History Film / LegendsOfTheFall

* LoveHurts: What do you expect when all three brothers fall in love with the same girl? Or when a girl's fiancé dies tragically in battle? Or when unrequited love takes place? Or when the man you love abandons you, never comes back for years at a time, and then writes you a letter telling you: "All that they had is dead. MARRY ANOTHER"? And when the woman couldn't be with the man they really love, they commit suicide?

* PlotTriggeringDeath: There's obviously problems waiting to happen with Susannah being a fiancee to Samuel and his brothers also clearly being love-struck with her, but [[spoiler:it's Samuel's death that causes things to get truly rocky among the entire Ludlow family]].

** Tristan goes on a vendetta rampage through the German lines after Samuel is killed. Later, he [[spoiler:nearly beats to death the cop who murdered Isabel Two]].

* ParentalAbandonment: The Ludlow brother's mother left because she wasn't comfortable with the living situations. She felt there were too many bears.

* TheChick: Susannah, who is the lone woman with any kind of screen time amongst the main cast.

* PietaPose: You might expect that Tristan is holding Susannah in a passionate embrace on the film poster, but he's actually carrying the corpse of [[spoiler:Isabel Two]].

* MagicalNativeAmerican: One Stab has a MaybeMagicalMaybeMundane connection to Tristan, whom he incorporated into various Cree rituals and traditions.

* TheSixties: The final scene takes place in 1963, though you'd never know it.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Susannah falls for edgy, rebellious, roguish and adventurous Tristan.

* BeardOfSorrow: Creator/BradPitt's Tristan doesn't shave when he's depressed.

** Many elements occur twice in the film. Tristan's guilt over [[spoiler:Samuel dying being shot up while trapped in barbed wire]] gets shown by Tristan being very affected by helping a suffering cow that got tangled in barbed wire which he puts down. The beginning narration from One Stab (mentioning letting a kill's spirit free by cutting out its heart, painting lines on Tristan's forehead, and saying a warrior hopes a good death will find him) happens again with [[spoiler:Tristan cutting out Samuel's heart to bring home after he's killed by Germans and being horrified watching another hunter holding an animal's cut-out heart, One Stab being shown painting lines on Tristan's son as well, and One Stab stating of Tristan dying to a bear as "a good death"]].

* LongHairIsFeminine: Susannah. Her hair is ultra long. Subverted with Tristan--his long hair makes him more manly.

* MagicalNativeAmerican: One Stab to an extent, who doesn't have a lot of characterization himself and mostly just narrates mystically with statements stepped in Cree culture. He also manages to outlive everyone, which probably puts him in the vicinity of 100 years old when telling the story.
* MrFanservice: Tristan is this in-universe, as a PrettyBoy that is also a {{Hunk}} at the same time.
** Also helps that he's played by Creator/BradPitt.

* PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: Tristan and Isabel II. From the time that Isabel was a girl, she has said that she was arranged to marry Tristan when she is of age.

* RetiredBadass: One Stab, as Tristan claims [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_coup he had counted coup]] hundreds of times but by that point, One Stab just lives peacefully with the Colonel and his sons.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Tristan [[spoiler:is none too pleased when Isabel II is killed]].

* SanitySlippage:
** [[spoiler: Tristan pulling a knife on Susannah when he woke up.]]
** When Tristan beat the racist bartender with his own billy club after he refused to serve One Stab.
** And again when he nearly beats the cop to death with his own machine gun after he inadvertantly killed Isabel II.

* SecondLove: Despite her DisposableWoman status, Isabel 2 is clearly this to Tristan, given their genuinely happy marriage.

* SheIsAllGrownUp: Tristan's reaction to Isabel II when he returns.

* TheUnfavorite: Even from the beginning the Colonel doesn't favor Alfred nearly as much as he does Tristan or Samuel, and their relationship only grows colder. Alfred knows it, too.

%%* AloofOlderBrother: Alfred.
%%* AlwaysSecondBest: Alfred felt this way about Tristan.
%%* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Samuel to both Alfred and Tristan.

%%* BadassInANiceSuit: Tristan, Alfred, Col. Ludlow.

%%* DamselInDistress: Susannah.

%%* FreudianTrio: The Ludlow brothers.
%%** TheId: Tristan.
%%** TheSuperego: Alfred.
%%** TheEgo: Samuel.

%%* AGoodWayToDie: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75O_JBfpX7Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75O_JBfpX7I It was a good death.]]"

%%* {{Hunk}}: Tristan. Have you seen Brad Pitt in this film?

%%* LoveableRogue: Tristan.

