Metacritic reviews

The latest offering from Edward Zwick, the director of "Glory," is the kind of movie that doesn't require much effort to surrender to and enjoy.

It's pretty good, in fact, with full-blooded performances and heartfelt melodrama.

What makes Legends such an entertaining male weepie is the star shine. Though the admirable Quinn has the toughest role, Pitt carries the picture.

The golden shadows of the waning Old West are thrown across the big screen with full reverential treatment in this solid, unsurprising rendition of Jim Harrison's widely praised novella.

The camerawork, which relies heavily on shots of picture-perfect vistas and not enough on human beings and their place in this world. When we do see the characters, we primarily see their beauty.

Legends of the Fall is so gorgeous that its failure to catch fire seems a piddling concern.

These are performances that lost too much in the editing room, smothered by music and overshadowed by a picture-postcard vision of the American West.

Legends of the Fall never makes you think too hard; its woes-of-a-proud-family formula takes a back seat to a self-conscious visual style that strains toward the level of myth.

We're left with our stifled laughter and a very long movie.

It doesn't take long to realize that Legends is an unintentional howler.