The Legend of the Fall 《燃情岁月》

The film argues that pain allows a person to come to a “higher” and more fundamental understanding of life, thus experiencing the growth of the mind. The fights between the brothers, especially between Alfred and Tristan, for the love of Susan, distance their relationships and make all three people feel great mental pain. Alfred loves Susan dearly, but Susan does not love him back. Her real affection goes towards Tristan. This fact tortures Alfred constantly, naturally creating an emotional gap between him and Tristan. Tristan, on the other hand, because of his wild and adventurous soul, and especially because of the mental wounds caused by the war, is unable to settle down, or accept the love from Susan. This insecurity from Tristan inflicts great mental pain on Susan. In the end, Susan is married to Alfred, but she does not feel happy and does not dare to face her soul and heart. Eventually, she commits suicide. After Susan commits suicide, the heart-wrenching pain related to this relationship seems to be alleviated. From such mental torture, both brothers, especially Alfred, come to realize the importance or value of brotherly relationships and come to cherish family life and unity more. A final, warming moment that testifies this growth of mind is when Alfred saves Tristan and their father’s lives by shooting dead a police officer that is about to kill them with a gun, even though he knows that being a senator already, killing a police officer can be extremely detrimental to his political career. This warming action is evidence of a deeper understanding of family relationships. This deeper understanding only originates from the initial mental pain.

Further, the film seeks to answer, in two different ways, the question of how a person can potentially find meaning and value in life even though fate ultimately takes over. First, the movie emphasizes the importance of following one’s heart and positively acting instead of simply succumbing to the power of fate. After his younger brother, Samuel, and wife, Isabel are killed one after the other in the cruelest sense in the arms of Tristan, fate undoubtedly poses the most severe challenges to Tristan. For many, having one’s own little brother die in such a way is enough to pull out all the meanings in life. But Tristan is determined to re-find the meaning and value of life, although fate is brutal. He follows what his heart calls for and attempts to cure himself in nature and adventures. He sails around the world, he conducts small, “dirty” businesses, and he finally dies valiantly fighting a bear in the forest, his body blending into the nature he lives by. He positively acts in the face of fate, refusing to sink into nihilism and trying to use his own willpower and mindset to break the shackles, to achieve the limits of human freedom. I think the ultimate value of one’s life is if the mind is freed of any restrictions, and one can freely follow wherever their heart leads, living a life of iridescence, of strong flavor, just like that of Tristan.

Second, given fate’s eventual irresistible nature, one has to fiercely love to seek meaning and value, to seek the ultimate freedom in life. One has to fiercely love another person and love their family. In the film, when Alfred is doomed by fate that he will never experience a happy marriage because Susan is unwilling to love him back, he decides not to quit life, but to love more deeply, and to devote that love to his family. If a person can love with all their heart, then their lives should be infused with rich emotions and colors, their lives would be ignited. However, one also has to fiercely love the surrounding world and even love fate itself. Like Tristan, no matter what fate has to offer, if a person still sees the beauty of nature, the beauty of human emotional connections, the beauty of unpredictable fate, and love them from the bottom of the heart, then the person will be freed from any chronic sufferings brought by fate, as they immerse themselves in the love towards the surrounding environment. If a person does not suffer anymore from whatever decision fate makes, then one can freely follow wherever their heart leads, discovering the final value and meaning that are embodied in this freedom.

Alongside the riveting plot, the theme music is additionally one of the incredible complements to the film. We can view the entire five minutes of the theme music not as musical notes, but as a story, a story just like that of Tristan. At the start, there is only the piano, playing the first motif of the piece. This first motif is clear, is naïve. It depicts a scene like the first one in the film, where the main character has not started his adventures in life yet, and when the world he knows is still simple and pure. Then, gradually, some of the strings begin to play the second motif. It is slow, broad, vast in magnitude, containing even a solemn mood. It is like when fate first comes in, like when Samuel’s heartbeat stops in the arms of Tristan. The complexities of the world, of fate, are starting to impact our character. Finally, the rest of the orchestra joins in, and the melody is moved up by approximately one octave. It is like the character, impacted by the decision of fate, begins his adventures to perhaps find the ultimate meaning to life, or perhaps simply to explore the limits of human freedom or willpower. However, there are still softer transitional phrases between the magnificent second motif, as if the central character is looking back on the flow of time, reminiscing to the moments when everything was simple and naïve. Still, our character carries on with his adventures, feeling the colorful and magnificent surrounding world. Towards the end, two violins play the first motif again. This time, though, it sounds as if the character grows through experiencing the adventures and the power of fate. This growth can be detected because the very first time the first motif appears, the piano only plays a melody that has one texture. In the violin repetition, however, there are multiple layers to the melody, which imply that the world the character now understands is more complex and more meaningful. 

