rightbel.blogg.se

Friedenberg then had to confront the challenge of adapting the 104-page novella-with 52 pages of it devoted to fly fishing-into a workable film narrative. Suspicious of Hollywood, the taciturn Maclean had rebuffed many a film offer, necessitating several visits from Redford in order to strike an acceptable deal: Maclean was allowed to approve the screenplay adaptation by Richard Friedenberg, but once he had signed off he agreed not to participate in the movie’s production. The story resonated deeply with director Robert Redford, whose own upbringing shared some similarities with Maclean’s life story.

A sleeper success that was ultimately on the short list for the Pulitzer Prize, this thinly-veiled autobiographical novel quietly explored the wrenching consequences of a young man’s inability to ask for help-as well as his family’s inability to give it. Although coming from the same roots, the brothers’ distinct personalities will lead them to mature in dramatically different directions.Īlso featured as Norman and Paul’s mother is Brenda Blethyn, with Emily Lloyd as the fun-loving but self-possessed young woman who catches Norman’s eye.Īfter retiring from his 45-year career as an English Professor at the University of Chicago in 1973, Norman Maclean wrote his first book “A River Runs Through It” at the age of 70, finally addressing his long unspoken grief over his brother’s death some 35 years earlier. Older brother Norman seems more naturally inclined towards studiousness Paul on the contrary contains an irreverent wild streak, along with an inborn fearlessness that can sometimes transform him into reckless daredevil. Raised under the no-nonsense tutelage of their straitlaced father, a Presbyterian minister played by Tom Skerritt, Norman and Paul grow up equally steeped in religious doctrine as well as the art of fly fishing, a recreational pastime that takes on a spiritual dimension for the men of the Maclean family. Primarily set during the prohibition years of the 1920s in the majestic mountain country of Missoula, Montana, the film follows the brothers devoted but sometimes volatile relationship from childhood days into their young adulthood. This week’s classic is A River Runs Through It, a 1992 drama directed by Robert Redford.Īdapted from the 1976 autobiographical novella by Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It stars Craig Sheffer as Maclean, with Brad Pitt in an early career breakout performance as his younger brother Paul.