Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Lee Eisenberg "The River" tells the story of a family trying to hold on to their way of life in the face of insurmountable odds. The family initially faces a major threat from the river located next to their house, but then an even bigger threat from a businessman (Scott Glenn) who wants to build a dam and flood the valley.I wouldn't call "The River" a masterpiece, but it does a good job showing the family's desperation. The dad (Mel Gibson) accepts a questionable job, while the mom (Sissy Spacek) has an experience that's likely to make anyone squirm. Every step of the way there are all sorts of hazards, whether in the working conditions, in the terrain, or from the businessman and his cronies.This is a movie that goes for a lot of realism. The characters' bleak existence gets made clear through their unrefined looks. I recommend it.

moonspinner55 Mel Gibson isn't terribly convincing as a southern farmer and family man trying to hold onto his river-ravaged land; even when covered in soot and wearing overalls, everything about the young, wiry Gibson breathes prosperity. Corporate shady Scott Glenn (in a sleepwalking performance) wants Gibson and wife Sissy Spacek off their land in order to build a dam and flood the valley (it'll mean more jobs), but Gibson refuses to sell out. Sub-plot with Mel taking factory work (after crossing a picket line) is presumably meant to give us a more complete portrait of the man, but it just makes the character seem hard-headed. Upon opening with a lovely series of nature shots courtesy cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, director Mark Rydell immediately loses his footing with a sequence of contrived family action in a rainstorm (underlined by an awful John Williams score to heighten the drama, which has no pay-off). It's all downhill from there, with petulant, milky-skinned Gibson failing to match up with homespun Spacek, and two perky kids who keep playing to the camera. "The River" was released the same year as "Places in the Heart" and "Country", and was easily the weakest 'farm movie' of the lot. Glossy, superficial and dull. *1/2 from ****

juneebuggy I enjoyed this movie for the most part, it wasn't fantastic, it was interesting though and somewhat exhausting, watching how hard this family works to keep afloat. Its a slow building movie following Tom and Mae Garvey (Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek) a hardy Tennessee farming couple who must defend their farm against man and nature, constantly one step away from foreclosing or flooding. This is from the early 80's so Mel Gibson is very good looking here as well as doing a decent southern accent. Sissy looks good too.There are also some interesting scenes in this, one in particular stands out when Tom takes a job at a foundry and a deer enters which then has all the workers surrounding it, planning on killing it and then they just release it. I'm not entirely sure what it was meant to signify? The ending felt a bit abrupt with yet another flood and a somewhat cheesy conclusion to everything with the outcome of the bad guy land developer (Scott Glen). I was left wondering and then what happens? Probably the same exact circle of events next season. 10/24/15

tieman64 "I saw the weary farmer, plowing sod and loam. I heard the auction hammer, knocking down his home. But the banks are made of marble, with a guard at every door, and the vaults are stuffed with silver, that the farmer sweated for." - Pete Seeger Mark Rydell's "The River" stars Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek as a pair of struggling farmers. Combating floodwaters, bankers, scheming capitalists and angry unionists, the duo desperately attempt to keep the family farm from foreclosure.John Steinbeck published "Grapes of Wrath" in 1939, turned into a film one year later by John Ford. In many ways, Rydell's film plays like a 1980s update of the aforementioned works. At its best, it conveys the insensitivity of power brokers and landowners, tests the assumptions about private property and class difference upon which our social order rests, and details the ease at which humans (with common interests and shared grievances) are divided into subsets and pitted against one another. Not as sophisticated as Elia Kazan's similarly themed "Wild River", "River" climaxes with our heroes saving their farm and "becoming rich". This hokey climax not only betrays the film's original ethos, but ultimately endorses the problems and pursuits it pretends to denounce. In "River", everything's fine so long as you make a profit at the end.Aesthetically, "River" offers a nice blend of 1980s Hollywood and early 20th century neo-realism. Part of a wave of big-budget "women's picture", and influenced by the ripples of second-wave feminism, the film features another wonderful performance from Spacek. Blending strength with fragility, beauty with plainness, her character endures the labours of motherhood, matrimony and agronomics. Mel Gibson, though photogenic, is miscast as Spacek's husband.7.9/10 – Underrated. See Ford's "Grapes of Wrath" and Ken Loach's "Bread and Roses".