50 Fun Facts About Legends of the Fall

Who plays Tristan Ludlow?

Brad Pitt earned a Golden Globe nomination for the part, and Rolling Stone's review said it proved him 'a bona fide movie star'.

Who plays the patriarch, Colonel William Ludlow?

Anthony Hopkins was three years past The Silence of the Lambs; the director later recalled that the classical stage actor had always wanted to do a western.

Who directed Legends of the Fall?

Edward Zwick wrote in his 2024 memoir that his rows with his leading man grew so heated the crew learned to walk away and let them have it out.

Legends of the Fall is based on a 1979 novella by which American writer?

Jim Harrison said he wrote the novella in under two weeks, after turning the story over in his head for years.

In which US state does Colonel Ludlow build his ranch?

Montana is the setting, though the ranch seen on screen was actually filmed across the northern border.

Why does Colonel Ludlow leave the Army?

Disgust at US treatment of Native Americans drives him out of the cavalry; the narrator says he wanted 'to lose the madness over the mountains'.

The Ludlow brothers leave the ranch to serve in which war?

World War I calls the idealistic Samuel against his father's wishes; Alfred and Tristan join up to protect him, yet he is the one who never comes home.

Why does the Colonel's wife, Isabel, leave the ranch?

She cannot cope with the harsh winters, the narrator explains, and from then on Tristan refuses to speak of her.

As a boy, what does Tristan cut from the grizzly bear that wounds him?

A claw is his trophy; the narrator's 'old ones' say that when a man and an animal have spilled each other's blood, they become one.

Samuel returns from which university with his fiancée Susannah?

Harvard is also where they met: his mother's letter says he fell for Susannah at a tea for the poet Amy Lowell.

The brothers go to war in which country's expeditionary force?

Canada's army was the way in because the United States was still neutral; their father writes that they are off 'to defend an England they have never seen'.

In medieval legend, who is the doomed love of the knight who shares Tristan Ludlow's name?

Isolde and her knight drink a love potion by mistake in the legend. The film nods to it: 'In the story, Tristan's lady was Isolde,' young Isabel Two is told.

What does Tristan send home from the front to be buried at the ranch after Samuel dies?

His brother's heart is all he can send home, his letter says, asking that it be buried in the box canyon where the boy used to draw birds.

What does the grief-maddened Tristan bring back from a lone raid on the enemy lines?

German soldiers' scalps hang round his neck when he returns to camp, a sight that horrifies the other men and gets him discharged.

Who plays Susannah in Legends of the Fall?

Julia Ormond was barely known when the director saw her in the HBO film Stalin just before leaving for location, and he flew to meet her that night.

Where does Alfred go to make his name after confronting Tristan over Susannah?

Helena is where he goes into the cattle trade, writing to his mother that it is 'a city turned modern overnight'.

What message does Tristan eventually send Susannah from his years abroad?

Marry someone else is the whole message: his letter says he has become a hunter, that all they had is dead, and ends 'Marry another'.

What happens to Colonel Ludlow after his rift with Alfred?

He suffers a stroke and falls silent for years while the ranch decays, until Tristan's return brings both back to life.

Alfred marries Susannah and becomes what?

A congressman: Tristan comes home from years of wandering to learn his brother has been elected and has married the woman he left behind.

The O'Banion brothers, who cause the family so much trouble, are what?

Irish bootleggers and gangsters, they also own the town's mercantile store, and Tristan's small-scale rum-running puts him in their way.

Isabel Two, whom Tristan marries in the 1920s, is the daughter of which ranch character?

Decker, the hired hand, raises her on the ranch with his Cree wife, Pet, and a letter in the film says she is 'like a daughter' to the Colonel too.

Who plays Isabel Two in Legends of the Fall?

Karina Lombard plays the grown Isabel Two, who announces as a girl that Tristan will be her husband one day, and years later makes it true.

How does Isabel Two die?

Accidentally shot by a corrupt police officer in the gangsters' pay; Tristan beats the man nearly to death and is jailed for it.

What becomes of Susannah?

She takes her own life, unable to live without Tristan, who had turned her away when she visited him in jail.

Where do the Ludlows dump the car after the final shootout at the ranch?

The Missouri River swallows the evidence: the narrator recalls that they buried the bodies that night and sank the car 'in a deep pool in the upper Missouri'.

How does the elderly Tristan die?

Fighting a grizzly, knife drawn, in the north country in 1963. 'It was a good death,' the narrator says.

Which famous animal actor, a trained Kodiak, plays the grizzly in Legends of the Fall?

Bart the Bear was famous enough that in 1998 he shared the Oscars stage with Mike Myers to help introduce an award.

