Río salvaje

This movie features Jo van Fleet, a terrific actress who has been forgotten.

As usual, her performance carries the movie.

Some should remember her as the mother of the James Dean character in East of Eden, where her scenes with Dean are the most powerful in the film.

Elia Kazan, who directed Wild River, also directed East of Eden.

Kazan said in an interview he considered van Fleet a "great" actress, and expressed irritation that she had been "forgotten."

In Wild River the character she plays so believably is decades older than she actually was.

One previous reviewer here is so fixated on politics that he really uses his pretense of reviewing this movie to give his own personal political views, which are of no interest to me, and which do not belong in a forum of this type.

Once again I endured American Movie Classics' merciless mangling of one of their rarely shown archival masterpieces, "Wild River," shown non-letterboxed, interrupted excessively by endless strings of commercials and their completely unpalatable promotions for showings of future films and special programs. I've complained about this in other IMDb comments I've posted so I won't give into the almost irresistible temptation to rail against AMC once more. That said...

This film contains one of the all-time greatest performances by an American actress that it is possible to see. Jo Van Fleet is so convincing as the intransigent matriarch, who refuses to leave her island, that the injustice of her not receiving an Academy Award nomination for her performance still rankles. Perhaps the members of the Academy could not decide to grant her a nomination as the lead actress or as an actress in a supporting role and muffed the chance to show their admiration. Other comments here aptly point out all of the other outstanding elements in this film and the pain of seeing it so diminished in this TV broadcast (I did see it during its theatrical release, but had forgotten how eloquently most of it was done.) was, nevertheless, worthwhile. I join others who have expressed a desire for a DVD release (where the CinemaScope ratio would be approximated, we can hope.) Wish we could persuade Fox Classics to see if the response to a video audience would exceed the neglect this film was subjected to during its first exposure to the paying public.

There is little to add to the eloquent appreciations of Wild River by other users. Still, I want to pay my tribute. My father took me to see the film when I was a little girl and it made such an impression on me I have been searching for it for years. Odd, since I remembered nothing of the plot, retaining only fleeting images of autumn colours, Lee Remick's autumnal hair, the old ferry, an indelible impression of Montgomery Clift's face, the old woman surrounded by still 'figures in a landscape'. And the creation of a unique atmosphere so tangible, so lyrical, so elegiac it stayed with me for 40+ years. I've been wanting to know why it clung to me so. And wondering why it seemed to have disappeared without trace. This Christmas, in the fullness of time, my niece presented me with the DVD and I have at last seen it again. Why did it affect me so profoundly? That one's easy. Why had the film disappeared. That one's complex, as you know. What I hadn't expected was that stunning performance from the incomparable Jo Van Fleet. No Oscar? Were they mad? It is intensely interesting and sobering to reflect how politics can hold art hostage.

This is a most remarkable film, chronicling a piece of Americana and presenting a compelling image of the tragedy of progress. And it is Jo Van Fleet whose utterly convincing and captivating portrayal of an 80-year old hillbilly woman (she herself was 45 years old) makes WILD RIVER a masterpiece. To reiterate what others have stated, the fact that her performance was not even nominated for an Oscar is an outrage! I tend to disagree with other reviewers in regards to the subplot between Monty Clift and Lee Remick; I feel their scene slow things down and I find myself fast-forwarding past them to get to the match of will between Clift and Van Fleet. I do, however, understand the necessity of the Chuck/Carol love affair - here you have a stubborn old woman who simply refuses to leave her lifelong home and a sensuous young woman who simply begs to get out! And Monty Clift becomes nemesis and savior. But their scenes together are a total yawn when the good stuff involves the reason Clift is there to begin with - not just his cat-and-mouse with Van Fleet, but all the other obstacles he faces from the rest of the populace of the rural south in the 1930's.

Still, an incredible film and worth viewing over and over again.

When I first saw this movie (at age 13) I was frustrated with the inept, impotent bureaucrat portrayed by Clift. The when I next saw it (age 16), I was vexed by his girl, who seemed to be too patient and wise. The third time (age 18) had me trying to take sides on this complex question - does the good for the many always trump the good for the few, or the one? And I was hooked on this complex, multi-layered drama - I'll see it again whenever and wherever I can. See it if you can find it. Although it's one of Kazan's best, and one of his favorites, it's STILL not in public distribution.