Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Robert Redford, Icon Film Distribution.
A meaningful drama, A River Runs Through It is a 1992 Academy Award-winning film for Best Cinematography. The story of an American family, it was also nominated for Best Music, Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Adapted from the essentially autobiographical novella by Norman Maclean ― the film is about two brothers, their father, who is a minister and the river that in many ways shapes their lives.
Set between 1910 and 1935, fly-fishing stands for life in this movie using it as both a metaphor and meeting ground ― combining science, sport, religion and art and sometimes a quest for the mysterious grace that they all share.
Two brothers, Norman (Craig Sheffer) and Paul (Brad Pitt), grow up in Montana spending much of their time fly fishing with their stern father and local minister (Tom Skerritt). While the boys love their parents, a tough stoicism has been bred into them and they struggle to express their feelings.
The only way the three men can connect with each other is through their abiding love for fly fishing. Later in life the boys return to the river to fish and assess their lives ― where they have been and where they are headed.
The older son, Norman is the more serious one, learning to write by taking his papers into his father’s study. He wants to teach literature. As the younger brother, Pitt is an impulsive, golden-haired free spirit who drinks too much and gets in card games, and wants nothing more than to stay in Montana all of his life, working for a newspaper. However, Paul is the better fly fisherman, and who, at least one day, is perfect at what he did.
The famous first line of A River Runs Through It is repeated by the film’s narrator: “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. The story ties religion, family and fishing together in an unusual and poetic fashion. It contains a deep understanding of the complexities of family life.”
“Norman Maclean described this as a story about a deeply loving family, but a family that was troubled and whose family members finally could not understand each other.”
Director Robert Redford says: “I would probably go a step further and say that this film and the story is about being unable to help someone you love until it’s too late.”
- A River Runs Through It releases on digital on 9 November
