectively being unreasonable

because she's coming back and crying over like, oh man, we could have been together or things like that. But I just think it's such a beautiful character moment that, like, shows that no matter how long it has been and no matter how, like, potentially happy with Alfred she is, she's never been able to get over that relationship with Tristan. And to a certain extent, neither has Tristan. Yeah, that's true.

And it shows that they still have this deep, like, love and passion for each other, but the understanding finally sets in that they can never be together. Well, Brad Pitt rejected her in that moment as well. He did. Yeah. He fully did. Yeah, like, he could have kissed her. And he's like, no, I think that whatever you just explained, it turned off for him in that, like, before that, you know,

because I'll be, he just lost his wife. Yeah, I mean, agree. I fully agree. From an acting perspective, yeah, I like it a lot. I like what she was going through. When the characters feel so real, I sort of forget that I'm watching acting, you know? Yeah. And so with her, there were moments where I'm like, I kind of hate her and I kind of want her to die.

You know, but I, at the same time, I understand. understand where she's coming from, the limitations of, you know, what it is to be a woman in that era. There's a lot going on. It's very complicated. And so, you know, I understand her perspective and I, you know, it feels so real. I think it just, like, frustrates me that she got married while she's still in love and then she wishes that his kid died and like, or it's not his kid. She was saying that sometimes she wished that his wife was dead. So that way she heard that part. She could be with him. And then Samuel, she meant his brother. Samuel. Oh, okay. She was saying that like maybe a part of her had also, when they met, had hoped that

Samuel would die in a war. That's what she was saying. That's what she was saying. Yeah, it's a little confusing because the kid is named Samuel as well. So like, I totally understand the confusion. But she was saying that Samuel, who was her first betrothed, she part of her wished that he would die so that they could be together. What's the implication? Okay. Are you sure? Yes, I'm absolutely That is what she was saying. Because she said it in the past tense. Oh, gotcha. She was basically saying that she consciously wished that Isabel too would die.

No matter which way you slice this pie, it's disgusting. It's a little messed up. It's a little messed up. It's just like, oh, but at the same time, it's very honest and I get it. Like, I understand that feeling. Am I being very loud? I'm sorry. No, no, no, I was just adjusting for my ears.

No, you continue, continue. Yeah, no, I get. I get where she's coming from and it's a very human thing that she was revealing in that moment and so from a writing standpoint it's actually very strong and the performance standpoint

it's very strong it's so strong that it made me upset that you're angry at it I'm angry at this character who's not real it's like this just zeros and ones at this point but it's making me

it's bothering me on a visceral level right you know I agree it's like you know that the writers and just the film overall is doing a really really good job if you are just so deep into a character's story that you're just screaming at them when they make poor decisions or they do stupid things. Actually, you hit on something very important there.

Another little writing rule that I've read is that some, you know, you want to fall in love with your characters and you want them to be competent, but you also want to, like, you want to have things where your characters do things that the audience doesn't necessarily want your character to do. Yeah, you know, make mistakes because then the audience gets upset. They're like, no, what, but no, not that door. stuff like that. And so, yeah, it was well executed. Definitely. No, the writing was phenomenal and all the portrayals of the characters, I think, lends itself because you can have, like, excellent writing and then flat portrayals,

and that can really take it away. So, like you said, the Holy Trinity of filmmaking, acting, and writing really came together on this one. Anthony Hopkins, by the way. Oh, my God, yeah. Chewing up the scenes. My favorite with him was when his son came back to get his blessings. Yes.

I was just thinking of it. that scene. Yeah. That was very, very good. There was something about the way he's just handling it so deftly, like, just not, he's not doing a lot. He's not coming at them loud and brash and stomping around this, like, it's all just, while he's on the fireplace

like this, just like wrecking this, like, wrecking all of them with his, with his knowledge and his, you know, because he's got his experience and he's drawing upon it. Like, I don't, it's amazing just to watch that. I'm like, dang. Yeah. Dude killed it. It was incredible. And I just,

The almost painful part of his character for me is how long he survived and outlived his sons, his family, like the wives that were brought in. Like, he outlived so many people in his family circle. And that's so painful. Yeah. Like the level of grief that the colonel had to go through throughout this film. And, like, also watch his sons go through, too. Like, that's, that you, that's not something you ever want for your children, I say, is all my experience with it, being a dad.

But, like, yeah, you know, you never want to outlive your sons. You never want to outlive those in your family younger than you. Yeah, it's rough. A huge, huge props to the hair and makeup department. Oh, yeah, for the... Bradfitt's, like, perfect shining hair. The corporate sponsorship must have been L'Oreal. And they're like, there's no way we're getting a L'Oreal.

bottle on screen, so we just got to make Brad Pitt look like a L'Oreal model. Yeah, I mean, to his credit, he was doing a fantastic job as well. Yeah. Because easily, he could just be a pretty boy, but he, watching his whole filmography, you know, it's like he does try to challenge himself with, he's always doing character roles. Yep. And so the first time I realized I liked him was Snatch.

And so if you haven't seen Snatch, like, well, at some point, we'll have you watch it. It's a, it's like, his role is not the main role, but he has such a fun and interesting role and so after that you see you know him always trying to do like then he did uh at some point he did a one where he ages backwards the curious oh yeah yeah the curious yeah yes i know what you're talking about benjamin button benjamin button that's it awesome yeah you guys thanks so much for hanging hopefully enjoyed that that reaction and discussion uh i'm jabby coy this is michael boose peace out