golden oldie 5: A River Runs Through It

 

I announce the grade (A) right up front, and will brook no back talk!  As a movie this may not be so hot, although at the very least it is pretty damned good, but as a story it, as they used to say, takes the cake.  The movie, directed by Robert Redford, is based on a book of the same name, written by Norman Maclean, a University of Chicago literature professor.  Maclean published the book in 1976, when he was 74 years old.  As far as I can ascertain, it was his first book – he published two others subsequently, neither nearly so good but certainly worth reading just the same..

In my admittedly unsophisticated opinion, A River Runs Through it is one of the finest pieces of writing ever to grace the English language.  I must have read it a half-dozen times, and each time as I finish I experience a strong gush of salt water rolling down my cheeks.  At one point I wrote a letter too Maclean, taking him to task for waiting until he was such an old fart before sharing his life and thoughts with the rest of us.  Naturally, I tore it up.

But this is about the movie.  You probably know most of the plot.  It is based rather loosely on Maclean’s real life as a kid and avid fly fisherman in western Montana.  All of the principals are excellent, especially the pair playing Norman’s father and mother.  Brad Pitt does a fine job as Norman’s reckless, doomed younger brother.  The fly-fishing sequences are beautiful; awe-inspiring to a none-to-skillful fly caster like myself.  The film certainly is sad, but ultimately uplifting in a strange, inexplicable sort of way.  If you can watch it and not cry at the end, your heart is indeed constructed of well-compacted quartz-rich terrestrially derived stone!

You’ve probably seen A River Runs Through It at least once already.  See it again.  Have some tissue handy.