In our lives, we cannot avoid times when fate makes us feel helpless, tries to persuade us to succumb, and sink into nihilism. In fact, according to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, we all in our lives go through this state of nihilism – the idea that life has no value or meaning. To understand life more fundamentally, to leave the state of nihilism, to infuse life with meaning, we must use our willpower and, in the words of Nietzsche, adhere to the idea of an “Overman”, who “must transcend the established morals and prejudices of human society to define their own purpose and values in life”. Legends of the Fall shows us exactly the idea of Nietzsche. Faced with the unforgiving fate, Tristan uses his willpower to positively act and to fiercely love, eventually ridding the mind of all restrictions and gaining the freedom to follow where his heart leads, leaving the state of nihilism and finding the colors or values of his life. I think he ultimately becomes an “Overman”, at least to some degree, transcending the given orders of human society, living a life of ultimate freedom and value.

WORKS CITED

"Legends of the Fall · The Ludlows." YouTube, uploaded by HD Film Tributes, HD 
     Film Tributes, 16 Aug. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iio8QmZY8A. Accessed 
     30 Jan. 2022.

人生的痛苦如何让一个人对生命有一个 "更高"、更根本的理解？当凡人的生活被命运所控制时，一个人如何找到生命的意义和价值？这些哲学问题的答案在史诗级电影《燃情岁月》中被巧妙地编织在一起。这部电影讲述了三个兄弟的故事，老大阿尔弗雷德，然后是崔斯坦，以及最小的塞缪尔。阿尔弗雷德认真、坚定、精明，是从事商业和政治工作的完美人选。崔斯坦狂野、大胆、无拘无束，在大自然中生活，酷爱冒险。塞缪尔优雅、温和、有修养，看上去要成为一个学者般的人。然而，他们的命运因塞缪尔的未婚妻苏珊的到来而变得传奇，尤其是在第一次世界大战期间，塞缪尔死于德国人的炮火之后，两兄弟同时对于苏珊展开争夺。在整部影片中，三兄弟之间，主要是阿尔弗雷德、崔斯坦和苏珊之间的关系不断引申出开始的两个问题。连同剧情本身的戏剧性，他们之间的关系和各自的故事使观众感知最终的答案。

影片向我们展示了痛苦使人对生活有了 "更高 "和更根本的理解，从而体验到心灵的成长。兄弟之间的争斗，特别是阿尔弗雷德和崔斯坦之间为苏珊的爱而进行的争斗，拉远了兄弟之间的关系，更使三个人都感到巨大的精神痛苦。阿尔弗雷德深爱着苏珊，但苏珊并不爱他。她内心真正的爱是对崔斯坦的，这一事实不断地折磨着阿尔弗雷德，他自然地与他的弟弟产生了感情隔阂。另一方面崔斯坦，由于他的野性和冒险的灵魂，尤其是战争给他带来的巨大的精神创伤，使他无法安定下来，更无法接受苏珊的爱。崔斯坦在爱情中所展示的这种不安全感或不确定性给苏珊带来了巨大的精神痛苦。最后，苏珊嫁给了阿尔弗雷德，但她并没有感到幸福，她无法直面自己的灵魂、自己的心，最终选择了自杀。在苏珊自杀后，与这段关系有关的撕心裂肺的痛苦似乎得到了缓解。从这样的精神折磨中，两兄弟，尤其是阿尔弗雷德认识到兄弟关系的重要性或价值，并更加珍惜家庭生活和团结。影片最后，一个证明这种心灵成长的温暖时刻是，阿尔弗雷德用枪打死了一个要杀崔斯坦和他们父亲的警察，拯救了两个人的生命，尽管他知道，作为一名参议员，杀死一个警察会对他的政治生涯极为不利。这个温暖的行动是对家庭关系更深刻理解的证据，而这种更深刻的理解只可能源于最初的精神痛苦。