IMDb > Wild River (1960)

Wild River (1960) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   1,118 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 13% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Elia Kazan
Writers:
Paul Osborn (screenplay)
William Bradford Huie (novel) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Wild River on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
26 March 1960 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance more
Plot:
A young field administrator for the TVA comes to rural Tennessee to oversee the building of a dam on the Tennessee River... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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Awards:
1 win & 1 nomination more
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
The Auteurs Daily: New York, New York
 (From The Auteurs. 23 October 2009, 1:21 PM, PDT)
Actor Robert Earl Jones, Father of James Earl Jones, Dies
 (From WENN. 20 September 2006)
User Comments:
The traditionalist. . . the modernist. . . and a river between them. more (27 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Montgomery Clift ... Chuck Glover
Lee Remick ... Carol Garth Baldwin
Jo Van Fleet ... Ella Garth
Albert Salmi ... Hank Bailey
Jay C. Flippen ... Hamilton Garth (as J.C. Flippen)
James Westerfield ... Cal Garth
Barbara Loden ... Betty Jackson

Frank Overton ... Walter Clark

Malcolm Atterbury ... Sy Moore
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
110 min | Argentina:112 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System) | 4-Track Stereo
Certification:
USA:Approved (certificate #19552) | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (2004) | Germany:12
Filming Locations:
Bradley County, Tennessee, USA more
Company:
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Elia Kazan was always fond of this movie and sometimes even said it was his favorite of all the films he made. In the 1970s he tried to buy the rights so that he could re-release it to the public, but the studio's asking price was too high for him. more
Goofs:
Factual errors: At the very end of the movie, as Chuck and his new family are departing the movie story's location and are flying over and looking down on the now newly flooded island that had been his new wife's old home. This flooded island would actually have to be on the reservoir side of the damn when they closed the dam's flood gates that would cause the reservoir's waters to rise. However, in the very next shot their plane is shown approaching the damn from over the un-flooded river side. The reservoir where the flooded old home island they were just looking down on would in reality have to be on the other side of the damn they are now shown to be flying toward and over. more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey (1995) more
Soundtrack:
In the Garden more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful.
The traditionalist. . . the modernist. . . and a river between them., 24 January 2005
Author: stephen-357 from United States

On May 18, 1933 the Federal Government under FDR's "progressive agenda", created the Tennessee Valley Authority, a vast scheme of regional development that involved, in part, the diverting of masses of water into valleys thus protecting large populations of people from the ravages of flooding rivers. Dams were created to assist in this enterprise and to harness the vast energy of the raging waters through turbines which in turn created electricity for communities that still lived in the "dark ages." WILD RIVER begins with stock news footage of the damage ravaged upon a community by a flood, in particular a heart rending first hand account of a man who has suffered a great loss. In comes the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to save the day, a bastion of progress with Chuck Glover (Montgomery Clift) as its representative. The TVA, in order to complete its mission, must relocate all the residents within a particular area slated for water relocation but Mrs Ella Garth, an old hard-as-nails woman living on a small island in the middle of the valley, refuses to leave her land for any price. This is the context of WILD RIVER, but for director Elia Kazan, the TVA and its surrounding controversy are a microcosm for America's growing pains and the divisions between North and South that have persisted since the Civil War brought them to a head. Kazan contrasts rugged individualism, so much a part of the Nation's heritage, with an activist Federal Government citing the best interests of the community. The traditional attachment that the South has to "the land", where "the elements" are an accepted part of life is contrasted with the North's reliance on technology to tame the elements. The sophisticated Montgomery, full of enthusiasm and conviction for his mission, is immediately jolted into reality first by the steadfast conviction of the old landowner (in a towering display of acting by Jo Van Fleet), then by overt Racism "for a minute I forgot where I was.", and finally by his own mixed emotions. His passions are aroused by Carol (Lee Remick), Mrs Garth's stepdaughter, who is suffering from under stimulation, both physically and mentally. Widowed for over two years, she lives with her two children and the old woman on the island. When the handsome, educated Chuck arrives on the scene, she finds in him a source of combustion to feed a very deep well of passion. Once ignited, the fire threatens to envelope Chuck's controlled existence and intensify Carol's feelings of displacement. Rarely has confusion, vulnerability and molten sexuality been rendered more effective by an actress. Remick completely dispenses with any pretense about her sexual and emotional hunger and sets the screen on fire! While still smoldering, she manages to convey her separate, but equally passionate emotions for man and child during a tender scene between Clift and her daughter.

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