Extraordinary movie

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2016)

More than 20 years after this film was made, here is my contribution to these wonderful comments. This story is transformative. It is simple yet complex, tragic but uplifting, flawed yet perfect. It is the story of all of us, for we will all have tombstones one day, but whilst we live, we make right and wrong choices or life makes them for us. Life also creates moments that we treasure when those we love are healthy and happy and youthful. This movie permits us to share these moments with the Ludlows, frozen in time, looping over and over. I watch it and imagine different life choices: what if Susannah really grew to love dear gentle Alfred, for what greater gift in life is there than to be truly and deeply loved? What if she said to Tristan in that cell, wounded and crushed as he was, that she and Alfred will care for his children until he is free? What if Tristan didn't bootleg? The tombstones will still be there, the bear may still have raged within Tristan, but life would have been richer and kinder for all.