Legends Of The Fall

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	No
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	1
Running Time	128 minutes	Commentary Tracks	None
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Other Extras	None
Region	4
Distributor	Columbia Tristar
RRP	$34.95

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) English (MPEG 5.1) English (MPEG 2.0 )
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
Macrovision	Yes
Subtitles	English  Cantonese Italian Russian Hebrew Polish Czech Hungarian

    Colonel Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins) is a military man who quits the American army as a result of atrocities he sees committed against the American Indian people. He sets up in the middle of the wilderness with his wife, Isabel (Christine Pickles) and his three sons; Alfred (Aidan Quinn), Tristan (Brad Pitt) and Samuel (Henry Thomas). One-Stab, along with several others, lives with them.

    Soon, Isabel Ludlow realizes that the wilderness life is not for her, and she leaves Colonel Ludlow, though they remain fond of each other. Colonel Ludlow is left to raise his boys as best he can on his own. One day, Samuel meets a woman with whom he falls in love, Susannah Fitzgammon (Julia Ormond). He brings Susannah to the family home, and things are very good for a time.

    World War One begins, and the three boys all enlist in the army. Samuel is killed, despite Tristan's best efforts to save him. Tristan sends back Samuel's heart to be buried at home, and then he goes away for a time to deal with his grief. Alfred during this time is at home with Susannah, and he attempts to win her heart, unsuccessfully. Tristan returns, and sweeps Susannah off her feet. Alfred leaves the family home to set up in Helena, a nearby town, in business.

    Tristan becomes more and more unsettled, and finally he leaves Susannah to go wandering the world in an attempt to find himself. Much time passes, and no word is heard from Tristan until one day Susannah receives a brief note from Tristan exhorting her to "Marry another".

    More time passes, and finally Tristan returns to the homestead. We learn that Colonel Ludlow has had a stroke and has lost the ability to speak, and Susannah has married Alfred whilst Tristan was gone. Tristan falls in love with Isabel Two, who was only a girl when he left home, but is now a woman. They marry, and have two children. During this time, Tristan industriously runs a bootlegging operation. He falls foul of other bootleggers, and Isabel Two is killed accidentally in an ambush.

    This leads to two revenge killings by Tristan and by Isabel Two's father, and this then leads us to the climactic end sequence of the movie, where loose ends are tied, and honour is served.

Video

    The movie was razor sharp at all times. Shadow detail was superb with clearly defined shadow detail without a trace of noise.

    The colour is beatifully rendered throughout, and the colour saturation is perfect throughout. The cinematography of this movie is breathtaking to behold with gorgeous wilderness vistas to feast your eyes on.

    One very minor MPEG artefact was seen at 78:58-78:59 involving the roof of the homestead which breaks up ever so slightly during the slow pan downwards. There were a great deal of very irritating print artefacts seen throughout this movie, both black and white flecks. None were particularly large, and none were particularly bad, but there was far more of them than I am used to seeing, especially in a Columbia Tristar DVD. I found myself quite distracted by their frequency. There were less of them in the latter part of the movie than at the start of the movie. They marred a transfer that was otherwise pretty much perfect in every way.

Audio

    Dialogue was almost always clear and completely intelligible. One or twice, the music slightly overpowered the dialogue momentarily, but this did not occur often, and was only a very minor issue.

    The musical score was by James Horner (who also scored Titanic) and was suitably dramatic and enveloping. Almost the entire movie is underscored, which enhanced the sweeping visuals of the movie.

    The surround channels were almost continually used, and were very well used to create an enveloping soundfield. Music and ambient sound effects were present during the majority of the movie, and they served to pull you into the on-screen action. Split surrounds were used with good effect, such that ambient sound effects (dogs barking, horses whinnying) could be heard all around you and were at times localizable to the left or right rear.

    The war scenes were suitably impressive, with realistic explosions that you could feel as well as hear, and gunfire and shouting and mayhem coming from all directions.

    The .1 channel was used well on this soundtrack, both to underpin the music and to anchor the explosions and gunshots, particularly in the war scenes.

    The video quality is top notch, except for the unfortunate frequency of film artefacts, which detracts from what would have otherwise been a reference quality DVD.

    The audio quality is marvellous, with an excellent three dimensional soundfield being created.

Video
Audio
Extras	nil
Plot
Overall

Michael Demtschyna
25th September 1998