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A River Runs Through
It is an excellent movie that anyone who likes Montana, Robert
Redford, fly fishing or Brad Pitt will enjoy. A River Runs
Through It is about two brothers (played by Brad Pitt and
Craig Sheffer) who grow up in the early 1920's in Missoula,
Montana. Their father, played by Tom Skeritt, is a stern preacher
who also loves to fly fish on the local river, the Blackfoot
River, and who also instills on his sons the love of the sport.
A River Runs Through
It should be seen by anyone who enjoys fly fishing. Its' picturesque
scenes of Montana and fly fishing make the movie worth seeing
by itself. Throw in the superb story, excellent acting and
solid directing by Robert Redford (who also narrates the film),
and you have the recipe for an excellent night spent watching
a movie.
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River Runs Through It on DVD
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River Runs Through It on VHS
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River Runs Through It: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
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River Runs Through It and Other Stories
Amazon
Customer Review #1
Sublime, Picturesque,
an Ode to the American Land
I have
seen all the films directed by Robert Redford and appreciated
his love of the American people and the land. In A River Runs
Through It, Redford displays the lyric romanticism and visual
splendor of the high Rocky Mountins of Montana as if he were
a 19th century landscape painter of the ilk of Thomas Moran
or Albert Bierstadt. This film makes love to the visual and
the word, with text by author Norman Maclean, and stunning
camera work by Phillippe Rousselot (Serpent's Kiss, Reigne
Margot).
Redford's
cast is perfect. Tom Skerritt is the Rev. MacLean, a man whose
methods of education include fly fishing as well as the Bible,
Brenda Blythen, the mother, and his sons, Craig Schaffer and
Brad Pitt create a family whose interactions reflect the same
problems all encounter with growing teenage sons, and later,
complex young men. Both Schaffer and Pitt are totally believable
as the brothers whose love of fly fishing and each other will
tie them together forever.
It is
the relationships between men, father and sons, brothers,
and their women to the outside world that grounds A River
Runs Through It to a vein of storytelling that is missing
in so many of Hollywood films produced in recent years.
What makes
these relationships special however, is the attention Redford
gives to the language as spoken in dialogue. This is a literate
script, beautiful to hear and unforgettable when coupled with
the stunning Montana rivers and mountains. The words and setting
are equal to performances by a cast that rises to their material.
While the idea of fly fishing may seem an odd device to center
a story, it is not so implausible in Redford's directorial
hands. Given the material, Redford's ode to a simpler time
and life is worth revisiting again and again. This treasure
of a film should be included in every collection.
Amazon
Customer Review #2
Redford Is An
Amazing Director
The story
is a somewhat autobiographical account of Norman Maclean's
life, complete with flyfishing in the beautiful wilderness
of early 1900s Montana. Norman's father (Tom Skerritt) was
a Presbyterian minister and his younger brother Paul (Brad
Pitt) was recklessly adventurous. Norman (Craig Sheffer) and
Paul, as boys, learn not only religion from their father;
there are many lessons in flyfishing as well because Reverend
Maclean feels that only through learning God's rhythms can
they regain the power and beauty that man has, in general,
lost. It is from these fishing lessons that the boys learn
a love of nature and her gifts as well as developing a standard
by which to judge all people who they were to meet in life.
From the
moment that this movie begins you know from the melodic sound
of Redford's voice narrating Norman's thoughts that you have
stumbled onto something very different and special. As you
continue to watch the music score and cinematography confirm
that this film was a labor of love.
Every
scene looks as though it is a beautiful painting of a clean
and fresh outdoor scene -- the river bends at just the right
spot, the sun glints off of the water at just the right angle.
The story is told in a slow and natural way with the music
score setting the perfect tone. We follow the fortunes of
the Maclean family through Norman's eyes and Redford's voice
and the story has a genuine ring of truth to it.
Although
all the acting in this film is absolutely top-notch, the performance
by Brad Pitt stands out. It's not that he does anything terribly
noteworthy like having a limp or a difficult foreign accent,
but rather that he plays his part with genuine perfection
and believability. He makes us like him (as his family did)
even though we see that the path he is taking isn't necessarily
the best one for him (as again his family did). There is one
scene in the film that he captures his part perfectly in (as
well as being one of the most beautifully put together sequence
of scenes ever filmed); it is when the two boys go fishing
with their father at the end of the movie. "Thank you,
o merciful professor of poetry and trout," he tells his
brother and then goes on to do battle with one of the largest
fish of his life.
I've always
had a tremendous amount of respect for Robert Redford - both
as an entertainment figure and as a person who has a deep
concern for the environment and human rights.
I loved
this movie the first time I saw it at a small theater in Toronto
when RR unveiled it during the Toronto film festival. Many
years larer, it has lost none of its magic.
Amazon
Customer Review #3
Wonderful
Film By Robert Redford!
When this
film was first released, some critics called it more a travel
commercial for Montana than anything else, since it so lovingly
handles the scenes of the family members involved in the sacrament
of fly-fishing. For those of us who fell in love with the
original novel celebrating the ways in which the fishing proclivities
of these two brothers framed the outlines of a wonderful story
about coming of age, and the tragedy of personal misdirection,
this film adaptation by Robert Redford strikes a responsive
chord. As he did in "the Natural' and also in "The
Horse Whisperer", Redford uses the staggering beauty
of the natural environment to emphasize in boldface the ways
in which each of us makes decisions as to how to conduct ourselves
in ways that either foster our own development and growth,
on the one hand, or to take a more sinister route, on the
other.
Brad Pitt
is perfectly cast here, in the first opportunity he had to
show his amazing acting range as the brother hell-bent on
doing things the hard and ultimately destructive way in stark
contrast to his older brother, played well by Craig Sheffer,
who seems more grounded, better oriented, and more likely
to be able to carry out his dreams, which ultimately take
him away from his beloved Montana.
The story
basically revolves around the ways in which the choices each
makes based on their own needs, perceptions, and personality
seals their fates. In this sense it is as much a morality
play as a story about the ways in which love and involvement
don't necessarily cure all ills. Of course, it is also a story
about the relationship each of the brothers has with their
father, a minister who considers fishing more a religious
activity than a sport. Yet Pitt's character, a natural fly-fisherman
who casts like a dream, is unable to translate this particular
form of genius into his own personal life to give him either
peace or happiness.
It is
a lovely film, a terrific period piece, and a lovingly directed
bit of transformation of a superb novel to the silver screen.
We see so many characteristic Redford touch that one really
can watch the movie just for the fishing scenes and come away
dazzled by the way he employs the camera in a way that catches
the marvel of Montana so unforgettably. I love this film.
Enjoy!
A
River Runs Through It on DVD
A
River Runs Through It on VHS
A
River Runs Through It: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
A
River Runs Through It and Other Stories
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