Wild River (film)
- Montgomery Clift: Chuck Glover
- Lee Remick: Carol Garth Baldwin
- Jo Van Fleet: Ella Garth
- Albert Salmi: Hank Bailey
- Jay C. Flippen: Hamilton Garth
- James Westerfield: Cal Garth
- Barbara Loden: Betty Jackson
Wilder current ( Original title: Wild River ) is an American feature film, directed by Elia Kazan in 1960 for the screenplay adapted Paul Osborn stories by Borden Deal ( Dunbar 's Cove ) and William Bradford Huie ( Mud on the Stars ). .
Action
The film is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression in Alabama and after a major flood in the Tennessee Valley. A dam is built to prevent future disasters and to give people jobs. The engineer Chuck Glover worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA ) and comes into the valley to ensure that the relevant people leave their homes and sell their land for the dam project at the TVA. The battered by the crisis, people are also willing to just the old Ella Garth is stubborn and not willing, for money their home to leave an island in the river. She would rather die than leave one square inch of their property.
Glover falls in love with the granddaughter of the old woman, Carol Garth Baldwin, a widowed mother, and marries her "overnight" before the magistrate. The convinced of the progress of engineering recognizes the actual motives of the old lady and feels with her. At the same time, he recruits the workers, which are mostly about African Americans, from and gives them new job with a higher salary, which gave him trouble with some white valley inhabitants, still -racist Southerners brings. Ultimately, the island is expropriated and the dam closed. The river flooded the island except for a small part, to the cemetery. The film ends with the death of the old lady, her funeral on the island cemetery and the departure of the engineer with his new family.
Background
Montgomery Clift, who suffered from depression and alcoholism, had to sign before the shooting that he never touches a drop of alcohol during the shooting. Supported by Lee Remick and Jo Van Fleet succeeded the sensitive artist, filming while staying dry. However, Clift had to play a scene in which his character's Chuck Glover completely drunk out of frustration.
The theater actress Jo Van Fleet, who had already played under Kazan's direction in East of Eden, was only half as old as the role figure of the old woman Ella Garth.
Reviews
" Undecided fluctuating between socially critical study and personal love story, the epic -scale film oriented features some very emotional conversation."
" For two novels featuring the construction of the Tennessee - dam under Roosevelt's New Deal program extracted director Elia Kazan ( On the Waterfront ) and author Paul Osborn, a peasant blood and soil ballad. In the mixer, the efforts of the government agents, to remove a stubborn old man of their flood threatened farm, just poorly linked with the love of the hero to a young widow; and completely eingeflickt appear some attacks against southern style racial prejudice. The lead actor Montgomery Clift was not able to redeem them out of mimic solidification even the vaunted as Marlon Brando Tamer director. "
Awards
The film was invited to compete for the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1960, was at the award ceremony but left empty-handed.