Legends of the Fall

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Since I recently did a post on The Edge, I thought I would do an analysis of this other collaboration between Anthony Hopkins and Bart the Bear. Make no mistake about it though, this movie focuses on Brad Pitt’s character, and it is his symbolic relationship with the bear and its association with the forces of nature that matters. This film centers on the bonds that bind a family, with elements of Greek tragedy involving uncontrollable forces such as fate, sex, and love that can tear a family apart. The movie also takes a dim view of the actions of national governments.

The story takes place in Montana, and the scenery is gorgeous. But, living there and dealing with the elements is challenging. One Stab (Gordon Tootoosis), a Native American, narrates the story, but his comments share time with spoken letters from the other characters, as well as regular narrative action. He says, “Some people hear their own inner voices with great clearness, and they live by what they hear. Such people become crazy or they become legends.” Too much self-knowledge may be too much to take for these persons. But, if they can survive such truth, they live legendary lives, and stories, like this one, are told about them. Tristan Ludlow (Pitt) is such a man, and he seems almost otherworldly in this tale.

Tristan was born in a year of a terrible winter and his mother almost died giving birth. Strong forces surround his life from the beginning. His father gave him to Stab, initiating him immediately into the spiritual and primal world of the people connected to nature. Stab taught Tristan the art of the kill, of basic survival, but which is also connected to the spiritual. Tristan as a youth cuts out the heart of the creature he hunts and sets its spirit free its spirit, according to a Native American belief. The scene is an ironic foreshadowing of what is to happen to his brother.

Stab says that Colonel Ludlow (Hopkins) considered Tristan his favorite son, perhaps because of the boy’s independent ways. The Colonel has become a fierce individualist, wanting nothing to do with society and governments. As a commander in the military, he wanted to help the Native Americans, but was frustrated by the forces of U. S. Federal Government. In a flashback scene, we see him throw down his sword in contempt for his orders, and Stab says he went his own way, which is the major theme of the film. Stab says the Colonel, “wanted to lose the madness over the mountains.” But, in the end, it is difficult to escape human madness. Alfred (Aidan Quinn) is the oldest brother and Samuel (Henry Thomas) is the youngest. Stab says that the brothers would do anything for Samuel, and guarded him like a “treasure.” This statement is also ironic as the story shows that in the end, nothing can be protected against certain forces. Their mother, Isabel (Christina Pickles), left the Montana ranch. She could not handle the winters and was afraid of the bears. Stab says, “She was a strange woman, anyway.” People like him can’t understand living any other way, disconnected from the land and the forces and creatures of Nature.

Tristan’s world revolved around Stab as he grew up. The Native American applied markings on Tristan’s face, anointing him as part of a tribe connected to the wilderness. Stab says that “Every good warrior hopes a good death will find him, but Tristan couldn’t wait.” The youth early on was daring to the point of being recklessness. He seeks out a grizzly bear, as if to escape whatever confines him in the human world. He touches the sleeping bear, as if wanting to connect with it, but it awakes and attacks. The bear wounds him with his claw, but Tristan takes a part of the bear’s power with him, cutting off one of the animal’s sharp nails. The Colonel chastises him, but also joins Stab in his admiration for his courage.

Stab is an old man telling this story, and hands over letters sent between the Ludlow family members, passing them on to an unseen man (the author?) to write about the legend. The Colonel writes that he may not have made the right choice to raise their sons in such a wild place, since he knows nothing about children. But Isabel writes that the boys are willful, like their parents, and will lead their own lives. This correspondence implies that trying to shape outcomes may be fruitless. The boys have grown up into young men at this point, and Isabel says that Samuel fell in love with a woman named Susannah (Julia Ormond), to whom he is engaged. Samuel brings her back to meet his father and brothers. When Alfred sees her, the look on his face reveals that he is immediately attracted to Susannah, which is the beginning of the one of the fractures that will threaten to break apart the solid foundation of the family. Tristan is off somewhere when they meet, showing his separateness. Isabel wrote that the loss of Susannah’s parents at an early age has left Susannah feeling very alone, and possibly made her fragile. This fact may be why she clings to the different brothers as she seeks release from that loss.

