All lives revolve around decisions and instances from ones past. In A River Runs Through It (1992), director Robert Redford uses this idea and applies it to a true story of two brothers from Montana, Norman and Paul Maclean (Craig Sheffer and Brad Pitt, respectively). Based on the autobiographical novel by Norman Maclean himself, River uses Maclean’s metaphysical beliefs about life and nature to present its many themes. Using a longing score, various film devices, and a story line involving themes of youth, loss, and the pitfalls of pride, Robert Redford crafts a film about the beauty of the past.
The film starts with an elder Norman fishing in the “Big Blackfoot” river. Written by Mark Isham (who won the Academy Award for his work on River), the score is soft and sad. The camera focuses on the elder Norman’s aged hands, tying a fly to his fishing line, and he lyrically describes his past through voiceover (Spoken by Redford himself). These devices tell the viewer that Maclean’s past is something to be longed for, something great and not fully understood that has been lost forever.
Paul and Norman Maclean grew up in a rural, early twentieth century Montana wilderness. Their father, the Reverend Maclean (Tom Skerritt), ran the house with complete yet loving authority. The Reverend home-schooled the two in three subjects: reading, writing, and fly-fishing. Being a very strict enforcer of religious and moral law, the Reverend tried with all his might to instill his Presbyterian beliefs into his children. The difference between Paul and Norman is quickly obvious in the film. Norman, albeit unhappily, embraces his fathers code and standards, while Paul unremittingly combats them. In one symbolic scene, the boys discuss their ambiti...
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...l’s legs and forearms, and the river’s rapids colliding with rocks. The viewer is shown that this is a battle between two giants; two entities that Norman has, and will, never fully understand. In the end, Paul is swept underwater, and reappears in a calm part of the river, holding the fish high in celebration. The river is tamed, and Paul is finally victorious in his rebellion. This is the final scene of Paul in the film, and he dies in a bar fight of which the details are not fully disclosed.
A River Runs Through It is a film about brotherhood, the connection between all things, and the idea that one can never fully understand another. Norman and Paul Maclean’s story is one that is not unheard of before, but using Mise-En-Scene techniques such as score, lighting, and distance of subject, Robert Redford turns a seemingly common story into a very meaningful one.
The times are changing and he's unwilling to give up the past. The world is becoming modernized and people like him, cowboys and ranchers, are slowly disappearing. He runs away from home because he desires to find peace within himself as well as a place where he can feel he belongs. Here begins the adventure of John Grady and his best friend Lacey Rawlins. It is important to note here the means of travel. The story is taking place after World War II, a time when cars are fairly common, yet these boys decide to go on horseback, like in the fading old days. This is just another concept of how they are unwilling to give up a fading past. When they first begin their journey, the boys are having a good time. In a sense they?re two buddies on a road trip with no real motive. Rawlins even mentions, ?You know what?I could get used to this life.? Then they meet Blevins, the foil in the plot that veers the two boys of their course and also has plays a role in the lasting change of their personality. Their meeting with him gives an insight into Grady?s character. Rawlins is against letting Blevins come along with them, but because of John?s kind nature he ends up allowing Blevins to come. It?s because of this kindness and sense of morality, he gets into trouble later on.
family and force's Paul to leave the town and create a new image for himself.
Lane’s first change happened on his catastrophic Costa Rica trip, when they lost a guide on the river. One of my main focuses will be on Lane, realizing that he needs his friends to help him continue the journey to the sea. Then, the movie will continue with his friends Venable, Vermont, and Steve Patton, who will all discover true happiness in paddling along the South Carolina Rivers. To conclude, Lane and Venable will be the stars in my movie and they will speak for the rivers to explain all the remarkable stories that have happened on these rivers that will lead them to the sea.
The 1948 Western Red River is a movie of action, romance and hardship. The main characters are Tom Dunson played by John Wayne, Wagon Driver Groot Nadine played by Walter Brennan and Adopted son of Dunson Matt Garth played by Montgomery Clift. This is a western that shows the first Cattle drive of the Chisholm Trail.
As a child Paul and Norman were very much the same, for they both seeked love from their father but, growing up Paul strayed from his fathers teaching. We see that in fly fishing; Paul leaves the four tempo technique, and creates a technique called shadow casting. Paul seeks attention, for example when he danced with the Native American girl all eyes were on them due to the provocative dancing or Native American. Paul loves being in the center of attention whenever; he came home he would often tell stories with both parents giving him full attention. Paul’s character was very boisterous and quick-tempered. Paul tended to start fights and cause a scene. Paul is not reserved, and he will quickly tell you how he feels. Paul is a very independent person, and he does not like to receive help; for example after the gambling scene Paul tries to dissuade Norman away from helping him. Paul is not one to follow other people’s example, but rather sets examples like fly fishing. Paul has an alcohol and gambling problem, and he knows, but he refuses help due to his pride. Paul was equally loved as a child, but he craved for attention as an adult because he did not know what to do with the love that was given to him. In the movie Paul started to really act out when Norman came home, and perhaps this was because he felt as if he was in Norman’s shadow. Norman was called the “professor” in the family because he went to college, but Paul never left Montana, and he could never achieve what Norman achieved perhaps that is why he acted so immaturely to receive
The natural world has a unique power unequivocal to anything human to make one deeply contemplative, introspective, and observant of the universe around them. Norman Maclean testifies to this power in his novella A River Runs Through It. The novella captures the human soul and what it means to grow up and be man through his eulogy to the Blackfoot river, his story explaining how a river affects a man. Robert Redford’s movie adaptation, while maintaining the core importance of the Blackfoot river, focuses on the interpersonal relationships Norman develops throughout his life and how those affect his character and life choices. A River Runs through it encapsulates the emotional growth Norman undergoes growing up via his relationship with the
"Eventually the watcher joined the river, and there was only one of us. I believe it was the river." The river that Norman Maclean speaks of in A River Runs Through It works as a connection, a tie, holding together the relationships between Norman and his acquaintances in this remote society. Though "It" is never outwardly defined in the novella there is definite evidence "It" is the personality of the people and that the river is running through each individual personality acting as the simple thread connecting this diverse group of people.
