BEFORE: Aidan Quinn carries over from "Avalon", and it's his fourth appearance in the countdown this June - before this month I bet I would have had a hard time just naming four films starring Aidan Quinn. The arty Americana theme holds as I head out to the frontier for a few days.
THE PLOT: Epic tale of three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of 1900s USA and how their lives are affected by nature, history, war, and love.
AFTER: The film presents us with three brothers, Alfred (the oldest), Tristan (the wild middle child) and Samuel (the young, smart one) - raised by their father, Col. Ludlow, on a Montana Ranch in the early 1900's. The unique worldview of their father, a disillusioned veteran suspicious of the government, influnces their upbringing.
Then the family gets fractured, first by World War I - the Colonel doesn't want his sons to serve - and then by Susannah, initially Samuel's fiancée, but she manages to work her way through all of the brothers. Apparently there are so few women out in Montana that they have to take turns. Col. Ludlow's wife is absent for most of the picture, it seems she never took a liking to frontier living. Can't say as I blame her, they still seem to favor horses over cars and have to hunt for their food - no thanks. I think the mother might be the smartest one in the family.
But of course, her absence also symbolizes trouble in the marriage - and the sons have varying degrees of success in their relationships as well. Tristan romances Susannah, then promptly loses interest and heads out to see the world - one of those sailing/hunting expeditions that takes years while he "finds himself" (psst - you're RIGHT THERE).
Which means that Albert finally gets a chance to romance Susannah - though by this time she's had her heart broken by two other brothers, so how romantic can she still be? Albert decides to enter politics, a career choice that his father couldn't hate more.
It's an epic film with complicated relationships, but honestly it's still a downer on many levels. Death, guilt, betrayal, more death, abandonment - name your poison, it's all there. And though the family patriarch lives to a ripe old age, after he suffers a stroke while waiting for his sons to return home, seeing him frail is just sad. (And I thought times were tough in Baltimore...Montana sucks!)
It is a neat trick getting me interested in this family, and almost making me overlook their disregard for society's rules. Montana was subject to U.S. laws, including prohibition, and owning a ranch doesn't give you the right to disregard them, and take out any revenuers that come along. You almost got me to root against my country for a minute there - nice try.
I didn't really buy into all of the mystical Native American stuff, like the "heart of the bear". It seemed a little too mumbo-jumbo. Now, what the heck does the title mean?
Starring Brad Pitt (last seen in "Thelma & Louise"), Anthony Hopkins (last seen in "Bad Company"), Julia Ormond (last seen in "First Knight"), Henry Thomas (last seen in "Niagara, Niagara"), Gordon Tootoosis (last heard in "Open Season"), with a cameo from Christina Pickles (last seen in "Romeo + Juliet").
RATING: 5 out of 10 foxholes
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