American Pastoral

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2018)

I've always loved this movie and wanted to post a review, yet the power of the story always seemed too big and grand to put into words. Oddly enough, it was seeing a truly awful movie, AMERICAN PASTORAL with Ewan McGregor and Dakota Fanning, that helped me understand why LEGENDS OF THE FALL is a classic.
An All-American patriarch tries to protect his children from the evils of the modern world, only to see the safe haven he's built utterly destroyed by the tragic choices they make. That is the plot of both LEGENDS OF THE FALL and AMERICAN PASTORAL. The difference is in the richness of the acting, the passions of the characters, and the truthfulness of the drama.
Ewan McGregor is pitiably miscast and inauthentic as Swede Levov. You never, ever believe this guy used to be a great football hero and that everyone in Newark, New Jersey admires him. Whereas Anthony Hopkins, even though he's English, is totally believable as Colonel Ludlow, a tough veteran of the Indian Wars who's become disillusioned by the crimes of the government and wants a new start. When he says he wants to "lose the madness over the mountains" he could be speaking for Swede Levov, who moves from Newark to Old Rimrock!
Just the way Swede puts all his hopes in his daughter Merry, so tough old Colonel Ludlow puts all his hopes in his three sons, Alfred, Samuel, and Tristan. It's a father's love that makes the Colonel call his sons "damned fools" for wanting to get mixed up in World War One, just as Swede Levov desperately wants his daughter to keep clear of the anti-war radicals during Vietnam.
The difference is that the wildness of Tristan, the innocence of Samuel, and the ambition of Alfred, are all believably human and touching. In time love and war will shatter all three of them in different ways, just as Merry is shattered by the radical actions she undertakes during Vietnam. Except Merry's passion is never believable, nor is her anger, nor are her father Swede's pathetic attempts to stop her. Colonel Ludlow and his sons are a real family and they clash in realistic ways, before, during, and after the war. It is interesting that Tristan's postwar breakdown parallels Merry's in a lot of ways, right down to the long disappearances and the lapses in personal hygiene. But Tristan acts out of a real sense of loss and it's possible to believe in his redemption.
Colonel Ludlow never stops believing in his boys, and when he tells Tristan at the very end "you are not damned, Tristan . . . I won't allow it!" It's unbelievably touching. Oddly enough, Swede Levov has exactly the same attitude towards Merry, except her crimes are disgusting and the Swede himself is ridiculously ineffectual all throughout the drama.
These two American stories are so similar, yet different. As Mark Twain once said, it's the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.