On Dec 17, 9:27*pm, DaveS wrote:
On Dec 17, 11:51*am, Larry L wrote:





Well, I tend to run a little behind, I admit.

Last night I finally gave into boredom to the point of watching a DVD
of "A River Runs Through It" that was given to me several years ago.
I had never seen it before, or read the book ( I have it too, a gift )

After years of hearing others blaming this movie for an upsurge in fly
fishing fad I expected something entirely different ... relative to
fly fishing.

Honestly I didn't see a single thing that would make ME want to fly
fish if I didn't already. * *And as for visiting Montana, this movie
shows much of it's worst side, imho. * *Although not to the extent
portrayed, at this point in time, Montana does have deep rooted "get
drunk and fight for lack of anything else to do" cultural
problems.... *that are far less than appealing.

There are also many 'geographical' irregularities in the movie ...
distances covered by Model A in a blink that are a long drive even
today, in reality. * I'd give the movie both thumbs down

Any Way .... I think that the FFing fad we went through either had
it's roots elsewhere than "the movie" OR our culture is even more
desperate for something real to cling to than even I believe it to be.

Boy I don't know. I really liked the film and still can picture
different scenes. Particularly the obsessed hunting quality of the
journalist brother's fishing style. Also the portrayal of the
famdamily and the bro's family, *those ARE like some of the Western
folk like when I came out from NJ. And the bar in Helena? dead on. Did
the Lolo stuff put you off? Yeah there were scary people like that.
Still probably are *out on the edge.

The edge of lawlessness? . . . reminded me of Park City when the main
business was still the mine and the 30 cars of high grade shipped out
each week. Where you could work the mine if you couldn't make tuition
for a semester. Smoke a joint and no one cared, the ski lodge just
barely making it and Ziggy (keep the knives away from him) Vet of the
10th Mountain division soaking out his old bones and gin in the
communal tubs at the ex-whorehouse we all holed up in. Pop Jencks for
ice cream, and a decent doc in the dispensary if he was sober.

*I loved that film and should rent it this weekend. It reflected
accurately I feel the unapologetic West I fled to after each winter
week of classes at BYU. And the truth be told, these people were not
that different than the working people I grew up with, several of whom
died too early like the one brother and a very few who went on to
edamucated middle class respectability like the other brother.

I have no idea why that movie was so popular with yuppies. I do know
that Redford has a real feel for the inter-mountain West. I loved
"downhill skier" too.

Dave


That movie was popular with yuppies because it was the time of
yuppies. Post adolescent males have always been suckers for a good
romance......and it was that in spades.....or even a bad one. Norman
Maclean was not a prolific author but he had a keen sense of romance.
He wrote a very good story and Redford made a very good movie out of
it......notwithstanding the objections of a proud confessed sociopath.

As for the abject nonsense about "the movie" ruining fly fishing by
bringing hordes money dripping idiots out into the streams......well,
abject nonsense is the stuff on which the bulk of human wisdom is
built. Money dripping idiots have been flitting about from one thing
to another since time immemorial. Anybody here ever read Fitzgerald?
Twain? Hemingway? Shakespeare? Chaucer?

You want someone with a real feel for the west, try DeVoto.

giles