The River

One of those Mel Gibson movies that no one has heard of and yet, is excellent. Sissy Spacek coming off of an Academy Award for Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) is excellent here too (nominated for this one as well).

It's always a tough go for farmers, but the 80's was particularly bad. Remember Farm Aid, 1985?

Scott Glen plays a good bad guy looking to push some farmers off their land. Mel and Sissy show that love is the tie that binds and resist giving up. Great cast and performances all around.

The River is really one of those lost gems from the 80's. The two main actors, Spacek and Gibson, show why their careers really took off during this time.

Lotta screenplay issues here. For working so hard on their farm, why do they look so young and fresh and alive - farming must not be that tough. They had a horrible flood at the beginning of the film and another at the end. Why didn't they plan and shore up the levee? Sissy was caught on a tractor for most of the day, arm crunched by a drive train; lost a lot of blood, but a cast for a while and she pops back to tendin the farm. Mel doesn't ask about that. Just a lot of unanswered questions in a shoddy script. Good points: the cinematography is excellent as is the musical score. Oh, and to get money Tom takes a job as a scab in a union steelworkers mill and doesn't realize it?????? It's not a bad movie ~ it's not a good movie ~ it's a depressing movie because you think after all is said and done, they are set up for failure during the next crop season.

I recently rented this movie because I'm a Mel Gibson fan, but before I did, I read over the review by Leonard Maltin on these pages and found that his comment "but Gibson's character is so coldly stubborn that it's hard to empathize" regarding the character Tom Garvey was pretty harsh.

This is not a man so stubborn you cannot empathize with him in the least. Harrison Ford's character in Mosquito Coast was such a man, but this guy is a good man trying to do what's right for himself and for his family and I didn't see him as cold either. Again, look to Mosquito Coast if you're looking for a father who's cold, TOO stubborn and unloving.

If you want to see a good movie about farmers facing adversity from the weather and from their "neighbors" this is a good one to rent. Justly nominated for cinematography, it's a very pretty movie, although I'd have liked to see it on the big screen to get the full effects of the river shots. Sissy Spacek was of course excellent as well.

Continuing my plan to watch every Mel Gibson movie in order, 8 come to his first American movie. 1984's The River.

Plot In A Paragraph: Tom and Mae Garvey (Gibson and Sissy Spceck) struggle to keep their farm from the bank, floods and from local financer Joe Wade (Scott Glenn) who wants to buy up all the land, dam a local river which floods and generate some new jobs.

The river was Gibson's first American movie, and he is fine, but is over shadowed by Spaceck and a strong supporting turn from Scott Glenn, who is effectively the movies villain, it is a funny movie as the "Bad Guy" is right all along and Gibson and Spaceck's characters should have listened to him!! He was talking good common sense!! And that's when you know it's a weird move!! If you are rooting for who is essentially the bad guy.

It's watchable, but that's about it.

The River grossed $11 million at the domestic box office to end the year the 72nd highest grossing movie of 1984.

I'll agree with most of the previous comments on The River, but will also add that the focus of the very last confrontational scene defines for us the essence of the film and brings forth in the heartless protagonist, Mr. Wade, what he had so humanly (inhumanely?) failed to render throughout the entire story -- respect for those he was trying to selfishly destroy. If you've ever watched just one lonely individual (Mel Gibson in this case) do only what he/she could do (grab a couple mud bags) to make a difference against overwhelming odds, then to be joined in the task by those who were too paralyzed to even think, you'll find similar and inspiring action here, yourself caught up in the grittiness it all takes, and you'll almost rise from your seat to help patch the breached water wall with them.

One man prevailed, an entire valley's worth of beaten-down folk rallied, and what machinery couldn't absolutely guarantee, slogging feet and wet, muddy hands secured.

You just have to love it.