Your thoughts on A River Runs Through It

[TyroneFly]

Like Jaws, I just can't figure out why this movie influenced so many people. I received my scuba certification around the time Jaws was released. The movie was so hockie that it did not stop me from diving or fear sharks in such a way that it could only be described as paranoya (sp?). So it is with the movie a River Runs Through It. A few fly fishing scenes and somehow people are moved (driven) to start fly fishing in numbers never seen before or since the movie.

Brad Pitt can be a good actor at times. I liked him in Interview With a Vampire and Oceans Eleven. But there are times like in this movie he is really bad! Craig Sheffer on the other hand was very good. I liked his character. If only they had paired him with a worthy actor it would have made this okay movie worth renting again.

I just could not get passed Brad Pitt's terrible acting to really enjoy or understand the movies mass appeal.

[Eric-WD]

Watch the movie with the sound off and fast forward through the parts that dont involve fishing.

I think the appeal in the movie is that fly fishing in the movie shows it to be an art, it brings out the best in fly casting, makes it look so peaceful and flowing kind of like a ballet with a rod and reel.

btw I much prefered the book to the movie.

I also enjoyed Jaws, but I think I was 12, and it didnt keep me out of the Ocean.

Eric

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

Just watched it the other night . I liked the big wide casts the Kids did and then the evolvement of their casts as the movie went on. The plot of the movie was b rated. In my opinion it would have benefited from a better story line. I have no idea why the general public like this movie.
Though I love fly fishing I found the movie boring.

Maybe its a kind of chick flick because just because Brad was in it. . Now if Angelina Jolie co starred with Brad It would have been academy award fodder.

The cliffhanger ending of the movie could have been the memorable line that He flung back at her as he rode off into the sunset Would have been " Quite Frankly my Dear I don't fish the dam"

[modocdan]

It's a movie....strictly Hollywood. Enjoyable entertainment, and the fishing part of the movie is pretty interesting subject matter. The rest is just moviedom ga-ga.
about one or two notches above mindless entertainment. By all means no classic, and don't take it too seriously. Better on DVD, cause you can rewind to see good stuf twice, and fasf forward to burn through the lame stuff..........ModocDan

[Joe Valencic]

Got the DVD for a gift long after I read the book. I try to never watch a movie after reading a book, because I'm usually disappointed. Yep, the same thing happened this time.

[TyroneFly]

Joe,

What did you think of the book? Never read it myself. Should I?

[hoosierhackler]

Joe,

What did you think of the book? Never read it myself. Should I?

Tyrone, The short answer in my opinion is yes

As you may know McClain's day job for a number of years was an English Professor at the University of Chicago an institution whose liberal ambiance and emphasis on the theoretic makes it significantly different from Missoula, Mt. He had something of a reputation as a curmudgeon who took great pleasure in rejecting the first efforts of his student essays in the terse manner that his father rejected his own early attempts at writing. Only with work would his demeanor soften revealing a humane side that is evident in his writing.

His literary background is evident in the poetic nature of many of the book's passages. His description of grace through art through work as applied to fly fishing is a literary example of elitism that we fly fisheman are all too often accused of. In that same presbyterian vein the description of the fly cast is not only elegant but is useful to the neophyte's perception of proper technique.

His closing description of an old man who has outlived his family fishing alone in the fishing alone in the closing light of the canyon hoping for the rise of a trout and surrounded by memories is one of my favorite passages in the literature of angling.

The long reply is therefore that this is a small novelette well worth the time of any fisherman.

[Grubb]

I liked the movie, I enjoyed it, its a very nice family Sunday movie, with great outdoor shots and includes some nice fly fishing...

[analogbob]

I read it in the 80's when I was recovering from a pulmonary embolism and confined to my home for a month. It's a fine tale about coming of age on the west slope of the Montana Rockies in the 30's and 40's with some excellent incidental anecdotes about fly fishing and it's importance to the family patriarch.

Bob

[Flyandtie1]

Never even watched the movie or read the book myself.....

Doesn't sound like im missing much.