The River

Mae and Tom Garvey (Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson, respectively) are farmers at a time (the mid-1980s) when bankers, real estate agents, and nature itself threaten to destroy their way of life in THE RIVER, a powerful film about the fragility of the American dream. When the local river floods and nearly destroys the farms around it, hardship hits the area. The Garveys are also at odds with the local power authority and one of its chief officers, Joe Wade (Scott Glenn), who has plans to build a dam and flood the land for a hydroelectric project. Though the family stoically attempts to continue working its farm, massive debts and a poor season finally force Tom Garvey to accept a low-paying factory job as a scab. As they struggle to keep up, Wade hovers vulturelike over the Garvey farm, waiting for its demise. Director Mark Rydells THE RIVER is a truly beautiful, subtly heartwrenching, and unique film in that it captures the seldom-seen pleasures of living and growing up in an endangered world--that of the family farm. When the Garveys and their children work the land and tend the animals proudly and happily, their sun-drenched farm seems like paradise.