OLN Fly fishing show

[bones]

I'm with wes... IMO the story is based on the profoundly dysfunctional heart of the family. The fleeting emotional unions of the family only come about through fly fishing. Emotionally safe, almost reclusive in its stoic beauty, Fly fishing becomes the only avenue of feelings between them that can be expressed, closeness was only on the river. Validation was to be won, not given from father to sons. The father lived to regret that. While the scenes are stunning the story is dark
It??s been a while since I have read the book or seen the movie. I think I will read the book again. The movie, though pretty, widened a lot of trails and sold a lot of ranchettes (sp) and pounded even more fish. It should have been about golf ??


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harry mason
[url=http://www.troutflies.com:94272]http://www.troutflies.com[/url:94272]

[bones]

tyflier
<<<FWIW--im not trying to single anyone out. ive just heard, repeatedly, that "the movie" caused alot of people to start fly fishing "for the wrong reasons" and i was really curious what exactly that meant to you guys...>>>

Lots, but not all did so because it was the next new thing to do. The dot com?ers had the time and $$ but tennis was old and golf was stuffy and FF'ing looked new and challenging plus there were places that looked like the ?River? and for a few bucks one could grab the golden glow of a Montana sunset. Prior to the flick I do not recall adding up fish I stuck or having anyone ask how many or how big etc. There was a pronounced lack of reverence for the resource and thier environs. FF?ing became combat fishing with a fly rod. To this day I recall getting in a guys face about what I saw him do. Most of the upper Madison has a short rocky drop off to the water in the area I was fishing. It?s about six feet above the water. It was dusk and up river come three guys all in a hurry, agitated like. They were throwing big stone nymphs hoping to hit the ?hatch?. From what I could hear there was a challenge of sorts for the biggest fish before dark. One of the guys I guess had just landed what was then the biggest fish the other two were casting all over kingdom come literally running up and down the bank. I sat down for sip of some water and watched as they hooked a few fish and let them go. Nothing special till one of these dudes hooks a good fish above me and plays it to just below me. It was very nice brown that he proceeded to yanked up the six foot bank onto the path. He then proceeds to gill the fish in his hurry to measure it. He then yells a string of obscenities about that fact the thing was three inches shorter than his partners ? then he wraps what had to have been 3x tippet around his hand and pulls the fly out of the fishes mouth along with the lower jaw and tongue and tosses the now butchered fish about ten feet into the river from the high bank. I went red and we had a few exchanges till his partners got there I was so ****** I followed them all the way back to their truck snipping at them all the time throwing rocks in the runs they wanted to fish. Truth be known they could have clocked me without much trouble but the white spittle around the edges of my mouth kept them at bay.

[This message has been edited by bones (edited 12 March 2006).]

[bones]

>>>i think its really sad to attribute such attitudes to a movie. it brings down the truth of the movie and excuses the outlandish behavior by giving those jerks an out.<<<

What the movie did was create a pop culture. The movie drew in "all" kinds of people and gifted them with the sheik ?activity of the month?. Many not so wholesome folks slipped into some new waders and set out. It became trendy to say one went fly fishing in Montana or where ever. Fly fishing became the thing to do and seen doing. Not everyone who picked up a rod was a good guy, the movie just enticed more to do just that. The sheer numbers who became enamored almost guaranteed that some riff raff came along. It was the buzz.
I?d bet a buck that these guys are now playing golf?


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harry mason
[url=http://www.troutflies.com:1b20f]http://www.troutflies.com[/url:1b20f]

[mantis]

I loved the movie. I think that any mad rush to FF it may have precipitated has long ago evaporated and most who may have jumped into it have jumped back out. Although it may have revolved around a family with some problems I wouldn't call them dysfunctional. The family seemed within normal range to me for the time period It encompassed. It did have a lot of FF within it and of course needed a story line or 'plot' to carry it along. Pure FF'ing would have made it seem more like a modern day DVD on the subject of how to Dry Fly Fish by 'whoever'. Although I have a copy plus the unedited copy, and also the video on the "Making of the Movie," I hadn't watched it in a long time until a few days ago when Turner Classic Movies ran it. There is a personal sadness about it for me.
As it did the first time I saw it in a theater, It again brought back memories of my own youth and of the small stream I used to fish that ran through the tiny village of Jonesville, a farming community in upstate New York, where the name Mead could be seen roughly painted on a good number mailboxes.
Now, the only Meads that remain within it's borders reside in the hilly little cemetery at the end of town.

[This message has been edited by mantis (edited 13 March 2006).]

[l1ranger]

might as well blame TV/movies
its the cause of most the worlds problems

**much sarcasm incase it was missed **

[bones]

tyflier
>>while the movie may have provided exposure for folks that otherwise wouldnt have been to fly fishing, i still dont think its fair to the movie to say it "attracted people to fly fishing for the wrong reasons".<<

I agree, I didn't say anything about fair or unfair. My point is the movie opened Pandora?s Box and the incursion of idiots as well as good folk unleashed on the water. They did so because it was trendy. They jumped in the riffle above you because they did not know better and did not take the time required to find out because of the fear that the leading edge they see themselves riding, would vaporize. The movie motivated the ?I want to do it all set? and those of us who enjoy what we all perceive as Fly fishing were left with a bad taste in our collective mouths from the whirlwind of newbie?s.

