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Legends of the Fall
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==Plot== <!-- Per WP:FILMPLOT, plot summary should be between 400 to 700 words. --> The film is narrated by One Stab, a [[Cree]] friend of the Ludlows, as he tells the family story to a newspaper reporter. Sick of betrayals the [[Federal government of the United States|US government]] perpetrated on [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]s, Colonel William Ludlow leaves the [[United States Army|Army]], moving to a remote part of [[Montana]]. Along with One Stab, he builds a ranch and raises his family. Accompanying them are hired hand and former outlaw Decker with his Cree wife Pet, and daughter Isabel Two. William has three sons: Alfred, the eldest; Tristan, the middle son; and Samuel, the youngest. William's wife Isabel does not adapt to the harsh Montana winters and moves to the East Coast; Tristan vows never to speak of her. At age 12, Tristan touches a sleeping grizzly bear, which awakens and injures him, but he cuts off a claw. Years later in 1914, Samuel returns from [[Harvard University]] with his fiancée, Susannah. Before they can marry, he announces his intention to join the [[Canadian Expeditionary Force]] and aid [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] in the fight against [[German Empire|Germany]] in [[World War I]]. Much to William's displeasure, Alfred also joins. Tristan reluctantly joins after swearing to Susannah to protect Samuel. The brothers find themselves in the [[10th Battalion (Canadians), CEF|10th Battalion, CEF]]. Alfred, commissioned as an officer, leads a charge into [[no man's land]]. The attack results in heavy casualties and he is wounded. While visiting Alfred in the field hospital, Tristan learns that Samuel volunteered for a dangerous reconnaissance mission. He rushes off to protect his brother but arrives too late. Tristan holds Samuel until he dies, then cuts out his brother's heart and sends it home to be buried at the ranch. Maddened with grief, Tristan single-handedly raids the German lines and returns to camp with the scalps of German soldiers hanging around his neck, horrifying his fellow soldiers. He is discharged but does not go home. Alfred returns to Montana and proposes to Susannah, but she declines. Tristan returns home, where Susannah finds him weeping over Samuel's grave. She comforts him and they become lovers. A jealous Alfred confronts Tristan before leaving to make his name in [[Helena, Montana|Helena]]. Tristan is plagued with guilt over Samuel's death and feels responsible for driving Alfred away; he leaves Montana and travels the world for several years. Susannah vows to wait for Tristan but eventually receives a letter from him telling her to marry someone else. Alfred comforts her, and when William finds them together, it leads to a falling out between father and son. William later suffers a stroke, does not speak for years and the ranch deteriorates. Susannah marries Alfred, now a congressman. Alfred's business and politics cause him to get involved with the O'Banion brothers, Irish bootleggers and gangsters. Tristan returns in the 1920s during [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]], bringing life back to the ranch and to his father. He falls in love with Isabel Two and they marry and have two children. Tristan becomes involved in small-scale [[rum-running]], finding himself at odds with the O'Banions. Isabel Two is accidentally killed by a corrupt police officer working for the gangsters. Furious, Tristan beats the officer nearly to death and is jailed. Susannah visits Tristan, still having feelings for him, but he refuses her advances. After his release, he and Decker kill those responsible for Isabel's death, including one of the O'Banion brothers. Unable to live without Tristan, Susannah commits suicide. The remaining O'Banion brother, along with the corrupt sheriff and another officer, come after Tristan in revenge. At the ranch, William shoots and kills the O'Banion brother and the police officer, and Alfred kills the sheriff as Tristan shields William. Alfred reconciles with his father and brother. The family realizes that Tristan will be blamed for the deaths and hunted relentlessly by the O'Banion's allies, prompting him to ask Alfred to take care of his children. They then bury the bodies and dump the car in the Missouri River. Tristan outlives everyone else in the family, and watches his children and grandchildren grow. In 1963, Tristan, now an old man living in the North Country, investigates an animal carcass and is confronted by a grizzly bear. He draws his knife, fights it and dies in the struggle. One Stab concludes his narration with, "It was a good death".
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