In my opinion the word classic is used far to often and
generally without just cause, so what makes a classic feature film? It needs a good story, although not enough on
its own, it needs to be well told. It needs someone at the helm who has a good vision
and to be honest knows what he or she is doing. Then you need experienced crew
both on location and in the final editing stages. Importantly you need the people
that allow both director and crew to carry out their craft: actors. Actors are
the people that make us believe what we are watching, are the ones who project characters
emotions, and are the ones capable of making us empathise or hate the
characters that we follow up on the screen. Wild River (1960) unquestionably
deserves the accolade of ‘classic movie’ because it definitely ticks all these
required boxes.
Firstly there is the absorbing screenplay written by Paul
Osborn, which he adapted into a screenplay from two novels, Mud on the Stars by William Bradford
Huie and Dunbar’s Cove by Borden Deal,
both of which studies a part of the national socio-economic progress through
the Tennessee Valley Authority a federally owned corporation in the US, created
in 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation and economic
development in the Tennessee Valley, a region that was particularly affected by
the Great Depression. The story is one of power verses the people, the power in
the form of the TVA and its agent and the people in the shape of an elderly
women who will not give up her land to allow the TVA to flood the island which
she, her family and her African/American workers regard as home.
Turkish born Elia Kazan is well known for exploring
controversial themes, directing some very well known American movies like A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954) and of cause East of Eden (1955) which starred James
Dean in his first major screen role. This directorial craftsman manages to
elicit some great performances from his cast especially Jo Van Fleet who at 45
plays the 80 year old ‘rugged
individualist’ Ella Garth fighting for all her worth to stop the authorities
from evicting her from her beloved island. Montgomery Clift plays TVA agent
Chuck Glover, a man who thinks he can get the old woman off the island without
the use of force, but also man who gets into several scrapes with the local
bigots over his sympathetic treatment of the black workers, and unsurprisingly one
that falls for Ella Garth’s attractive granddaughter, played by Lee Remick.
It’s this developing love affair and the conflict between
progress and tradition that binds the film’s excellent story line
together. Set in the early 1930’s during
a complex period in American history which in Kazan’s capable hands is made
authentic, helped of course by the wonderful exterior locations which were
filmed on Coon Denton Island on the Hiwassee River west of Cleveland Tennessee
and some beautiful atmospheric interior lighting by DOP Ellsworth Fredricks. I
would highly recommend this movie, which is currently available on both DVD and
Blu-ray.
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