About Time and Rivers
Post 1102:
Sometimes when you have a favorite book or movie, it’s for reasons that aren’t exactly technical and easy to explain via charts and graphs. I love A River Runs Through It for deeply personal reasons. It’s the story of two brothers and a wise father fly fishing in Montana, learning about life through their interactions with each other and the normal problems that come with being alive in a complicated and ever-changing world.
So why is it so personal? Well, my wise father used to take me and my brother up to Montana to explore and fish the back country every year when I was growing up. As much as I love Texas, the beautiful land in and around Glacier National Park is something of a second home. I see myself ending up there before it’s all over.
Anyway, this is a movie that either gets in your bones or doesn’t. It’s about a lot of things but it’s not a straight narrative. It’s something like literary fiction—this makes sense, considering it’s based on a piece of literature of the same name. I can’t speak to the faithfulness of the adaptation to film because I’ve never wanted to go back and read it. I’m almost afraid it’ll mess it up.
And just because I like fishing and Montana, does that mean I should recommend it? No, but I will anyway. It’s slow and character-driven and emphasizes themes over plot—things I’m usually suspicious of—but it pulls the whole thing off. I’d say it’s fairly obvious that the central story is the interplay between the brothers, and if you have one you know that their relationship in the film comes off as believable. They fight, they’re different, though ultimately they are bonded in ways that can’t be easily broken.
It is a sad movie, but it’s not simply sad. There is a celebration of life here that really can tug at your heart if you let it. Eventually we see time take away the things we love the most, and yet, we’re lucky for the time we get. This is a simple sentiment we’ve all heard a million times before in a million slightly different ways. A River Runs Through It says it again in a way all its own. Cheers and see you after.
