Continuity mistake: When Samuel is dying and Tristan is sitting over him, from one angle Tristan's hand is covering his mouth, but in the reverse angle it's down.
Continuity mistake: When Samuel dies in the movie, if you watch closely there is blood running down his face in only every other shot. (00:43:37)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan pushes one of his bootlegger opponents into a pitchfork the spikes are coming out of his chest. The way they were wrestling chest to chest Tristan should have been seriously injured too. (01:51:00)
Continuity mistake: When Suzanna comes in for dinner the first night there, all the guys raise something to give her, but Tristan goes to raise his plate. But cutting back from her reaction, he has only lifted his glass to drink. (00:15:20)
Continuity mistake: Susannah's hair problems during her first encounter with Tristan after his many years of absence have been stressed already. But Tristan's hair has an even stronger mind of its own, as there is a wide strand combed back covering his parting, which looks as if it has been fixed elaborately, but which nevertheless comes and goes during the scene. (01:25:50)
Continuity mistake: After Tristan's second return he comes to Susannah's house. They make eye contact while he is still standing behind the wall. The camera cuts to Susannah and then back to him, and he is standing in the garden, with no time in between to walk further down to the gate and enter. (01:24:55)
Continuity mistake: Tristan is seen sailing on the ocean. In all panorama shots the boat is a two-master, but when you see him behind the steering wheel there is one mast only. (01:09:20)
Continuity mistake: During Samuel's death where Tristan is cradling him in his arms, there is a stream of blood at the corner of Samuel's mouth. The camera cuts to Tristan's reaction, but when it cuts back to Samuel, the blood is gone. In later shots of Tristan preparing to remove his heart, the blood stream reappears. (00:44:00 - 00:44:55)
Continuity mistake: When Susannah and Alfred talk at Samuel's grave the way Susannah's hair is blown back, forward, or not moving at all changes from shot to shot. (00:48:30)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan attacks the policeman who has shot his wife he gets hit on his cheek with a rubber truncheon. However, in the next shot the blood is running from his temple. (01:39:15)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan returns to see Suzanne at her new home with Alfred, her hair is down. But in every shot her hair is either pulled behind her ear, then both sides in her face, then one side pulled back, and so on. (01:25:55)
Continuity mistake: When Susannah finds Tristan crying at Samuel's grave she takes him into her arms and consoles him. This is seen from different angles, with Tristan's hair behind his ear or not, and in one strange brief shot with a straight, expressionless face, very different from all others where he is sobbing hard and his face is twisted with grief. (00:53:25)
Continuity mistake: When Susannah comes to the ranch she takes a photograph of the three brothers. Alfred is holding a glass and has both legs up. At the end of the movie Tristan looks at the picture, and Alfred's glass is missing, and one leg is stretched out. (01:54:00)
Continuity mistake: When the second German cavalryman attacks Tristan he is aiming his rifle at him. When he gets shot down he is holding on to the reins, and the rifle is gone. (00:39:40)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan and Samuel talk about premarital sex, some strands on Tristan's right temple hang down or are tucked behind his ear alternatingly. (00:20:30)
Continuity mistake: When Tristan and Samuel hug in the trenches in the war, at first Tristan's chin is on top of Samuel's hat, but when it cuts to the other angle, their heads are level, side by side. (00:36:00)
Continuity mistake: In the scene of Alfred and Tristan at Susanna's grave, when shots of Alfred show him speaking to Tristan, he looks to his right, as if the two men were side by side and facing the grave, and they seem to have been side by side in the last shot in that scene, when they leave the grave-site. However, the sun lights the left side of Alfred's face, and in the alternating shots, which show Tristan listening to Alfred, the sunlight is on the right side of Tristan's face.
Answer: There's nothing to tell us who the listener is. Your theory that it's probably a family member seems entirely reasonable, but there's nothing in the film that would allow the identity of the listener to be narrowed down any further than that.
Tailkinker ★