1994 - LEGENDS OF THE FALL, attempt at an epic Western film

The director Edward Zwick working from a novella by author Jim Harrison a guy who likes to put a lot of macho posturing in the stories I have read of his.  Zwick tells the epic tale of a family with a ranch in Montana fighting off corruption from the authorities while making a complete mess out of their personal lives.

 British actor Anthony Hopkins is the head of the family, Aidan Quinn is the son who wants to get into politics, there's a younger brother whose name escapes me but it doesn't matter anyway since he ends up dying in World War I early in the film.  However the big casting news in this film was Brad Pitt as Tristan a handsome fellow who likes to run around and challenge bears to fist fights as a test of his manliness.  Needless to say all the women swoon over him.

The film has the requisite couple of hot frontier women.  Julia Ormond, another British actor, is married to Quinn but secretly pines for hunky Brad Pitt, that won't end well.  Karina Lombard is the young farmer girl living on the ranch who grows up looking like a hot Vogue model who Tristan ends up with.

The film is well photographed by John Toll on some spectacular Canadian locations, apparently Montana couldn't cut it when it came to location filming for this film.  The director does keep the story moving along although some of the plotting might be a little questionable.  If you are in for a western epic I guess this will do.

The film was written by Susan Shilliday and William D. Wittliff.  As befits an epic film, the running time is 133 minutes.