Remember that Paul, arguably the main character, was brutally bludgeoned to death.



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harry mason
[url=http://www.troutflies.com:33dcf]http://www.troutflies.com[/url:33dcf]

[ny angler]

" The movie " opened October 9,1992

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The more time I spend around people the more I like my dog.

Mike

[bones]

tyflier

Movies attract all types of people. Having a social and environmental sensitivity does not precluded one from being a butt head. The film opened in 1992. We just disagree as to the impact the film had.. no biggy

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harry mason
[url=http://www.troutflies.com:d55b2]http://www.troutflies.com[/url:d55b2]

[Joe Hyde]

I've only seen the movie, so this thread will have me looking for the book next time I'm in a bookstore. Books are almost always better than their movie versions anyway, so ARRTI must be quite a good book. I'm intrigued that its mood may be considerably darker than what the movie portrays.

But at least in the movie, I didn't get any sense that the family was dysfunctional. Just the opposite: the parents seemed normal people, good people, especially the minister who I thought was a very good dad for giving both his sons so much latitude to explore their lives. The only real friction point throughout was the charmingly rebellious #2 son who relished pushing society's envelope at every opportunity. But don't lots of everyday normal families have sons or daughters who do the same thing?

The tragedy of the movie was that #2 son became so recklessly self-assured that he began hanging with a wild crowd and eventually got himself killed after pushing their envelope to the ripping point.

I would agree that this movie got a LOT of people inspired to try fly fishing. And that's cool, because the main thing that appeals to people about this movie is that its story line is anchored by the pleasures that dad and sons find on the river. While fishing they enjoy that wonderful combination of privacy, serenity, excitement, admiration and togetherness that natural fishing partners have.

Myself, I was impressed by the fact that they quickly split up when fishing. They were loners on the river, but loners only because they understood the risks of too much human commotion spooking the fish, so therefore they respected one another's desire for space, peace and quiet.

And don't activities like that, conducted in such a beautiful environment, hold a natural appeal to just about everyone? The problem novice fly fishers have when trying to experience the movie's river mood is that their inexperience makes them feel insecure. They seldom admit, but nevertheless perceive, their need for instruction, but at the same time they don't want anyone around to witness their many mistakes. This fear, I submit, is where the urge arises to compensate for their inadequacies by (if they can afford it) purchasing more and more of the high-end tackle, even going so far as to buy entire stretches of trout rivers and then slap no trespass signs all over the place.

The initial healthy urge is to disappear temporarily into nature, to seek a spiritual connect with themselves as instruments of nature. Instead, the modern insecurities intrude and prevail, and that initial urge to enjoy quiet fly fishing gets subverted into a quest for technical control. They actually want the opposite thing, they want desperately to get away from this consumerist mindset, but it just isn't that easy.

I guess we can only hope that anyone who got into fly fishing after seeing that movie had a strong enough personality to endure the embarrassments and suffering that fly fishing can punish us with, and eventually (or maybe immediately) begin more confidently enjoying the sport's beauty and solitude. Those who don't have the patience in themselves that is required, they'll soon enough move on to some other recreational activity.

You can only hope that someday they'll return to fishing with a more relaxed attitude and finally connect with the peaceful but thrilling private challenge they're longing for.

An earlier movie, "Deliverance", no doubt had the same impact on the sport of canoeing (and river recreation) that ARRTI had on fly fishing. I would argue that the popularity of Deliverance -- with it's many beautiful scenes of wilderness style canoe tripping -- spurred a sudden growth and interest in the science of canoe hull design, which resulted in the tremendous variety of canoes we see now.

But Deliverance also, I'm certain, inspired untold numbers of novice canoeists to take navigation risks they were ill-equipped and untrained to take, resulting in many getting killed in rapids or caught in snags, strainers, sweepers, lowhead dams, etc.

Likewise, when watching ARRTI I was appalled when Brad Pitt's character jumped into the river and began swimming downstream through rapids, trying to stay within reel backing range of his large trout. Anyone who's been around violent rapids, anyone who understands powerful currents, ankle entrapments and the effect of numbing cold water on human muscles and cognitive functions, knows that what Pitt's character did in trying to land that fish amounts to virtual suicide for the common person in real life. I just hope that would-be fly fishers who saw that movie deduced that Pitt's swim through those rapids was yet another expression of his character's extreme risk-taking personality, an example of what NOT to do, something they themselves would never in a moment of excitement try to mimic.


Joe

"Better small than not at all."

[atomic_dog]

The problem would seem to be the coversion of bait and spin'ers to fly. Take the worst mouth breathing, beer guzzling bass angler you know, show him the movie than give him a fly rod....
This is not condescending as for 25 years I were one! Now, I despise the sight of them. Ripping and tearing, throwing back dead fish after weigh-in, trash and debris everywhere...

What a wonderful generalization that is...