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The Film Adaptation of a River Runs Through It

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The Film Adaptation of a River Runs Through It I SILENCE, PRIDE AND GRACE: THE FILM ADAPTATION OF A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT by JILL L. TALBOT, B.S.Ed. A THESIS IN ENGLISH Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved May, 1995 m •X fQo .' IJ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my thesis committee. Dr. Michael Schoenecke and Dr. Wendell Aycock, for their time and expertise in helping to prepare this paper. I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Schoenecke, who introduced me to the study of film adaptation, for his continuing advice, encouragement, and friendship. Finally, thanks to David Edwards, for his constant and faithful support of my academic pursuits. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. A RIVER REMEMBERED 4 The Novella 4 Fly Fishing 8 Themes of the Novella 10 Silence 12 Pride 15 Grace 18 Love Does Not Depend on Understanding 19 A Prose of Praise 22 III. REDFORD'S ATTACHMENT AND ADAPTATION 27 Cinematic Adaptation 27 Themes of the Movie 39 The Character of Paul 45 Separation, Tradition, and Relationships ... 50 IV. CONCLUSION 55 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 58 111 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind; --Wordsworth from Prelude In the opening lines of A River Runs Through It. Norman Maclean introduces the two most influential elements of his past: fly fishing and religion. Both are taught to him by his father, the Reverend Maclean, whose religious training guides and sustains Norman and his younger brother, Paul. In a 110-page novella, Maclean presents a poignant story of life, loss, and regret. Through reminiscences, Maclean exalts the devoutness of his father and the majestic fly fishing talent of his brother, while attempting to extend a final redemption, along with a better understanding, to Paul, who eluded Norman and his father. It is a deeply felt and succinctly expressed story that gains its strength from what remains behind. The sermon-like quality of Maclean's prose concentrates on Man's ability to join with God and His nature through fly fishing escapades in Montana's Big Blackfoot River. As Maclean glorifies nature, he creates an allegory, with flashes of a turbulent and obscure river that symbolize the darker nature of Paul and even echo Maclean's own guilt associated with Paul's death. At the close of the novella, Maclean describes a serene and peaceful river that whispers the memories of loved ones, and hints at nearer understanding, at least reconciliation, with the past. Through the running of the turbulent river that calms to tranquility, Maclean weaves three pervading elements of his past together. The intent of this thesis is to explore those elements within Maclean's novella and also within its cinematic adaptation created by Robert Redford. Those three elements are silence, pride, and grace. They originate in the words of Maclean and are developed cinematically by Redford. The purpose and importance of this particular study is to discover what true fidelity in adaptation is, how it is created, and how it is achieved in River. Redford and screenwriter Richard Friedenberg took special care to remain faithful to the story of River. but more importantly, and what perhaps makes this adaptation exceptional, is their faithfulness to Norman Maclean. A River Runs Through It is a haunting tragedy with a hopeful and assuring message: We can love completely without complete understanding. The relationships between the members of the Maclean family are strained, yet revered and honored in text and on screen. Maclean wrote his story forty years after it happened, hoping to understand. Redford made the film sixteen years after the publication of Maclean's story, hoping to honor a man and a past that reflects not only Redford's past, but that of many other people as well. CHAPTER II A RIVER REMEMBERED: NORMAN MACLEAN'S NOVELLA The Novella Norman Maclean wrote stories. A River Runs Through It (197 6) is the story of his family. Sermonesque, it tells a story of tragedy, by revealing a family whose actions were framed by grace and whose words were left unspoken. These elements pervade this haunting story of a father and his two sons and the inevitable death of the son/brother who refused helped. Maclean wrote A River Runs Through It when he was seventy-three. It had a difficult beginning due to reluctant publishers who were leery of a book whose main focus was fly fishing. A retired professor at the University of Chicago, Maclean convinced the University of Chicago Press to publish it in 197 6, and it soon became a cult book, not only