The River (1984)
- Directed by
- Mark Rydell
- Genre
- drama film
- Country
- United States
- Runtime
- 2h 02m
- Rated
- PG
- Rating
- 6.4 of 10 from 139 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
A farm couple in Appalachians try to save their family farm from flooding, debt, and development. The husband takes a strikebreaking job at a steel mill while a land developer pressures them to sell for a dam project.
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What happens
The River is a 1984 American Southern Gothic drama film directed by Mark Rydell and written by Robert Dillon and Julian Barry, who based the screenplay on actual stories of East Tennessee farmers who lost their crops due to damage caused by bad weather, and having to reluctantly work industrial jobs as strikebreakers in nearby cities to avoid foreclosure on their farmland. Starring Sissy Spacek, Mel Gibson (in his American film debut), and Scott Glenn, the film is set in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians countryside of East Tennessee where farm couple Tom and Mae Garvey, played by Spacek and Gibson, and their children struggle to operate their multi-generational family farm along the banks of a river prone to flooding destroying their crops, and a increasingly dire financial situation due to loan rejections and a risk of foreclosure. Their financial situation prompts Gibson's character to find work at a steel mill, unknowingly as a strikebreaker, leading to confrontations with striking millworkers. After surveying a flood event, land developer Joe Wade, played by Glenn, aggressively seeks to acquire farmland, including the Garvey farm, for a massive dam-based economic development project he is spearheading. Filming took place from September to December 1983 primarily in East Tennessee on farmland in Hawkins County along the banks of the Holston River for the Garvey farm, with additional scenes shot in Jonesborough for the farm auction scenes, Gate City, Virginia and Kingsport, Tennessee for the scenes depicting the small towns near the Garvey farm, and in Birmingham, Alabama for industrial scenes depicting the steel mill where Tom Garvey finds work. Considered by Rydell to be a tribute to the vanishing American family farm, The River was the last of a trio of "farm films" released by Hollywood in 1984, with the others being Country and Places in the Heart. It was theatrically released on December 19, 1984, by Universal Pictures. It was a box office failure, grossing only $11.5 million against a $18 million budget. The film received mixed reviews with critics praising Spacek and Glenn's performances, the realist nature towards the topic of the decline of American family farming, the musical score by composer John Williams, and the cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond, but criticizing the screenplay, execution, and Gibson's performance. The film received four nominations at the 57th Academy Awards; Best Actress (for Spacek), Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, and won the Special Achievement Award. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
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Places in the Heart (1984)
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Threads (1984)
Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
City Girl (1984)
The Dollmaker (1984)
Heartsounds (1984)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.