A Stroke Can Kill

The Notebook begins as World War II is winding down. As an ally of Nazi Germany and part of the Axis Powers Hungary is on the losing end. The movie focuses on two young twin boys (András and László Gyémánt), whose names we never learn. They are 12 when the movie begins in the summer of 1944 and 13 when the movie ends in the summer of 1945.

“Brad was the best and the brightest: owned a successful business, had a beautiful wife and family, was in the prime of his life. But he gave himself a stroke , and died on my office floor. I’d like to make that the last one I witness.” Joe Anderson, PhD. So that’s where we’ll begin.

The "Fall" isn't autumn; the title is in reference to the Biblical fall from innocence. The "Legends" are the Ludlow brothers; level-headed Alfred (Aidan Quinn), wild Tristan (Brad Pitt), and idealistic Samuel (Henry Thomas). Legends of the Fall takes place in the picturesque Montana Rockies in the early 1900s and spans twenty years, as told by an elder Indian, One Stab (Gordon Tootoosis), who knew the legendary Ludlows. A true epic, the stormy story of their lives includes love, loss, war, and redemption. A mystical grizzly bear shadows Tristan his whole life, perhaps even shaping his destiny. Tristan carries the creature's claw with him as sort of a talisman, and at the end of his life he has another fateful encounter with the bruin (who was played by Bart the Bear).
Based upon the novella by Jim Harrison.