MovieChat Forums > Legends of the Fall (1995) Discussion > I need an urgent clarification please

I need an urgent clarification please


Watched the film the other night and I thought it'll be great to read the story!! So off I went and bought the book of eBay (honestly was expecting something in the vein of Gone with the Wind....volume wise). You know, something to really get my teeth into. Book just arrived and its a short story. Actually, there are 3 novellas in this one book not more than 500 pages!!!!!

Was the film based on a short story like "The Shawshank Redemption" or did I buy the wrong novel?!!!!

~do not go to sleep in anger, stay up and plot revenge ~

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Film is based on a novella, about 80 pages long.

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Rob is correct, unfortunately. I've seldom read a worse novel or novella turned into an excellent film! Thank the screenwriter, Susan Shilliday, actors, cinematographers and composer, James Horner for turning a sow's ear into, well, maybe not a silk purse, but a nice Gucci bag!

For a similar but much better film based on a short (but much better) novel, try "A River Runs Through It", dir. Robert Redford, with Brad Pitt as another wildman in Montana, fly-fishing and drinking hard. Norman Maclean, the author, based this on his own life and family.

She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.

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Very well said ..Shannon...I also forgot to mention James Horner's haunting musical score...I hear the theme song sometimes on Pandora and instantly know its from the movie "Legends"...


Loved your thoughts in reference as to Susanah and Tristen's choices in life etc etc...




Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer- "The Godfather, Part 2 (1974)

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Yes, this movie reminds me of "A River Runs Through It" as well.
Though both "Legends" and "A River Runs Through it" have gorgeous natural scenery,
the natural scenery of "Legends" is even more staggering. Reminds me of President Theodore Roosevelt's trips to the early midwest.
A truly spiritual experience until Brad Pitt's character (and the deceased brother's wife) start acting up more and more...


Flanagan

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As soon as I had finished the movie, I went to see if I could read the first few pages of the novella. Unfortunately, as, as you say, it is together with two others of the author's, I only got to read the first few pages of Revenge, which was also made into a very good movie of the title name starring Kevin Costner and Madeleine Stowe. It is somewhat epic, though more on the order of Brokeback Mountain in complexity rather than Legends, which seems quite epic.

I, personally, was not unhappy with Harrison's prose. Many contemporary writers seem to be writing in colloquialisms these days, like Harrison, Annie Proulx, the author of Brokeback Mountain which, as you probably know, was also a novella first; it showed up in The New Yorker; Legends was in Esquire. Also the author of The Hunger Games. It seems their approaches are esteemed by the New York intelligentsia, as compared to the prose of J.K. Rowling, Hemingway and the author of the Twilight saga, although their work can be esteemed, too, but is much more straightforward.

By the way, Jim Harrison is supposed to be something of a foodie, which was quite evident in what I got to read so far of Revenge ... not visible in the Legends movie. I guess I have a soft spot for him because he was born where I have relatives, in Grayling, MI.

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Nope, that was it! I read it also and was quite surprised. By the way, love your signature line!


Come on little pup, get back on the porch and let the big dogs play.

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It's also like Brokeback Mountain. Based on a short story, but the movie is just so, so good.

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