The RIVER WILD, was a film in which the production had to be adapted as an actual river rafting exercise. Many of the scenes were filmed in the Libby,Montana and West Glacier, Montana areas, with many of the actual scenes being filmed on two of Montana’s whitewater Rivers, the Kootenai River, and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. Information from Wikipedia tells us that the The River Wild is a 1994 adventure crime-thriller film directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, Benjamin Bratt, David Strathairn. It was filmed almost entirely on the river, for reality, and at one point during the filming, one of the oars of the raft fell into the rapids of the river, and when it surfaced, it knocked the stunt double into the water. Since the accident was filmed, they worked it into the plot for dramatic effect, and added a new scene showcasing it. The oar accident was only one of the near miss incidents on the river. It was reported that Meryl Streep did most of her own stunts in the film, and after an 18 hour day of filming rafting scenes, Streep was ready to collapse into her hotel bed and rest for a while, but Curtis Hanson asked for one more shot of her in the raft, to which she protested that she really didn’t feel up to it, but Hanson pressured her into doing it. Weak from fatigue, she was swept off the raft into the river and was in danger of drowning before she was rescued. Because she was so tired, she would have drowned if it hadnt been for her life jacket and her costar, Kevin Bacon, who pulled her out of the freezing cld water and back into the raft. The plot is about a Boston couple, Gail (Meryl Streep), a river rafting expert, and Tom (David Strathairn), an architect, who are having marital problems. Gail decides to take their son, Roarke (Joseph Mazzello), on a holiday rafting trip down the Salmon River in Idaho, along with their dog, Maggie. Their daughter, Willa (Stephanie Sawyer), accompanies them to Gails parents house in Idaho. At the last minute, just when they are about to leave for the almost week-long trip, Tom joins them. As they are setting off, they meet a couple of other rafters, Wade (Kevin Bacon) and Terry (John C. Reilly), who appear to be friendly, but who turn out to be armed robbers making their getaway by rafting down the river. Thus they leave for the trip, leaving Willa behind to be taken care of by her grandparents. After the first day’s rafting, the family is forced to raft at gunpoint down the rest of the river before they all set up camp for the night. A park ranger named Johnny (Benjamin Bratt), who knows Gail, is whitewater canoeing down the river, is shot by Wade and thrown into the rapids. Wade and Terry want to go down the river to a set of rapids where rafting is no longer allowed, because in recent years one person was killed and another was left paralyzed. They force Gail to raft down through those rapids despite her repeated attempts to flip the raft and force them out of the river. That night, Tom attempts to steal the gun from the sleeping Terry but is heard and has to run into the bushes and to the river. Wade gives chase and believes he has shot him, when he hears a loud splash into the water. Tom reappears, reunites with Maggie, and manages to flip the raft. Gail and Roarke, whom Wade has tied to it, remain in it and manage to get hold of the gun, which had fallen into the water, while Tom is fighting Terry. The struggle ends when Gail throws the bag of money into the water and shoots Wade, whose dead body floats off down the river. The film ends with the family and Terry (who has been arrested) being helicoptered out. The film premiered on September 30, 1994 in the United States, but release was delayed in the United Kingdom until February 24, 1995. The film grossed a total of $94,216,343 worldwide, earning $46,816,343 domestically in the United States and $47,400,000 abroad Film critics praised the production values of the cinematography and score, and the pace of the rafting experience, as well as Curtis Hansons directing, and as a film which braves the rapids while keeping the viewer afloat amidst its churning waters. Both Streep and Bacon won nominations to the Golden Globe Awards for their performances in The River Wild.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 12:20:35 +0000
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