A River Runs Through It Movie

With no major stars and only fly-fishing for action, Robert Redford's "A River Runs Through It" made an extraordinary showing at the box office this weekend: The small-scale family drama was the second-highest-grossing film in the country, trailing only the Steven Seagal action movie "Under Siege." "I'm not a sage about the business," Redford said Monday. "There is a formula for the movie business--the tendency for extreme laughter, action, sex and violence.

The other day, Dave Whitlock met a man fishing the White River near Norfork, Ark., where he lives and asked, one fisherman to another, "How ya doin'?" The man, who, Whitlock guessed, was retired, looked up from his lawn chair and said: "Oh, it's been pretty slow this morning, but that's OK because I hate cleaning 'em, anyway." That was Whitlock's cue. "I asked him, 'Did you ever think about catching and releasing them?' And he said, 'I catch and release.

The other day, Dave Whitlock met a man fishing the White River near Norfork, Ark., where he lives and asked, one fisherman to another, "How ya doin'?" The man, who, Whitlock guessed, was retired, looked up from his lawn chair and said: "Oh, it's been pretty slow this morning, but that's OK because I hate cleaning 'em, anyway." That was Whitlock's cue. "I asked him, 'Did you ever think about catching and releasing them?' And he said, 'I catch and release.

With no major stars and only fly-fishing for action, Robert Redford's "A River Runs Through It" made an extraordinary showing at the box office this weekend: The small-scale family drama was the second-highest-grossing film in the country, trailing only the Steven Seagal action movie "Under Siege." "I'm not a sage about the business," Redford said Monday. "There is a formula for the movie business--the tendency for extreme laughter, action, sex and violence.

The fishing had to be right. Robert Redford sought the help of five fly-casting specialists for "A River Runs Through It," among them George Croonenberghs and John Bailey. Croonenberghs was Norman Maclean's lifelong fishing pal and tied flies for both Paul and Norman Maclean. His job was to ensure that Brad Pitt, who played Paul, and Craig Sheffer, who played Norman, "looked like" their characters as they moved about the river and also to furnish authentic Maclean-style flies.

Robert Redford is picking halfheartedly at a piece of cold chicken, unhappy less with the food on his plate than the topic at hand: words. "It's something I'm haunted by," he says. "This issue of films not being literary, about whether it's possible to make a film because of the language in a work." Redford has found his test, finally. This week, his film "A River Runs Through It," based on Norman Maclean's novella, opens at theaters nationwide.

The whole thing was like a fairy tale, Everett Rohrer says. The retired train engineer's phone rang at midnight one Friday about 30 years ago and the man on the other end said he was from Columbia Pictures. He had a deal. Could they meet the next day? "My dear wife--she was living then--thought it was a joke," Rohrer, of Hudson, Colo., said of his start in the movie business. But it was no joke.

The fishing had to be right. Robert Redford sought the help of five fly-casting specialists for "A River Runs Through It," among them George Croonenberghs and John Bailey. Croonenberghs was Norman Maclean's lifelong fishing pal and tied flies for both Paul and Norman Maclean. His job was to ensure that Brad Pitt, who played Paul, and Craig Sheffer, who played Norman, "looked like" their characters as they moved about the river and also to furnish authentic Maclean-style flies.

Robert Redford is picking halfheartedly at a piece of cold chicken, unhappy less with the food on his plate than the topic at hand: words. "It's something I'm haunted by," he says. "This issue of films not being literary, about whether it's possible to make a film because of the language in a work." Redford has found his test, finally. This week, his film "A River Runs Through It," based on Norman Maclean's novella, opens at theaters nationwide.