%%* NiceGirl: Susannah.

%%* TwilightOfTheOldWest: The early part of the film.

* UnrequitedLove: Susannah for Tristan. Susannah is madly in love with Tristan but he insists that Susannah moves on and marries another. [[spoiler: She does end up marrying Alfred after not being able to wait for Tristan forever.]]
** Also, Alfred for Susannah. Alfred was in love with Susannah, but she was in love with Tristan. [[spoiler: This is subverted when Susannah marries Alfred.]]

%%* WillTheyOrWontThey: Tristan and Susannah.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: ''One Stab''. That being said, he's not the most blatant example of this with only a claim from Tristan implying he was quite the badass in his time to attest the appropriateness of his name.

The film's time frame spans the decade before World War I through the Prohibition era, and into the 1930s, ending with a brief scene set in 1963. It centers on the Ludlow family of Montana, including veteran of the Indian Wars Colonel Ludlow (Hopkins), his sons Alfred (Quinn), Tristan (Pitt) and Samuel (Creator/HenryThomas), and object of the brothers' love, Susannah (Ormond).

%%* KnifeNut: Tristan.

* RapunzelHair: Susannah in true period tradition has beautiful waist length hair. Notably she still keeps it into the 1930s when shorter hairstyles were the fashion.

%%* BadassMustache: Col. Ludlow.

* BearsAreBadNews: Two battles with a particular bear, [[spoiler:the second lethal to the sole surviving protagonist.]]

** Tristan is highly protective of Samuel. [[spoiler:Which is what causes Tristan his HeroicBSOD after Samuel dies]].
* BigDamnHeroes: Alfred [[spoiler:saves Tristan from being shot at by a corrupt sheriff with the last O'Banion brother with a shot ]]

* BlatantLies: Susannah's voiceover of her letter expressing her delight at the birth of Tristan and Isabel 2's son is played over a scene of her collapsing in tears at the news.

* BookEnds: The film begins and ends with Tristan [[spoiler:getting attacked by a bear]], both as a child and as an old man.

** Many elements occur twice in the film. Tristan's guilt over [[spoiler:Samuel dying being shot up while trapped in barbed wire]] gets shown by Tristan being very affected by helping a suffering cow that got tangled in barbed wire which he puts down. The beginning narration from One Stab (mentioning letting a kill's spirit free by cutting out its heart, painting lines on Tristan's forehead, and saying a warrior hopes a good death will find him) happens again with [[spoiler:Tristan cutting out Samuel's heart to bring home after he's killed by Germans and being horrified watching another hunter holding an animal's cut-out heart, One Stab being shown painting lines on Tristan's son as well, and One Stab stating of Tristan dying to a bear as "a good death".]]

* CrapsackWorld: None of the characters lead particularly happy lives, even when not considering the one who [[spoiler:committed suicide out of despair.]]

* DirtyCop: Sheriff Tynert and many if not all of his deputies are in the pockets of the O’Banion brothers.
* DiesWideOpen: [[spoiler:Isabel II dies this way after being accidentally shot by a police officer]].
* DisposableWoman: Isabel II doesn't get much screentime [[spoiler:until her death. And even the sole purpose of that appears to be to send Tristan off the deep end again.]]

* DyingMomentOfAwesome: Invoked InUniverse by the narrator on [[spoiler:elderly Tristan's DefiantToTheEnd death fighting with the bear he'd maimed when he was young, made more awesome by the fact that he was probably around 75 at the time.]]
-->'''Narrator:''' It was a ''good'' death.

* {{Foreshadowing}} - Mrs. Ludlow left because of bears. [[spoiler: A bear is what kills her last surviving son years later]].

* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: [[spoiler:Colonel Ludlow is laid down by a stroke, enfeebled and unable to speak, using a chalkboard around his neck to communicate. However, he recovers enough to stand up fearlessly to Irish mobsters and give ''them'' pause, making it a DefiedTrope in the end.]]

* ImportantHaircut: Susannah hacks off her hair [[spoiler:prior to committing suicide.]]

* InformedAbility - We're told early on that Susannah has many ideas and political opinions about the topics of the day. We never hear her speak about any of them. She at least feigns no understanding of business and, as the wife of a congressman, doesn't give her first speech until years after he's been in office.
* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler:Implied heavily by the narrator at the end that the bear Tristan had maimed decades ago was looking for payback.]]

* LoveHurts: What do you expect when all three brothers fall in love with the same girl? Or when a girl's fiance dies tragically in battle? Or when unrequited love takes place? Or when the man you love abandons you, never comes back for years at a time, and then writes you a letter telling you: "All that they had is dead. MARRY ANOTHER"? And when the woman couldn't be with the man they really love, they commit suicide?