Samuel is concerned about the politics and war going on in Europe, but his father says not to use the word “civilized” when talking about the affairs of countries. In contrast, they talk about Stab, a model of individuality. He won’t “lower” himself to speak English, reversing the idea that Native Americans are “savages,” because Stab believes the truth, like the Colonel, to be quite the opposite. He does understand the language, though, showing his knowledge.

Tristan greets them on their way to the house. He looks ruggedly handsome, riding with the majestic mountains framing his arrival. He does not speak at first as he looks at Susannah, possibly also taken with her beauty. The brothers horse around (an appropriate phrase here), amicably wrestling after Alfred says that Susannah’s dog has better “breeding” than Tristan, emphasizing Tristan’s unrefined character.

Whites join with the Native Americans here, probably as a result of the Colonel’s preferring “Indian” culture to his own. The hired hand, Decker (Paul Desmond), is white but his wife, Pet (Tantoo Cardinal) is a Native American. Their daughter, who at this point is thirteen, is called Isabel Two, showing her connection to the Ludlow family. She tells Susannah that she will marry Tristan in the future, showing her wanting to continue being intertwined with the Ludlow family. But she is drawn to the one that has the most in common with her native side. This vow from her is a prediction of what is to come. Susannah says to her that then they will be sisters, since she is engaged to Samuel. This prediction comes true, but in an unexpected way. Alfred joins the two females, but the Colonel says that he should come inside and stop “mooning” over Susannah. Alfred dismisses his dad’s comment, but the Colonel has hit upon the latent attraction that Alfred has for his brother’s fiancée.

At dinner, Samuel talks about the German Kaiser’s unacceptable behavior, and he notes that England is mobilizing to join the fight. The Colonel wants no talk of war in his home. When it is mentioned about their feeling removes from concerns about these events that shape the world, the father’s response is that they are lucky to live at a distance from the world’s problems. In response to Samuel’s remark about how the Colonel wouldn’t want them to shirk their duty, he says, “Don’t I?” Thus, here is discussed an issue that continues to be debated in America. On the one hand there is immediate safety offered by isolationism, since it means not joining a war effort. There is also the belief that the nation should not interfere in the affairs of other countries. In contrast is the feeling of responsibility to reach out beyond one’s borders to help others.

After dinner, Samuel sings as Susannah plays piano. The other men listen, enchanted. But the words to the song that Thomas sings are an omen as they talk of love for someone that loves another. In a letter, the Colonel writes about how strange it is to have a cultivated woman in the house again, since these men are cut off from civilization in the wilderness. The Colonel says it is “intoxicating,” which is an apt word to describe Susannah’s effect on the men. For the Colonel, he is glad to have his sons under one roof, and says the situation, “fills me with such a deep, quiet satisfaction that I thank God.” He doesn’t seem to appreciate that Samuel’s talk of world politics and the impact of Susannah will undermine any sense of joy.

Susannah learns to ride, rope, and shoot as the men admire her as she adapts to the rural surroundings, exposing her wild side. In tandem with her transition, a wild horse runs by and Tristan goes after it. He is later thrown in a coral from that same horse that he was able to bring back. But, he does the horse whispering technique, and is able to bond with the animal, since he is closer to the natural world than the human one. More trouble can be seen brewing as Susannah looks at Tristan adoringly from her bedroom window. There is a scene which clashes a civilized activity, in this case playing tennis, with a rustic one, as Tristan rides the wild horse he has connected with. He wittily comments on how the others seem out of place there in their fancy clothing by saying they look like “ice cream cones.”

Samuel wants to talk to Tristan about Susannah who he says has his mind “spinning,” which implies that she may be too much for him to handle. He says to the experienced Tristan that she is passionate, Tristan gets right to the point, asks if they are both virgins, and if they will wait until they are married to have sex. Samuel is reluctant to talk so frankly, but that is Tristan’s way. Samuel talks about wanting to “be with Susannah,” whereas Tristan uses profane language which is in keeping with his primal nature.

