La rivière du hibou

Incident at Owl Creek Bridge is an excellent movie. My Mom saw this movie years ago when it was first shown on t.v. and it left an indelible mark on her. I remember how spellbound us kids were as she told the story to us...My hair stood on end. Mom has been wanting to find it and I just looked here, hoping... and voilà, here it was listed. Although it may be an old movie, the acting and the subject matter would appeal to a broad range of ages. There was so much suspense within us kids as Mom recounted the movie that we were totally silent and still, listening raptly, wide eyed and tense.We felt as though we were right there watching it. Years later, I finally saw it and it was just as my Mom had described.I highly recommend this one and so does my family.

Rod Serling brought this to American attention as a part of the Twilight Zone series and I have to agree with his departure from the popular series. A great story, intimately told. It points out the beauty of life and how it is magnified when death threatens. I think it is as good or even better than any Zone episode both in style and depth.

I am a high school English teacher, and this film is absolutely perfect for classroom use. At just over 20 minutes, it is exactly the right length to show in an 11th grade class - it holds the students' attention and is short enough to keep them from getting bored. It is also an extremely faithful representation of the story, which helps students visualize and reinforce what they have read. To the teacher who posted earlier, who had to keep warning his students about "being bored for 20 minutes," I'd suggest that he's established a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you think it's boring, and you tell them it's boring, don't be surprised if they act bored.

Beyond the classroom applications, this film is just plain good and will prove a real treat for all lovers of film and/or The Twilight Zone.

When I saw the movie Brazil in 1986, I had a nagging feeling that the ending was familiar. I vaguely recalled seeing a film in a high school cinema appreciation class in 1977 or 1978 with a similar theme. The 24 minute film made such an impression, that 20 years later, after screening the Brazil video for my parents, it still rang a bell. After we discussed it I subsequently checked here to confirm the existence of La Riviere, which was identified in my HS class as Incident at Oxbow Creek. The theme of imagined escape is rather unique in my experience of cinema, and the similarities between La Riviere and the ending of Brazil are such that I wonder if Riviere du Hibou may have influenced Terry Gilliam.

I cannot believe that this film is remembered by more than myself! I was a young teenager waiting for the main picture to start when this small black and white movie was shown as a filler. Forty years later, I can still remember the impact this film had on me. It was stunning! It reached me in such a way, that I have never forgotten it, and it was this film that started my love of cinema..Real cinema!

Over the years, I have mentioned this movie to many people, none of whom have even heard of it, I thought I'd imagined it all..! It was also the film that had me wishing I could work in the movies.... Forty years on, I still have that same dream! Silly isn't it?