Which former child star of E.T. plays the youngest brother, Samuel?

Henry Thomas won the part of Elliott with a tearful improvised audition; as it ended, Spielberg told him, 'Kid, you got the job.'

Who plays Alfred Ludlow?

Aidan Quinn came out of Chicago's theatre scene, and Rolling Stone judged the dutiful eldest brother 'the toughest role' in the film.

Which Cree actor plays One Stab, the Colonel's companion and the story's narrator?

Gordon Tootoosis narrates the whole film, yet on screen One Stab is introduced as a man who 'wouldn't lower himself to speak English'.

The Ludlows of Legends of the Fall trace their roots to which Celtic part of the British Isles?

Cornwall is where Tristan writes to 'Grandfather Ludlow' asking to go to sea, and the director wanted the score to carry melodies of that 'old' place.

Which Academy Award did Legends of the Fall win?

Best Cinematography went to John Toll; the director recalls Mel Gibson asking to see Toll's footage in the cutting room, and Gibson then hired him for Braveheart, where Toll won again a year later.

Who composed the score for Legends of the Fall?

James Horner built the score around featured soloists, among them folk fiddler Jay Ungar and Kazu Matsui on the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute.

Which Audrey Hepburn role did the Susannah of Legends of the Fall take on in a 1995 remake?

Sabrina went to her against her old director's advice: he recalls telling Sydney Pollack on the phone, 'She's not Sabrina.'

Which Canadian province hosted the Ludlow ranch location in the Ghost River Wilderness Area?

Alberta gave the shoot what the director called its wettest summer on record: mud stalled five-ton trucks, but the skies were 'of heart-stopping beauty'.

Which historic Vancouver district was dressed with period facades for the city scenes in Legends of the Fall?

Gastown, a Pacific harbor district, played a landlocked American city: the one where Alfred sets up in business.

Which actor friend's money let the broke author of the novella Legends of the Fall write the book?

Jack Nicholson met him on the set of the 1976 film The Missouri Breaks and read his novels from then on; accounts put the sum at $15,000 or $30,000.

Which other novella from the 1979 collection Legends of the Fall also became a film?

Revenge became a 1990 thriller starring Kevin Costner, with the author himself sharing the screenplay credit.

Which 1989 war film did the director of Legends of the Fall make five years earlier?

Glory was his Civil War drama, and Rolling Stone's review said he played Legends for 'the ponderous sweep he brought to Glory'.

The novella Legends of the Fall grew out of which family papers its author came across?

His wife's great-grandfather's journals turned up at his in-laws' home; the man was a mining engineer named William Ludlow, which is where the Colonel gets his name.

Which drama co-created by Legends of the Fall's director gave his future star a bit part?

Thirtysomething gave him one line in 1989, 'Hey...', and the director recalls the office assistants finding excuses to visit the soundstage that day.

Samuel is killed after volunteering for what kind of dangerous assignment?

A reconnaissance mission: he takes an injured comrade's place beside the captain, and Tristan hears of it too late to stop him.

What does Tristan entrust to Alfred before he flees?

Watch over his children, he asks, and the brother he has fought with for years answers, 'Brother, it would be an honor.'

A Deseret News critic called Tristan a 'slight twist' on the same actor's role in which earlier film?

A River Runs Through It, Robert Redford's 1992 film, was the comparison; of Tristan the critic added, 'He even becomes a bootlegger!'

Legends of the Fall hit number one at the US box office over which holiday weekend in early 1995?

MLK Day: its first weekend in wide release was the four-day holiday, and it took $14 million to open at number one.

In his memoir, the director of Legends of the Fall says the studio chief first wanted which star as Tristan?

Tom Cruise read the script and had the director out to the set of Far and Away, then passed, uneasy about the character's motives.

Scenes of Tristan's wanderings in Legends of the Fall were shot on which Caribbean island?

Jamaica closed the shoot, though the director says the studio chief threatened to cancel the trip unless he cut ten pages from the script.

Which magazine first ran the novella Legends of the Fall in full, the longest fiction it had then published?

Esquire ran it complete in January 1979, and after its success the novella became the form its author was known for.

Which Golden Globe winner beat Legends of the Fall?

Forrest Gump took Best Drama, and its star Tom Hanks beat this film's lead to Best Actor in a Drama the same night.

In Legends of the Fall, who plays Isabel Ludlow, the Colonel's wife who leaves for the East Coast?

Christina Pickles was seen as two mothers in 1994: the one who leaves her sons here, and Judy Geller, Ross and Monica's mother on Friends, a part she kept until 2003.