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Dom Robinson reviews
- 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.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.