Wild River

I went to see Elia Kazan's Wild River (1960) last night as part of the NZ film festival. I'd seen it on the small screen and knew it as a highly-watchable tale about forced land sales along the Tennesee River in the 1930s. Montgomery Clift plays the liberal government man sent to get hard-bitten matriarch Jo Van Fleet off her family's island plantation before its flooded by a new hydro dam. So I couldn't miss the opportunity to see this under-appreciated film on the big screen. The brochure described it succinctly: "Glorious new restoration of a neglected 1960 masterpiece by Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront) with legendary performances by Jo Van Fleet and Lee Remick and Hollywood icon Montgomery Clift".

It looked wonderful on the big screen, the restored print showing the autumnal colours in Cinemascope. The silent raft trip across the river to the mysterious island is captivating, as are the confrontations with Van Fleet who simply won't budge, and the skill of Clift in subtlely mixing some bemused light humour with the drama. It's great to see that Wild River has been re-screened at film festivals around the world. It deserves more recognition, not only for the fine performances of the three leads and the quirky character actors, but for telling an entertaining story that touches on some big themes - the tension between progress and tradition, civil rights in the American South, and fear of committing to a relationship.