Two brothers, John T. O’Banion (Robert Wisden) and James O’Banion (John Novak), who own a new mercantile store, show up with the Sheriff Tynert (Kenneth Welsh), looking for Decker, who they say is wanted by the law. The Ludlows protect him, saying he was around several years prior and left for Hong Kong. The family’s providing sanctuary for Decker illustrates the animosity that the Colonel has for the authorities. The O’Banions seem to have control over the law as they won’t divulge what Decker is wanted for. The men say it’s of a private matter, but the Colonel rightly says that the Sheriff holds a “public” office, showing he sees the corrupt nature of what is happening.

Samuel reads a newspaper and finds out that the British are losing to the Kaiser’s army. Samuel says that with his fluent German he can be an officer. Alfred is also upset, noting that they lost two cousins in the war. Their father says they didn’t even really know the dead men, which shows how narrow he has drawn the circle around whom he cares about. The Colonel loudly declares that there will be no more talk of war. Tristan is quiet here, not really connected to the affairs of men, in part because he is like his father, but more so because of his preference for the wilderness. Samuel announces he is going to Canada to enlist, and Alfred says he will go with him, since America is not in the war yet. Samuel has not informed Susannah of his decision, and she is surprised and upset at the announcement.

Alone, Tristan tells Susannah about a book his father wrote to try and convince the government to change its policies involving the territories and the Native Americans. The implication is that the book was not taken seriously since it is still with them. Later, alone with Tristan, Susannah says Samuel won’t change his mind, but Tristan tells her to change it for him. She starts to cry, and hugs Tristan, at first for consolation, but their embrace lingers as do their hands on each other, and their staring into each other’s eyes reveals their shared attraction. Alfred enters, and without saying anything, his face registers outrage as Susannah and Tristan look embarrassed.

The Colonel says in a letter to his wife that he has tried to shelter their sons from the world’s “madness” and they now, by enlisting in the military, ironically, go to “seek” it. Tristan goes to help protect Samuel. Isabel Two hugs Tristan, not wanting to lose him. The Colonel does go out to say goodbye, hugging his sons, and the Colonel tells Tristan to take care of Samuel, which he promises to do. The fact they he won’t be able to adds to the sadness of the promise.

That the Colonel and Susannah eat dinner alone seems pointless to the Colonel, and they join Decker’s family eating in the kitchen. Susannah tells Isabel Two that in the ancient tale Tristan’s love was named Isolde. The story of the two characters is one of tragic adulterous love, and is fitting in this film which depicts a woman promised to two brothers while loving another of the siblings. The Colonel and Susannah promise to teach Isabel Two, to enrich her life. They must homeschool her, because as Decker points out, society would reject her as a half-breed, which shows the narrow moral views of the time.

It is 1915, and engaged in the war in Europe shows Samuel being of two minds. The horror of the loss of men is overwhelming and not what he, in his admitted naive way, imagined. Yet, Samuel still wants to fight for personal glory, to distinguish himself in battle like his father did, although the Colonel now disavows that distinction. He does admit despair about the loss of human decency in times of war. Alfred is wounded in a charge and requires convalescence. Samuel says in a letter to Susannah that his brothers seem estranged, and he does not realize that it is due to Alfred surprising Susannah and Tristan. The sad fact is that Samuel and Susannah didn’t consummate their love before he left.

Tristan leaves Samuel to do some translating and he visits Alfred who will receive a medal and be sent home because of his leg wound. Alfred says he should be with his men, being an officer. Tristan calls Alfred’s commitment to the military “horseshit,” which reflects how Tristan mirrors his father’s feelings about the armed forces. Again we have the opposing ideas presented concerning allegiance to a country and whether that devotion conflicts with the welfare of individuals. The brothers learn that Samuel volunteered to take the place of a wounded man at the front. Alfred blames Tristan for leaving Samuel alone, and Tristan charges off to look for his brother. Samuel is gassed, which happened to soldiers in that war, which causes him to be blinded, which symbolically stresses how war can also affect moral vision. German soldiers use a machine gun to shoot Samuel after he becomes tangled in barbed wire, again implying how patriotism can turn into a snare (a scene which is echoed later in the film). Tristan arrives a moment too late to save his brother. He cuts out his heart, to free Samuel’s spirit, as Stab taught him.

