Normally love dramas don't interest me, since I find them boring and predictable. This film, while being more than "just" a good love drama, really impressed me. Many of the scenes are quite visually beautiful, some in cinematography, others in content. As a love drama, it's moving, and at times almost poetically beautiful. It involves three men, brothers, who are all in love with the same woman. She has a relationship with each of them, but ultimately realizes that she only loves one of them. The plot is very good, and evolves at the right pace for this type of story. Not terribly fast, but never stands still either. The actors all portray their respective characters well, nearly all of them giving a perfect performance. Anthony Hopkins is great, as always. There was not really anything in this movie that disappointed me. The ending scene involves some of the best cinematography I've ever seen. There is a very emotional scene near the end which is also one of the most visually beautiful I've ever seen in a movie. I recommend this to most fans of love dramas, and, to a lesser extent, fans of war dramas. 8/10

Col. William Ludlow (Anthony Hopkins) hoped to escape the world to live in Montana. He would raise 3 sons Alfred (Aidan Quinn),Samuel (Henry Thomas),and Tristan (Brad Pitt) in an idyllic life. However, the first World War and the arrival of Samuel's girl Susannah Fincannon (Julia Ormond) would put a strain in all their lives.

It's very grand. It's a little too grand. It's too literary. There are great actors here. But even they can't elevate it beyond melodrama. Maybe they participated in overacting especially Brad Pitt. There is no time for subtlety. The landscape vistas are majestic. The music is sweeping. The emotions are big. The betrayals are epic. The losses are unimaginable. The journeys are soul wrenching.

It may be impossible to do otherwise with the material. But I like to see it tried with a bit more restraint.

Stellar performances by the principals highlight this early Twentieth Century period piece, with an epic scope that spans the era of World War I and tells the story of a family torn apart, not so much by a global conflict as much as the internal one among it's own members. This is one of those pictures one might seek out for entertainment, but for all that, it's not an entertaining picture. The rifts that occur between the Ludlow Brothers fester for years to come following the Big War, as the presence of Susannah Fincannon (Julia Ormond) serves as a catalyst for a family's undoing. It's Susannah that my summary line refers to, spoken by Cree Indian One Stab (Gordon Tootoosis) who's understanding of the ways of Man and nature permeate this story with insightful recognition. Exceptional cinematography and an emotional soundtrack complement the flow of the film nicely, though one must contend with the director's sense of melodrama that at times tends to overwhelm the narrative.