Cane River

Tuned in for scenery and music-but in spite of not hearing creole musics and tunes, thoroughly enjoyed the movie. btw, I think it's pronounced "Nack a tecsh"..might be natch a dough chess in Texas, but not in Louisiane. good job.

A lost film finally receiving release almost four decades after completion, "Cane River" offers a dfferent story of Afro-American romance, dealing with an unusual clash of cultures.

Instead of miscegenation, this is a story of a romance between a Black girl and a Creole hero, latter a football star who gives up the prospect of a pro ball career to instead focus on his plan to become a writer and poet.

Rural setting, plus a colorful trip to New Orleans where the heroine is matriculating to college, is enhanced by lovely photography in a bucolic mode, also useful to setting up the historical background to the story. Acting by a cast of unknowns is strident at times, but manages to conjure up interesting characters, though the plot and action is way too laidback to hold the interest of most 21st century audiences.

Earnest is the best adjective to describe this picture, representative of the early years of the now-familiar modern Independent Film movement, and while hardly compelling it is of historical note.

Hate to write a less than fulsome review of a serious indie film whose first time director died right after completing it, but one cannot deny that "Cane River" is a potentially interesting examination of class differences within black American culture that is lost amid a plethora of Louisiana travelogues and extended love scenes set to cloying late 70s/early 80s Barry White type soul ballads rather than, as an earlier reviewer noted, Creole or Cajun tunes that would mirror its setting. Also not helping things are rather stilted performances from the two leads. Give it a generous C plus

TCM showed Cane River a few months back. I'm glad this film was rediscovered. I enjoyed this early 80s indie film that happened to be filmed in my state of Louisiana

I was actually quite tickled by this film. I thought it was romantic, and sweet. I am familiar with the creole culture of Cane River so I was automatically interested. The acting was ok but the message and the consciousness of the film outweighed everything. I was happily surprised by how engaged I stayed. I am shocked and quite astounded to hear the film was only released in 2020! What a gem to discover. This is what I miss about films today that display black romance. Hopefully more people discover this film as I was just on youtube looking at black movie classics and came across this film!!