Tristan saves the heart and uses the blood as war paint. The spiritual plane where Tristan seems to be able to inhabit is shown by having Stab seem to sense what is happening to Tristan thousands of miles away. Tristan looks like an Indian brave instead of a soldier as he goes off and kills and scalps the enemy for tribal, not patriotic, reasons. The loss of Samuel devastates Tristan, and he appears to be in a trance when Alfred talks to him. Tristan writes that he has been discharged from service, but cannot come home. He will go out to sea, which shows he is adrift mentally at present. He sends the heart home with Alfred to be buried. Susannah says that despite what Alfred saw before they left, she reassures him Samuel was the one she loved. Alfred does not seem reassured as she hesitates when he mentions that Tristan will return some day.

Susannah was supposed to leave, but again circumstances beyond her control force her to stay because of the harsh winter. The Colonel says the house was too empty without his other two sons, and his home was still her home. Stab says the Colonel should have let her go, but he did not know what was to happen. There is almost a Greek tragic feeling of humans struggling against predestined fate here. Stab says that Susannah “was like the water that freezes inside a rock and breaks it apart. It was no more her fault than it is the fault of the water when the rock shatters.” She may not want to do any harm, and not look capable of destruction, but danger can inadvertently come in many shapes. Alfred talks to Susannah at Samuel’s grave, and says that even though he loved Samuel, he is in love with her, and wants to know if she can “learn” to love him, so that they could have a “happy” life. Alfred’s approach is more pedestrian, practical, and can’t compete, unfortunately, with the strong passions that can rule a person’s heart. She says she doesn’t think they can be together because she will only cause him “pain.” She does warn him, but he says he will be the judge of that, being in denial.

Stab, because of his connection to the land and to Tristan, can hear his return before Decker can. Tristan rides up over the hill, and the Colonel and the others are happy for his arrival. Susannah is mesmerized at his appearance. When Alfred joins her at the door, she can’t look at him, and leaves because she wants to hide her affection for Tristan. The next scene has Tristan crying at Samuel’s grave, the pain of loss is so great that he presses his head as if it will explode. Susannah comes to him, and he cries as he says he couldn’t save his brother. She consoles him. Alfred makes a sarcastic comment at dinner, asking Tristan if he had a nice ride earlier, since he saw him with Susannah. Tristan angrily leaves dinner, but is joined by Susannah, and they release their sadness by capitulating to their passions for each other.

Alfred and Tristan have an angry confrontation the next day. Alfred says Tristan must marry Susannah, but Tristan, sarcastically, asks if that will make “an honest woman” of her, according to society’s dictates. Alfred and Tristan are on opposite sides throughout most of the movie as to rules of behavior. Tristan says he will marry her if she will have him. Alfred asks if he loves Susannah, which Tristan does not actually answer. Alfred says it was very convenient for Tristan now that Samuel is not there. Tristan strongly warns him, because he knows that Alfred loves Susannah, that only “once” can Alfred say that, or else they no longer will be brothers. He tells Alfred that he will try to make Susannah happy. Alfred says with finality in his tone, “You will fail.” He knows his brother’s history of putting his individualism first.

Alfred can’t remain and tells Susannah he is leaving. Alfred moves away from the rural ranch to the now modern city of Helena, a populous place, almost in revolt against the Colonel’s withdrawal from society, and the presence of his favorite son, Tristan. He writes his mother that there he thinks he has found his place in the world. He makes many acquaintances, as opposed to his father’s isolationism, and starts his own store, building a reputation for fairness and hard work. She can understand his disappointment in love, as she has also experienced it. But, he says he prays for the ability one day to be able to forgive Tristan.

Tristan continues to be haunted by Samuel’s death. He comes across a calf that is entangled in fencing, reminiscent of what happened to Samuel, an innocent entwined in something beyond its control. He can’t free the suffering animal, and shoots it to end its earthly agony, but it just reminds him of his brother’s death. Tristan looks like he is in a trance, as Susannah talks about having children together, and that she loves him and that he will “tolerate” her. Already, their union appears doomed.

While cutting wood with his father, the Colonel mentions how Tristan’s mom said that Alfred is doing well in Helena, but, he comments, apparently he can’t be well with them on the ranch. Tristan owns all the blame, for the loss of Samuel and now that of Alfred. The Colonel says that Samuel’s loss was in God’s hands, but Tristan doesn’t want to submit to the idea of being the victim of destiny. Decker and Stab say that there is a grizzly around, and Tristan asks if it’s “his” grizzly. Stab says that they spilled each other’s blood, and legend has it that when that happens, the two became one. So, when given the chance, Tristan can’t shoot the creature, because it would be like killing a part of himself.

