A River Runs Through It [Blu-ray]

A River Runs Through It

Studio: Sony/Columbia

Year: 1992

Rated: PG

Program Length: 124 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 1080p

Languages: English, French Dolby TrueHD 5.1; Spanish, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish

The Program

In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.

A River Runs Through It, a beautifully filmed movie which is directed by Robert Redford, is based upon an autobiographical novella by Norman Maclean, a retired professor of English at the University of Chicago. “Long ago,” Maclean writes, “when I was a young man, my father said to me, ‘Norman, you like to write stories,’ and I said ‘Yes, I do.’ Then he said, ‘Someday, when you’re ready, you might tell our family story. Only then will you understand what happened.’” It was not until he retired at the age of 70 that MacLean felt that he was finally ready.

Norman Maclean (Craig Sheffer) was born in Iowa in 1902 but moved to Missoula, Montana when he was nine. There he developed a love of poetry and an abiding appreciation of the great outdoors. At a young age he and his younger brother Paul (Brad Pitt) were taught fly fishing by their father, John Maclean (Tom Skerritt), a Presbyterian minister. Although the story is told through Norman’s eyes (and narrated by Redford), the central character really is Paul. Norman is brilliant but somewhat introverted. Paul, on the other hand, is brash, charismatic and popular, but also impetuous and self-destructive.

The one activity which truly binds father and sons together is fly fishing. Norman proves to be a competent fisherman, but Paul is a gifted angler. A superb dancer, he also turns fishing into something of a ballet as he displays an uncanny ability to precisely cast into the Blackfoot River. When Norman goes east to attend college at Dartmouth, Paul stays in Missoula and becomes a successful reporter for the local newspaper. However, at the same time he falls into excessive drinking, brawling and gambling. By the time Norman returns to Missoula, he finds that Paul is deeply in debt and frequently in trouble with the law.

While Norman is concerned about his brother, he still finds time to fall in love with Jessie Burns (Emily Lloyd), a beautiful and fun-loving girl from nearby Wolf Creek (“nearby” being a relative term in the vast expanse of Montana). However, Norman continues to be perplexed by Paul, who refuses offers of financial assistance to pay off his gambling debts. How, Norman wonders, do you help someone who does not want to be helped?

A River Runs Through It is a leisurely-paced, contemplative film about an appealing but complex family. The acting is uniformly excellent, with something of a breakthrough performance by Pitt as the charming but very troubled Paul. Sheffer, who plays what is ostensibly the lead role, gives an appropriately-restrained performance which is consistent with his character’s personality. Skerritt is totally convincing as Reverend Maclean, and he is ably supported by Brenda Blethyn as his wife. Emily Lloyd is totally captivating as Jessie, and her performance may leave you looking for answers about why her career never really took off. The other star in the film is the state of Montana, which is gorgeously photographed by Philippe Rousselot, who won an Academy Award for his efforts.

Anyone who has experienced complex and troubled relationships with parents and siblings should find A River Runs Through It to be a film which provides a great deal to think about. Others will find much to admire in the spectacular vistas of Montana and the superbly-executed fly fishing scenes. In addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, A River Runs Through It also received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay (Richard Friedenberg) and Best Original Score (Mark Isham).

The Video

The 1.85:1 1080p widescreen transfer is beautifully film-like and of reference quality. The images are sharp and highly detailed, with deep and accurate colors. There is a minimal but appropriate amount of grain. Contrast is excellent, black levels are solid, and shadow detail is superb. In fact, I absolutely could not find anything to complain about. The scenes shot on the river and in the mountains are positively breathtaking. There are sequences in this film which are so spectacular that you will want to show them to family and friends again and again.

The Audio

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack will blow you away. The surround channels are extremely active in the outdoor scenes, realistically depicting the roar of the rapids and the more discrete ambient forest sounds. An early scene which shows the Maclean brothers riding the rapids in a rowboat will leave viewers feeling that they are in the river with them. Dialogue is mainly confined to the center channel and is always clear and understandable. The excellent Celtic-influenced music score by Mark Isham is given an expansive soundstage, with excellent separation and dimensionality.

The Supplements

The extras include a 32-page booklet which includes background on the book, biographies of the principal actors, still photographs and several pages from the film’s screenplay.

All of the special features on the disc are in high definition. A 30-minute “making of” featurette goes into some detail about how Robert Redford was able to convince a skeptical Norman Maclean to let him adapt the book to the screen. Redford also talks about how he was unable to use the actual Blackfoot River because the river was an environmental disaster in the early nineties. The subject of the Blackfoot River is covered in greater detail in a 15-minute featurette entitled “The Blackfoot Challenge: Rescuing a River,” which details the efforts make in the past 15 years or so to reclaim the river from damage caused by decades of mining, logging and over-fishing.

If, like me, you know little about fly fishing, there is an interesting “beginner’s guide” which explains what fly fishing is, why it is such an appealing sport, and why it is difficult to master.

Also included are a number of deleted scenes, most of which are slight variations on scenes which are included in the film. Although there is no commentary track, presumably the scenes were edited primarily because of time considerations.

Finally, there are four high-definition looping videos of different landscapes shot along the Blackfoot River in Montana. They are entitled “Rocky Mountains,” “Big Sky Country,” “Forest Bend” and “Rushing River”. They can be played with just the ambient sounds of the river, birds and crickets, or accompanied by the music from the film.

The Packaging

The single disc comes in book-style keep case in which the booklet is bound.

The Final Analysis

A River Runs Through It is a beautifully rendered family drama which likely will remain in your thoughts long after you view it. It also is a demonstration disc for how well spectacular scenery can look on Blu-ray.

Equipment used for this review:

Panasonic DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player

Panasonic Viera TC-P46G15 Plasma display

Yamaha HTR-5890 THX Surround Receiver

BIC Acoustech speakers

Interconnects: Monster Cable

Release Date: July 28, 2009