** Also helps that he’s played by Creator/BradPitt.

* PlotTriggeringDeath: There's obviously problems waiting to happen with Susannah being a fiancee to Samuel and his brothers also clearly being love-struck with her, but [[spoiler:it's Samuel's death that causes things to get truly rocky among the entire Ludlow family.]]
* PrecociousCrush: Isabel II, a child, has one on the much older Tristan. [[spoiler: When she grows up, it turns into actual love]].

** Colonel Ludlow also clearly held something over from his military days when [[spoiler:he fearlessly fires a double-barreled shotgun at the last O'Banion brother's group of three once he sees them distracted for a moment looking at One Stab calming a testy horse. Since those weapons only hold two shells, [[BigDamnHeroes it's Alfred who has to kill the last one]].]]
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Tristan [[spoiler:is none too pleased when Isabel II is killed.]]

** And again when he nearly beats the cop to death with his own machine gun after he inadvertantly killed Isabel II

* TheSmurfettePrinciple: * Susannah appears to be one of the few female characters in the film which is predominantly male in casting. Not to mention that Susannah serves as a love interest to all three Ludlow brothers, in the same way that Smurfette is sought after by all male smurfs.

* SpurnedIntoSuicide: [[spoiler: Susannah kills herself after Tristan rejects her]].
* StarCrossedLovers: Tristan and Susannah oh so much. When they first meet, Susannah is engaged to (and seems to love) his younger brother. They have an affair after his death, but Tristan abandons her and marries Isabel II. [[spoiler: Even after Isabel's death, he rejects Susannah and she ends up killing herself. Tristan lives out the rest of his days without marrying another]].

* UnbalancedByRivalsKid: Susannah practically collapses upon reading a letter telling her of the birth of Tristan and Isabel 2's son. When she meets the boy several years later, she's almost in tears.

* FamousLastWords: “Tristan!!!!.” Samuel.
** “ I think you missed a bump, Stab.” Isabel II.
** “ What’s going on here??!!!!” James T. O’Banion.

''Legends of the Fall'' is a 1994 film based on the 1979 novel by Jim Harrison. Directed by Creator/EdwardZwick. Starring Creator/AnthonyHopkins, Creator/BradPitt, Aidan Quinn and Julia Ormond. It's a GenerationalSaga about the lives and loves of the Ludlow clan. John Toll won the award for Best Cinematographer at that year's UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s.

The film's time frame spans the decade before World War I through the Prohibition era, and into the 1930s, ending with a brief scene set in 1963. It centers on the Ludlow family of Montana, including veteran of the Indian Wars Colonel Ludlow (Creator/AnthonyHopkins), his sons, Alfred (Creator/AidanQuinn), Tristan (Creator/BradPitt) and Samuel (Creator/HenryThomas), and object of the brothers' love, Susannah (Creator/JuliaOrmond).

* {{Chickification}}: Susannah. She appears to be one of the few female characters in the film which is predominantly male in casting. Not to mention that Susannah serves as a love interest to all three Ludlow brothers.

-->'''Alfred:''' "'''YESSS!!!'''" * BlatantLies: Susannah's voiceover of her letter expressing her delight at the birth of Tristan and Isabel 2's son is played over a scene of her collapsing in tears at the news.

-->'''Alfred:''' "'''YESSS!!!'''" * BlatantLies: Susannah's voiceover of her letter expressing her delight at the birth of Tristan and Isabel 2's son is played over a scene of her collapsing in tears at the news.

-->'''Alfred:''' "'''YESSS!!!'''"
BlatantLies: Susannah's voiceover of her letter expressing her delight at the birth of Tristan and Isabel 2's son is played over a scene of her collapsing in tears at the news.

** Now, John T.......” Sheriff Tynert.
** “Pick Him up and put him in the car.” John T. O’Banion.
** Sometimes I dream that I’m the mother of your children. I wanted her to die.” Susannah

* DiesWideOpen: [[spoiler:This is the way Isaebl II dies this way after being accidentally shot by a police officer]].

The film's time frame spans the decade before World War I through the Prohibition era, and into the 1930s, ending with a brief scene set in 1963. It centers on the Ludlow family of Montana, including veteran of the Indian Wars Colonel Ludlow (Creator/AnthonyHopkins), his sons, Alfred (Aidan Quinn), Tristan (Creator/BradPitt) and Samuel (Henry Thomas), and object of the brothers' love, Susannah (Julia Ormond).