Tristan’s bear-like wildness rears itself in a bar scene where the bartender won’t serve Stab. The Colonel warns Tristan not to antagonize the man because he has a club under the counter and will beat him to death. The Colonel calmly demands the beer for Stab and then Tristan gets the upper hand on the bartender and beats the man with his own club. His father looks alarmed at the recklessness he sees in his son. Stab says that it was the bear in Tristan “growling in dark, secret places.” Tristan rides his horse wildly near the cliff where Samuel is buried, almost trying to dare himself to go over the edge, physically as well as mentally. In bed together, Susannah touches Tristan and he pulls out a knife, almost stabbing her before recognizing her. He saddles up to leave. Susannah says that she can make it better for him, and he says that even having a child would not make a difference. She says she will wait for him (which doesn’t turn out to be true). Stab says he will return. Isabel Two runs after him, the other female in love with him, seeing him go off again.

Tristan travels to exotic, distant places, and sends back a necklace with ancient writing on it, as he seeks the primal. We see him making trades with natives. Susannah writes that cattle prices are falling, and there has been a never-ending winter. Alfred is expanding his business and is involved in other financial matters that extend to cities as far away as Chicago. Isabel Two won’t go away to school, waiting for Tristan to return. Susannah writes the letter to herself, since she has no knowledge of Tristan’s location.

It is now 1919, and Tristan writes to Susannah, saying he has become a hunter and has killed animals so exotic as not to be found in imaginative writings. He says he has killed them all, seeming to try to release the spirits of all animals as he did in accordance with Native American tradition. Or, he may be surrendering to the animalistic, predatory side of himself. After seeing a heart is taken from a zebra, we see Tristan engulfed in mental anguish, still torn apart by the death of his brother. He writes to Susannah that he is dead and she should “marry another.”

Alfred visits the ranch with other men and asks for his father’s blessing to run for Congress. The Colonel asks what do these men want in return if they get his son elected. He is cynical about the workings of politics and says that Alfred should not believe that these men support him purely out of patriotic feelings. He says he worked for the government when it dealt with the “Indians,” and he says that there is nothing “so grotesque as the meeting of a child with a bullet.” He says the natives were slaughtered as they slept. He says that there is nothing that shows that government has changed in gaining wisdom, common sense or humanity. Alfred smooths things over, but with an edge in his voice. He says that as his father’s son he will attempt to bring wisdom and humanity to Congress. He says sarcastically that he deeply respects his father out of that respect for him, he will run for office,  and thanks the Colonel for his blessing. He obviously hoped his dad would have been happy for him, and is very disappointed.

Alfred goes out on the porch and sees Susannah crying. He says that Tristan was always wild and that is probably why she loves him. She reluctantly agrees, since she is drawn to his literal animal attraction. He consoles her saying that Tristan does love her, and wipes tears off her face. The Colonel sees this affectionate gesture, and yells that he should back him off since she is to be Tristan’s wife. Alfred counters by saying that the Colonel might remind Tristan of that. Alfred yells that Tristan abandoned her and his father, and he implies that he also abandoned Samuel. The angry Colonel accosts Alfred, saying that it wasn’t Tristan’s fault. He tells Alfred that Samuel was a soldier and soldiers die, sent to their deaths by governments, which were run by “parasites,” like Alfred. The Colonel tells Susannah to be damned, too, probably because he feels that Tristan’s love for her caused him to run away out of guilt after what happened to Samuel. But Alfred argues that maybe the Colonel’s angry at Alfred because he also loves a woman who doesn’t return that love. He declares that Tristan stole Susannah from Samuel before he went off to war. He hands him the letter that Tristan wrote saying Susannah should marry someone else. Alfred says that he loved Susannah and still does, saying she deserves to be happy. As was stated by Clint Eastwood's character in Unforgiven, “deserving” has got nothing to do with it, and this is a tale of loss and sadness. Susannah is physically beaten down by this confrontation which paints her as the instrument that drives a wedge between the forces that bound this family together, and she collapses to the ground in uncontrollable misery.

