A River Runs Through It

Dom Robinson reviews

A River Runs Through It
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    Cover

  • Cert:
  • Cat.no: P 8676 DVD
  • Running time: 118 minutes
  • Year: 1992
  • Pressing: 2001
  • Region(s): 2, PAL
  • Chapters: 24 plus extras
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
  • Languages: English
  • Subtitles: English (for the hard of hearing)
  • Widescreen: 1.66:1
  • 16:9-Enhanced: No
  • Macrovision: Yes
  • Disc Format: DVD 5
  • Price: £17.99
  • Extras: Trailer

    Director:

      Robert Redford

    (The Horse Whisperer, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Milagro Beanfield War, Ordinary People, Quiz Show, A River Runs Through It)

Producers:

    Robert Redford and Patrick Markey

Screenplay:

    Richard Friedenberg

Music:

    Mark Isham

Cast:

    Norman Maclean: Craig Sheffer
    Paul Maclean: Brad Pitt
    Rev. Maclean: Tom Skerrit
    Mrs. Maclean: Brenda Blethyn
    Jessie Burns: Emily Lloyd
    Mrs. Burns: Edie McClurg
    Neal Burns: Stephen Shellen

A River Runs Through Itis the sort of film your granny would like. A turn-of-the-century tale toldin flashback, narrated by an older Norman Maclean (voiceover from RobertRedford), it’s a gentle story of a family living in Missoula, Montana,with a religious father as the head of the household, Rev. Maclean (Tom Skerrit,Brenda Blethyn as his wife and their two sons, Norman (Craig Sheffer,the serious, studious one and Paul (Brad Pitt), the headstrong playboywho likes a gamble and a fight.

Norman falls for Jessie Burns (Emily Lloyd), is offered a job teachingin Chicago with plans to take his love with him and has a scrap or two withPaul, as brothers will, but what flows through the entire film is the family’slove of fly-fishing – without a sign from J.R. Hartley – and a the riverthat runs through the town, hence the title of the film.

It’s all very Sunday-afternoon-ish and if it’s not your type of film thensteer well clear.


Shot at 1.66:1, that is recreated here in a non-anamorphic print, which is ashame as anyone with a widescreen TV will lose resolution from zooming it inand the English subtitles get cropped off-screen as a result. An anamorphicprint could have been struck, as was done forThe Rocky Horror Picture Show,which leaves slight black bars at the side of the screen, but clearly thecheaper option was taken.There are also quite a number of flecks on the print with occasional artifacts.The average bitrate is 4.61Mb/s, briefly peaking over 9Mb/s.

The soundtrack is in Dolby Surround and won’t push your speaker system atall, but then it’s not one that relies heavily on special effects as youmight expect.

The only extra is a 2£-minute Trailer in 4:3 pan-and-scan,there are 24 chapters on the disc and the menus are static with a shortlooped part of the film score.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.

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