"A River runs through it"

[1wt]

I watched the movie "A River runs through it" again tonight (I guess I've seen it a dozen times?). I wanted to get my love of fly fishing back again! I've been stuck (backsliding) with my UL spin for the crappie that bite in cold water? I have put my Helios down for the Satanic pleasure of NanoFil and Gulp Minnows! ...... God help me?

The end credits say "thanks Orvis for the expertise and equipment" - nice Orvis bamboo rods in the flick..... and the reels look like a old Medalist?

"I am haunted by the water" "Everything becomes one, and a river runs through it"

That's exactly what I needed! I'm back in love with fly fishing again! I'll tie some good flies tonight?

PS - Brad Pitt is a pretty good fly caster? ...... and I'll have to make a trip to Montana this year? ..... if I can't afford it, well..... Muddy Creek will be fine?

 

[barbless]

I've read on-line that some of the rods were Hexagraphs- a solid graphite 6-sided fly rod designed by the late, great rodmaker Walton Powell, that resembles bamboo.

http://rodbuilding.org/read.php?2,359206,359285

 

[troutbert]

Read the book, it's very good.

 

[Lonewolve]

Barbless,
You are correct about the rods used in the movie. I own a Walton Powell Hexagraph 7'6" 2pc 4/5 weight,bought at Cold Spring Anglers in Carlisle.
It is my main small stream dryfly/ soft hackle rod. They are still made. But not by the Powell family.

try this: http://hexagraph.com/

 

[Fishidiot]

1wt wrote:

PS - Brad Pitt is a pretty good fly caster? ......

I believe the casting scenes in the movie were done by Jason Borger as a stand in double for Pitt(?). When the movie came out - I think this was about 20 years ago - I hated it and joined the chorus of old FFers who condemned the movie for bringing all sort of yuppie-fied newbies on to the stream.

When I watch this movie nowadays.....my views are more nuanced. It seems to me that the yuppie FFers of the 90s are long gone and there are (generally) fewer anglers on the water.
And I like the movie better and now think it's a pretty good watch.

(Can't imagine I'll ever feel the same way about River Why - dreadful movie)

EDIT: This thread should be in General Fly Fishing and will be moved shortly - no need for this to be relegated to the Off Topic forum.

 

[Maurice]

troutbert wrote:
Read the book, it's very good.

Dwight, you've never seen the movie? Or liked the book better and just didn't mention the movie.

I find it very arrogant the way that movie is viewed by people who had already begun their flyfishing journey. The way they look down on people who started after or because of the movie. I think it was a wonderful movie that involves a pasttime we all love. You can appreciate it for the actors, the story or the fishing....whats not to like? Unless you think you are better than others...in which case there is no pleasing you because in any situation you view or analyze you will feel superior to the subject and therefor look down your nose. But thats just who you are....

Not you dwight...curious why you never saw the movie. Were you affraid of it, what it might do to your reputation if someone heard? Never had a VCR or DVD player? Certainly over the last 25 years the opportunity had to present itself and you declined.

 

[troutbert]

Maurice wrote:

troutbert wrote:
Read the book, it's very good.

Dwight, you've never seen the movie? Or liked the book better and just didn't mention the movie.

I have seen the movie. And liked the book better.

I'm just recommending reading the book, to anyone who hasn't read it, whether you've seen the movie or not. The book is a masterpiece.

The movie seemed OK to me. But not great, like the book.

 

[rrt]

I have to agree with Dwight. I think the movie is all right, but the novella is much better. The movie deals with boys; in the novella, the Macleans are men in their 30's. I think the book flows better than the movie, too.
Like FishIdiot, I think the yuppies attracted by the movie who really didn't like fly-fishing have pretty much abandoned it, though unlike FishIdiot, I think there are lots and lots of flyfishers out there.
Anyhow, I think the printed version is much better than what I'd say is a 2-star movie.

 

[geebee]

i love the movie for the scenery.

i know the fishing is staged, but what a backdrop.

I prefer trout bum NZ - that's a movie everyone should see imho

 

[dreamcaster]

The book is a classic, in many parts, read like poetry. Numerous metaphors ,, the dry fly landing softly on the water like a hot ash floating back down to earth. I have alot of passages from the book in my memory, that are absent in the movie.

 

[Maurice]

troutbert wrote:

Maurice wrote:

troutbert wrote:
Read the book, it's very good.

Dwight, you've never seen the movie? Or liked the book better and just didn't mention the movie.

I have seen the movie. And liked the book better.

I'm just recommending reading the book, to anyone who hasn't read it, whether you've seen the movie or not. The book is a masterpiece.

The movie seemed OK to me. But not great, like the book.

Thanks for the response....

 

[kbobb]

I think Jerry Siem and John Dietch also did some casting/acting.
I like it as a story of a family that had fishing as a common link in people who were pretty different and about simpler times that we maynever see again.

 

[troutbert]

A River Runs Through It is mostly true, not a work of fiction.

Some of the details were changed. For example Paul Maclean was found dead in the street in the early morning hours in Chicago, not Montana.

Here's an article about Paul Maclean.

http://tinyurl.com/bgrnyv6

 

[The_Sasquatch]

That movie reminds me a lot of my brother, dad and myself, despite going down different paths at times in our lives, we could always come back and fly fish. My brother, for a while, definitely reminded me of Paul. Fortunately he turned it around. I want to read the book.

 

[FlyGuyFromPa]

This is the movie that got me into fly fishing. Not directly, but it got me asking a friend more and more questions until he finally agreed to teach me. He was reluctant, because the only fishing I ever really knew prior involved treble hooks and dead fish, even though I don't eat them. I kept every fish I caught for friends/family. These days, I throw them back so I can catch them more than once. I can honestly say I will never keep a fish again, unless I'm forced to catch food for my dinner table.

 

[1wt]

Sasquatch wrote:
That movie reminds me a lot of my brother, dad and myself, despite going down different paths at times in our lives, we could always come back and fly fish

That movie inspires me to fly fish more, like I mentioned in the OP. Sas, lots of good stuff in that movie. The dad's a pastor who goes fishing as much as he reads the Bible?

How fly fishing brings fams together. How God's wonder is there in those beautiful Montana streams?

I don't like to read a long word filled book that much? Way too much "filler" for me! If they had a "Cliff's Notes" version of A River runs through it, I might read that?

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Saw the movie when it was in the theater with a bunch of my fishing buddies from when I was younger.

None of us criticized it, but we all agreed to go fishing together the next day. Now we're scattered all over the country, but we still get together to fish once a year - at least some of us. We've lost a few along the way...

 

[afishinado]

rrt wrote:
I have to agree with Dwight. I think the movie is all right, but the novella is much better.

Has anyone ever both read a book and seen the movie, but actually liked the movie better?

Books can tell a story like no movie really can. The thoughts of the characters can be expressed in a book which can be a whole story on it's own. Also your own imagination paints the picture of a scene which often is far more vivid or spectacular than any movie can depict.

I've read a book first and have often been disappointed by a movie because many parts of the story are often "lost" in a movie. And the reverse, if I really like a movie, I can be sure I will really love the book.

 

[Heynow]

I don't like to read a long word filled book that much? Way too much "filler" for me! If they had a "Cliff's Notes" version of A River runs through it, I might read that?

It's not a long book at all. It's a novella, which is basically a short novel

 

[bikerfish]

I like the book better, but the movie is ok. If it doesn't make you want to fish out west, nothing will.