Legends of the Fall [1994] Drama, Romantic Movie

2/14/2015
Legends of the Fall [1994] Drama, Romantic Movie {On Netflix!}
Grade: C-
Stars: 6.5
"It's a movie that shot for the stars and burnt up on reentry. It's a melodramatic smorgasbord of improperly paced and overreaching plot arcs. It felt like an entire first season of Dowton Abbey being broken down into pieces and slammed together into just over two hours. Everything but the thematic portrayal worked. Visually stunning, great acting, but in no way was the movie compelling or captivating--the two most important parts of a drama/romance."

Legends of the Fall is a shot at being an "instant classic" that really fell short. Like many movies in the 1990's, it's basically just a Broadway show come to life on the silverscreen. Ooooo...Ahhhh! But the issue is, it's just too dramatic. It's too much. It's a constant tone of theatrical nonsense. The characters feel larger than life, and as a result, I found myself actively disintered in many of the MANY MANY MANY sub plots. It felt like watching Dowton Abby's entire first season compressed down into two hours. It was too much. It was bloated and melodramatic. 

I think the scope of this movie overreached and to be honest I found some moments, as well as full 'short story' arcs trite. By the end, I found myself actively disinterested in fully every plot line, unable to distinguish which was the most important driving core and which elements really mattered. Compounding this issue is the fact that the ending story arc was not in any way a conclusion. It was just the end of the movie.

With a confusing narrator, and extremely unclear POV, it took great effort to try and really care for anyone. The cherry on top is that in the course of the entire story, the actors never age...and I think it takes place over 30 years? I shouldn't have to put a question mark. Maybe I'm just stupid. I don't think so.

After about the fifth "letter read in characters voice over music while watching random horse riding", I started rolling my eyes. However, even though 50% of the story takes place in ambiguous cowboy wonderland, the film was filmed in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, and I must say it's downright stunning visually. I want to visit.

The tone is consistent, however for a rate R movie, I must say it felt very PG-13. If you remove the few totally unnecessary fuck words, and two shots of tasteful boring nipple, this movie really is PG-13. In fact, even in current form, I would let kids watch this. The blood isn't overly bloody, and I think taking away from that even more is the fact that so many die. I mean seriously, so many people just keep dying...

All in all, it's a meh film that could have been epic with just a half season of Downton Abby compressed down, instead of the full season. It does have some profound moments stitched in, it does look beautiful, but for all the positives, it loses massive points for the various reasons mentioned. It's not awful, but given the length I can't say I would recommend this to folks who don't already really enjoy melodramatic and HIGHLY THEATRICAL flicks set in the early 1900's.