Legends of the Fall (1994) Family Cemetery

Flashback to 2014! It’s a glorious Alberta day and our goal is to find and photograph a special location from the 1994 film Legends of the Fall. Target: the Ludlow Family Cemetery. There’s no roads to guide the way and only faint cart tracks or cow paths through the grass to follow. The exact location does not seem to be fully documented although with a bit of research and by talking around we had a target area.

So to find the site means wandering about until found but that’s not such a bad thing. It’s a gorgeous setting and worth the effort even if it’s missed. Something inside said it would happen, however, and success assured. We’re going to find it – we know it – and then stand where filming took place, on the very spot. Discovering things is a thrill and drives us on.

This adventure takes place on First Nation’s land typically off-limits to visitors and the time given us short. A couple hours and most of that used to hike to the spot. Other locations used in filming of Legends of the Fall are not terribly far away but we were limited to this location only.

This is a post from ten years ago but updated, tweaked a bit and the photos reedited. A database crash corrupted the original beyond repair and so with a little work presented again here as new. We lost a lot of them this way recently but most needed a do-over anyway.

The first movie image shows a river at sunrise and ours, how the locations looks today. Not much change. This comes from a transition scene, connecting one element of the story to another, and appears only briefly. As it turned out finding the spot proved simple enough and seeing it in daylight a mind-blower. It’s stunning and in spite of the brief appearance, helps set the mood.

In the following scene documented, we see Brad Pitt’s character Tristan Ludlow, at his brother’s grave in the family cemetery. It’s a touching piece as he laments the passing of his younger sibling Samuel, who died at his side on the battlefields of World War One. Tristan takes responsibly for this and it haunts him for the rest of his life.

This location required much more work to find and some scrambling. It didn’t really click until right atop it and at a distance otherwise lost among similar land features.

The third and final scene we chose to use from the movie was shot at roughly the same spot as the second, but at a slightly different angle. It the movie, we see One Stab, in the employ of the Ludlow Ranch, standing with Samuel Jr. They morn the passing of Isabel Two, Samuel Jr’s mother, Tristan’s wife and One Stab’s daughter. She was killed in a family skirmish with corrupt police officials and who were in the employ of a local bootlegger.

These last two images take place on some steep bluffs high above the river and while scenic perhaps not an ideal location for a cemetery. It’s a movie though, and dramatic backdrops the rule. Not seen is a precipitous drop-off just to the left and it’s a long way straight down to the river! There’s lots of terrain like this in the immediate area and for someone with a fear of heights, getting close to the edge feels a bit unnerving.

Other scenes shows the Ludlow Cemetery well populated with other family members and not just Samuel and Isabel Two.

In the background to the right we can see flat faced Mount Yamnuksa, a popular hiking destination, along with many other peaks of the Alberta front ranges. On our visit they were somewhat obscured by a blue haze (from forest fires) but that’s common out this way come summer. Every summer smoke gets blown in from elsewhere and sticks around.

Legends of the Fall got released some thirty years ago now and for the most part well received. It’s about the trials and tribulations of a family of brothers and their father living on a remote wilderness ranch in the early part of the twentieth century. The story takes place in Montana but with Alberta substituting for most locations. They two are so similar in many ways and it’s not a hard for one to fill in for the other.

While not Brad Pitt’s first work – his acting resume goes back to the late 1980s – Legends of the Fall did however catapult him to stardom. In the words of many, “he’s dreamy” and yours truly almost inspired to grow long flowing locks like Tristan. Nah, Brad doesn’t need the competition.

There’s little doubt or question why the producers choose this area for filming of this western. It feels remote, lost in time and incredible in its scenic splendor. Imagine it on a big screen. There’s a palpable old west feel to the area and no doubt the movie folks felt the same on seeing it.

Interestingly, a scene from the 1950s Marilyn Monroe movie River of No Return was filmed nearby to this location. Other westerns have also been made in the area.

We really enjoyed shooting this series. The gorgeous setting made it a visual treat, the work to get it done proved both challenging and enjoyable,
which we like, and the subject matter to us incredibly interesting. It made for a fun and exhilarating outing.

This series goes back to when were still learning the T&N ropes and equipped with sometimes less than adequate gear. As such, the alignment is not as spot on as we like (the time crunch and that precipitous drop off were both clouding our minds) plus the image quality suffers a bit due to a lackluster camera. It’s such a wow place, but the pics seem a little muddy in our shots. Still, it’s good enough and that we’re likely to never pay the site a revisit (they told us one time only) means it’ll work well enough here.

Images from the movie are copyright TriStar Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Know more about the movie: (new tab): Legends of the Fall (1994).

They’re saying…

“Their photography is wonderful and I love to read the background stories to the images.” Peg Strankman.

More like this…
Superman 1978: Cemetery Scenes. From the Christopher Reeve blockbuster.
Firebird 2015AD Then & Now. A schlock movie filmed in the Alberta badlands.
Brokeback Mountain then and now – Twist Ranch. The home’s abandoned now.

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Date of adventure: August, 2014.

Searching out Legends of the Fall filming locations.

Brad Pitt, as Tristan, in a touching moment from the film.

A similar angle for a scene with One Stab and Samuel Jr.

A wrecked boat across the Bow River.

Steep bluffs and amazing scenery abound.

You can see why the producers choose these spots.

On the way out, some rafters are spotted.