among outdoorsmen and fisherfolk, but also among other readers (Foote 1988). The book was even nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1977, but the Pulitzer Advisory Board overruled the nomination, claiming a "lean year" in fiction. Several critics have labeled Maclean's story, set in Montana, a Western. Harold P. Simonson (1982) claims that River "deserves recognition as a classic western American literature"(161). More specific is Wallace Stegner's (1988) reading of the story as an account of the "historical west, Montana in the years during and just after World War I" (154). Whether or not Maclean intended his story as a Western, it is set amongst the splendid beauty of Montana's Big Blackfoot River. Maclean wrote River as a remembrance of events that occurred forty years earlier. Reminiscent of a world and a loved one lost, nostalgia pervades his story and serves as a poignant reminder of his own inability to fully understand those he loved. However, there is a definitive understanding of the human experience and the role of nature within it. John Cawelti (197 6), who sees a "rich and deep sense of human life" in the book, finds "general truths about human nature and life"(25). These universal truths have generated some profound response from readers such as George Brittan, Jr. (1985), who hails Maclean as a "legend" and his work as a "classic" (184). Other complementing critics describe River as both "lyric and ode" (Love 1988, 211) and "prophetic and profound"(Stegner 157). The profundity derives from the eloquence of Maclean's prose, which takes the reader to a Montana that is "pastoral, rugged and innocent, all in all a 'beautiful world'"(Hesford 1980, 175). And while the focus of that landscape is the Big Blackfoot River, Wendell Berry (1988) places its allegorical setting in a dark swamp of sorts, one that blends the unresolvable bewilderment of human conflict and affection and loss (216). River is about fly fishing: its role in the Maclean family and how it serves as an allegory for the uncertainty and complexity of life. It is within the river that Maclean is able to regain himself and reach others, through fly fishing. Tales of his family are merely intermittent episodes between explications of fly fishing, and they are used to reveal much more than characters. After each occurrence of plot, Maclean returns to the river, specifically to fly fishing, and in doing so, juxtaposes the complexity of life and relationships with the simplicity found in the river created by the merging of all things into one. Maclean nearly writes a sermon rather than a story. Walter Hesford calls it an elegy, apropos for a story that delivers a final testament of the life and the love between Maclean and the brother who eluded him. Mingling religion and fly fishing as if they are one, Maclean laments his inability to help Paul and seems to make one last attempt through the words of this novella to discover how he might have. Thus, critics dub River a tragedy, and while Berry (1988) claims that it is a "relentless" one, he also admits that it confirms a complete and immortal love ( 215). River is beautified by the confirmation of this love and is enriched by a genuine reverence for nature. Maclean drapes the Montana of his youth throughout the story, painting a world in which man and nature merge into one. A landscape filled with wonder is created, and Maclean blends the youthful dreams and varied reflections of his long life (Berry 1988, 215). Paying close attention to the elements of nature, Maclean's recollections are revealed between adventures in fly fishing, which focus on the interaction and companionship of man and river. His story is presented with skill, deliberation, and a careful refusal to hurry, similar to a reading of the water (Stegner 159). As readers of Maclean's story, we stand with him on the bank of the Big Blackfoot river and join in his admiration of both a gifted man and nature. We watch Paul, and we are awed by his artistry, pulled in by the flowing prose, unaware of the tragedy swirling in Maclean's mind. Wallace Stegner compares the artistry of Maclean's writing to the mastery of fly fishing: He fills the air with flies that never really settle, [sic] he dazzles us with loops of glittering line, then on page 102 of a 104 page story, the fly settles, and we strike at what we have been alerted to but have not been allowed to anticipate.(160) Stegner alludes to the inevitable loss of Paul, who has been revered by Maclean on each page of his story. After carefully developing a respect for Paul, which is accompanied by an unfortunate lack of understanding, Maclean gently shares with the reader the tragic death of Paul and quickly closes his story.
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