Stab says that after this confrontation and reading Tristan’s letter, the Colonel suffered a stroke, his hair turning white overnight, due to the pain that came from the wrenching turmoil in his family. Tristan wrote no more letters. Stories came to them, “strange stories,” says Stab, about Tristan going to places where no white man had ever ventured. Stab’s words almost sound mythic, like a hero being challenged, needing to go into the wild to be tested and purged of his sins. Years went by, but Stab felt that the bear inside Tristan would go silent and he would return.

After much time has passed, Stab, always connected to the land, hears something. Tristan comes back riding with a stampede of horses, the symbols of masculinity in art, and showing his majestic merging with nature. But his father can hardly walk, and writes on a small chalkboard to communicate. He scrawls that he is happy and wants to have a drink to celebrate. Tristan says he is happy too, as Stab calls out a Native American chant. Tristan gives them gifts, a significant one to his father, a rifle, that will figure later in the story. He says he has other gifts, including something for Susannah, who he discovers has married Alfred, now a Congressman, and lives in Helena. Tristan says that it is as it should be. Decker informs Tristan that they lost everything with cattle prices collapsing and the Colonel gave up hope. But now with Tristan back, some of his old passion returns. Decker says that Alfred voted for Prohibition, so Tristan sees that his father wants him to be a bootlegger in defiance. The Colonel, giving the “finger,” says, “Screw the government,” and Tristan agrees.

Tristan visits Susannah and she is looks like an angel in white clothes, almost foreshadowing her fate. She sees him, and says that “forever” turned out to be too long to wait for him. She wants to give back a bracelet, but he heard it was magical and protects who wore it, which turns out to be another irony. He says Alfred probably would not want to see him, and offers his congratulations to him. Tristan goes to the barn on the ranch, and now finds a grown-up Isabel Two, very beautiful, and educated, as she knows that the ring he brought her is from Crete. She puts on the jewelry, it looking like an engagement ring, but small, as she points out, meant for a little girl, since that is how Tristan remembered her.

Tristan starts to get into the bootlegging business, and Stab says that Tristan was now in the quiet time of his life, the bear part of him sleeping. He is more amenable to dwelling in the human sphere of existence. Alfred tells Susannah that he heard that Tristan is back, and she reveals that she knows since he came to visit. He reveals that Tristan is to marry Isabel Two, which seems perverse to Alfred since she was like a sister to them. Susannah is shaken, but hides it. She writes to Tristan that it seems that it was always meant to be that he should marry Isabel Two, named after his own mother. There is almost a suggestion of Greek tragic incest here, a sort of inbreeding among the principal characters. Her words are spoken as we see the Colonel’s wife making a surprise return visit to the ranch, offering her wedding gown to Isabel Two. It seems fitting that Tristan should marry a “half-breed” since he himself seems to be part Native American in spirit, and wedded to the land. Tristan works on the ranch as time passes and he and his wife welcome a boy, Samuel, who represents a way for Tristan to carry on his brother’s legacy in the family. Susannah in a letter offers her congratulations, but reveals that she and Alfred can’t have children, which adds to her feelings of losing out on what she wanted with Tristan.

Alfred and Susannah meet Tristan and his family, which now consists of an additional child, in Helena, where Tristan is conducting his bootlegging business. There is a feeling of reconciliation between the two brothers because it seems as if they have found their respective happiness. But it is an illusion, since Susannah’s depression is eating at her, as she talks to little Samuel, who reminds her of the man she was to marry. The boy says that he can have Uncle Samuel’s gun when he is older, but it just hits home to her of how he died. And the men who supported Alfred did want something in return, since they are making a lot of money at bootlegging as the result of Prohibition. They threaten Tristan for muscling in on their business. While they talk to Tristan he has his knife out to show his defiance as the men tell Tristan that he is alive only because of his brother.

