Elia Kazan’s Wild River is an educational take on one of the programs to come out of Roosevelt’s New Deal in order to pull folks out of the Great Depression. One program to help out struggling Americans was led by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – a governmental organization that brought flood control and electricity to many people in the southern states. In Wild River, the TVA tries to help a town that has lives destroyed by a constantly flooding river. Unfortunately, progress sometimes comes with a price and the movie presents a few conflicts which show why progress doesn’t always benefit everyone.
Wild River begins with black-and-white newsreel footage of a house getting washed away in a flooding river with a man being interviewed about how his family drowned. Once the real footage ends, the movie cuts to one of these towns that have suffered due to the floods. Townsfolk need to pack up their bags and leave for good as government officials arrive to vacate the town in order to expand the river to make a dam for flood control. All the inhabitants whose properties stand in the way of the dam project understand that the flood dangers are too great and must move away – all except one spunky old woman, Ellen Garth (played by Jo Van Fleet). In comes TVA agent Chuck Glover (played by Montgomery Clift) to convince the stubborn Ellen Garth to move. Wild River’s main strength is the presentation of both sides of the argument to leave versus to stay – there is sympathy for both government TVA agent and Ellen. The most exciting and interesting elements are when Chuck and Ellen have discussion/debates of why one has to move and why one should stay. Sadly, the story revolving around the TVA/Ellen conundrum is put to the side so that Wild River can focus on some seriously schmaltzy and unrealistic romance between Chuck and Ellen’s widowed granddaughter Carol (played by Lee Remick). I have seen realistic Hollywood romances presented as far back to silent films, so I have nothing against old school Hollywood romance, but the relationship between Chuck and Carol is some of the most awkward and unrealistic courting I’ve ever seen. Both were great actors in their day, but the cheesy dialogue and bizarre physical behavior between these two are just too distracting – their scenes together are very David Lynchian – not in a good way.
Besides the “old lady not-budging” issue, another conflict deals with racism. Many of the southern hillbilly townsfolk are not happy that TVA hires blacks to help out with the dam project, especially annoyed that they get paid the same wages as the white workers. So Chuck Glover not only has to deal with a stubborn old lady but he also has to handle a posse of rednecks who threaten, scare, and even beat him up. It’s always great to see old Hollywood explore racism on film since it was taboo in the old days – I’ll give Wild River credit for that. But there was something really dated too how everything was presented. In some scenes, it’s strange to watch these hillbillies express toned-down racist remarks/behavior in a G-rated film. And then in some other scene, we see these same hillbillies ramming a car into the kid’s bedroom side of the house in the middle of the night while the kids are sleeping, which is quite demented.
While the film has a couple powerful moments (mainly revolving around Jo Van Fleet), they are not built up to anything emotionally satisfying because the film has too many awkward transitions to scenes of fluff. Montgomery Cliff is always interesting to watch, even in his post-accident roles, but I don’t get the love for Lee Remick in this film – her acting does not impress and she seems a bit creepy here. It’s no wonder her style worked better in The Omen.
The main reason to watch Wild River is Jo Van Fleet. Her Ellen Garth is going to grab your attention here. As she sits on the front porch guarding her beloved house from being demolished, Van Fleet pulls off an award-worthy impression of Clint Eastwood in all of her scenes. It’s hard to believe that the 46-year old Van Fleet was heavily made up to look like an old woman because she is truly convincing as a senior citizen. It’s too bad she wasn’t packing a shotgun here because only then Wild River could be a true classic.
One of the most exciting moments of checking out the video quality of a Blu-ray are the movies that were never released on DVD in North America. 20th Century Fox could have given fans a fair Blu-ray and just say, “well, be happy it’s on video now at least.” But Fox cares about quality and the video is amazing! This 1080p 2.35:1 video transfer reveals tremendous detail and beautiful color reproduction. Scratches, dirt, or any sort of damage are practically nonexistent, leaving an absolute clear and clean picture that shows much detail in all long shots to close-ups.
The DTS-HD 2.0 audio track is perfectly adequate. Sound is directed to the center channel speaker but flooding waters, rain and musical score actually have more depth than expected. Dialogue is clean and easy to understand with an audio mix free of any distortion or hiss.
English Dolby Digital 2.0 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 audio tracks, as well as English SDH, French, Spanish, subtitles are also included.
Extras are few, but an audio commentary from film historian Richard Schickel offers a great analysis of the film.
– audio commentary
– movie trailer
Wild River is bold for handling much of the conflict without too much violence but could have benefitted with a bit more violence and a bit more depth. Exploring the changing of times from old school ways to progressive ways, Wild River is like a western-lite. But as a whole, the film doesn’t leave a strong impression as it should – more like Tame River.
The Blu-ray quality is excellent though and a great addition to anyone’s collection especially since this film was never released on DVD in North America.