Pauls past relationship with his dad has been rough because of his dad leaving shawn. Paul feels as though his dad left the family so he didn't have to worry about shawn and their family problems. During the time his dad was gone paul has been angry that shawn hasn't been getting the fatherly support he needs to feel normal. “My dad couldn't stay with us and help us take care of my brother--no, he left me to handle all that so he could jet around and make a bunch of money whining about his tragic plight”(4). Paul realizes that if his dad really cared about their family situation he wouldn't have left the family in the position he was in.
Aiming to get away, the guys choose to take on a remote river that will soon be covered by a dam. They take everything needed for the trip: tents, canoes, and bows and arrows. The four men, Ed, Lewis, Bobby, and Drew, are all prepared to go out into the solitudes of the South, but nothing could prepare the men for what was to come as their weekend progressed. They travel through the choppy river rapids and rest along the banks. As Bobby and Ed get ahead of the other two guy on the river, they decide to rest along the bank. What was supposed to be a weekend trip quickly turned into a fight for survival after meeting two mountain men. The narrator, Ed, is tied to a tree with a gun to his head, while Bobby is experiencing a horrific tragedy. In the raw, exhilarating novel, arrows and shotguns are used for more than just deer
The story begins with a twelve-year-old boy named Sam Gribley lived in New York with his family. One day Sam tells his Dad that he’s leaving New York City to running away and wants to live in the woods because he doesn’t like the crowded city and the people. Sam’s dad thinks that he was going to go but he will come back the next day and this is what the youth’s desires but also he remembers his own failed boyhood attempt to run to the sea. Mr. Gribley tells his son, “Sure, go try it. Every boy should try it.” And with those words Sam is off wild. When Sam is off to the Catskill Mountains he takes only a flint and steel, an ax and forty dollars he’s earned selling magazine money with him.
Thunderheart is a movie inspired by the sad realities of various Native American reservations in the 1970’s. This is the story of a Sioux tribe, conquered in their own land, on a reservation in South Dakota. Thunderheart is partly an investigation of the murder of Leo Fast Elk and also, the heroic journey of Ray Levoi. Ray is an F.B.I. agent with a Sioux background, sent by his superior Frank Coutelle to this reservation to diffuse tension and chaos amongst the locals and solve the murder mystery. At the reservation, Ray embarks on his heroic journey to redeem this ‘wasteland’ and at the same time, discovers his own identity and his place in the greater society. Certain scenes of the movie mark the significant stages of Ray’s heroic journey. His journey to the wasteland, the shooting of Maggie Eagle Bear’s son, Ray’s spiritual vision, and his recognition as the reincarnation of “Thunderheart,” signify his progression as a hero and allow him to acculturate his native spirituality and cultural identity as a Sioux.
In this second jump from balanced to unbalanced, it fits more with Neale’s description of the detective genres, which is a genre Mystic River could easily be filed under. “For example,” Neale states, “in the western, the gangster film and detective film disruption is always figured literally – as physical violence.” In Mystic River the physical violence that initiates this second disequilibrium is the brutal murder of Katie Markum, the daughter of one of the boys from the start of the film, Jimmy Markum, who had been somewhat of a leader of the children. The enigma is a mystery, though the film hits at the now grown-up Dave Boyle, who has been severely affected by his childhood
“11x14” ”(1977), by James Benning is re-presents the American Midwestern landscape through the window of 11x14 format. It is a non-literary documentary film, a non-conventional narrative, and finds meaning in the space and construction of film. 11X14 opens with a lengthy shot from the back of the Evanston Express (a carriage ride into downtown Chicago). 11X14 includes two other extremely long shots, constructing three ambiguous plot strands dispersed
In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, the river stands as a symbol of endlessness, geographical awareness, and the epitome of the human soul. Hughes uses the literary elements of repetition and simile to paint the river as a symbol of timelessness. This is evident in the first two lines of the poem. Hughes introduces this timeless symbol, stating, “I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins” (Hughes 1-2). These opening lines of the poem identifies that the rivers Hughes is speaking about are older than the existence of human life. This indicates the rivers’ qualities of knowledge, permanence, and the ability to endure all. Humans associate “age” with these traits and the longevity of a river makes it a force to be reckoned with. The use of a simile in the line of the poem is to prompt the audience that this is truly a contrast between that ancient wisdom, strength, and determination of the river and the same qualities that characterize a human being. The imagery portrayed in the poem of blood flowing through human veins like a river flows ...
In the novel The Secret River written by Kate Grenville and the film One Night the Moon directed by Rachel Perkins, the two authors explore similar ideas and share similar structural features to communicate these concepts. The Secret River is set in the early nineteenth century and is about a young couple William and Sal Thornhill who lived in London and started with nothing. Throughout their adventure William was sentenced to death and was excused from his sentence, being sent to Australia with his family where he built a life for them. One Night the Moon is a musical film set in the twentieth century where issues of racism and ownership of land, similar themes to those explored in The Secret River are evident.