The O’Banions see Tristan making new transactions, and they hypocritically confront him with the police to arrest him for violating the Volstead Act that prohibits transporting whiskey. The criminal element is in league with the authorities, again backing up the Colonel’s view of government. The police shoot off a machine gun at the side of the mountain, causing the bullets to ricochet and kill Isabel Two. This sideways act of destruction symbolically shows how fate intervenes to destroy human plans for happiness, and how the evil forces of government cause collateral damage. But, it also illustrates that by association with Tristan, others suffer the domino effect from the forces he can challenge, but which others cannot survive. They bury Isabel Two next to Samuel’s grave, depicting how the losses are increasing. The Colonel won’t even talk to Alfred because of his governmental association with the those who brought about Isabel’s death.

Tristan beat and almost killed one of the policemen, and Alfred says he must serve thirty days for the assault, or else things will be worse for him and his family. To show how the government fails to dispense justice, the man who actually shot the machine gun is not punished. Tristan restrains himself for now and agrees to serve the time. Susannah visits him in jail, and breaks down, holding Tristan through the bars, implying they could never be together as husband and wife. She says that she dreams of having children with him. She says maybe she secretly wanted Samuel and Isabel II to die, which shows the power of selfish human passions. Her guilt over these feeling is devastating for her, as it was for Tristan concerning Samuel’s death. He tells her what was told to him by his father, that she had nothing to do with the deaths of Samuel or Isabel Two, and she should go home to Alfred.

After his release from jail, Tristan and Decker plot the deaths of the men who brought about the death of Isabel Two. Decker shoots the policeman who fired the bullets that killed his daughter. Tristan ambushes one of the O’Banion brothers in the warehouse where he keeps his booze. There are intercutting shots of young Samuel’s face painted by Stab as the Native American chants, adding a ritualistic, hunter’s feel to the happenings, and a sense of primal justice being carried out. In the fight at the warehouse, Tristan impales O’Banion on a pitchfork, the man ironically dying in the place which houses the liquor that made him his money at the expense of others. Also intercut at this climatic part of the story are scenes of Susannah cutting her hair, a sure sign in films that there is to be a change in a woman’s situation. Her despair resulting from her guilt and not having Tristan overtakes her. She picks up a gun and ends her life.

The other O'Banion brother finds his dead sibling and goes to avenge his death. Tristan knows that they are after him and is ready to leave. But, he gets a telegram from Alfred that says, “You have won her. I am bringing her home.” Susannah can only be with Tristan in death, which again stresses the danger of existing within Tristan’s sphere of existence. They bury Susannah at the same spot as the others. Here the story stresses its theme when Alfred says to Tristan, “I followed all of the rules, man’s and God’s. And you, you followed none of them. And they all loved you more. Samuel, Father, and my … even my own wife.” The film seems to have an admiration for the individual who breaks the rules, and presents how we may have a perverse attraction to the anarchist in us all.

Tristan says to his father as he is ready to leave that he has damned himself and others around him. But his father adamantly says that he is “not damned.” The Colonel does not see Tristan as a force for evil, just a force. O’Banion and the police arrive and say they say they are not there to arrest him, which means an execution is about to occur. The Colonel comes out and has that rifle that Tristan brought him and kills O’Banion and a cop. Crooked Sheriff Tynert is ready to shoot the Colonel as Tristan jumps in front of his dad. But Alfred is there, and kills Tynert. Alfred has returned to the fold, putting family above corrupt governmental forces. The Colonel now embraces his Alfred, welcoming him back. Tristan must leave and asks Alfred to take care of his children. Alfred says “Brother, it would be an honor.” The family regains its unity despite the adversities.

In an emotionally effective ending, Stab sums up what made Tristan who he was. He says he thought that when Tristan was a boy, because he was so daring, that he “would never live to be an old man.” As the graves are viewed, Stab admits to being wrong. Tristan was almost superhuman in his durability. Stab poetically says, “It was those who loved him most who died young. He was a rock they broke themselves against, however much he tried to protect them. But, he had his honor and a long life, and he saw his children grow and raise their own families.” (Stab must have been really old if he saw Tristan age). Tristan died in 1963. His grave is unmarked since he “always lived in the borderland, anyway, somewhere between this world and the other,” somehow inhabiting an almost supernatural dimension. He died fighting his grizzly, and Stab says, “It was a good death.” The film ends in a tableau shot, man and animal in a frozen image, looking like a sculpture, to exist for eternity. It is a mythic end, one that lends itself to legend.

Next time, Oscar picks and preferences.