User reviews

When I first saw this movie (at age 13) I was frustrated with the inept, impotent bureaucrat portrayed by Clift. The when I next saw it (age 16), I was vexed by his girl, who seemed to be too patient and wise. The third time (age 18) had me trying to take sides on this complex question - does the good for the many always trump the good for the few, or the one? And I was hooked on this complex, multi-layered drama - I'll see it again whenever and wherever I can. See it if you can find it. Although it's one of Kazan's best, and one of his favorites, it's STILL not in public distribution.

A touching unknown Kazan film ('60) that delves into the American psyche like Welles did in Touch of Evil ('58)..kind of. The plot is too basic and pure to explain, but it's not. This is also Bruce Dern's first film and possibly Rip Torn's. Monty Clift is (post-accident) still a brilliant actor (with half a shattered face for 10 years) who conveys the ambiguity of job-man to this lovely, young mother (Lee Remick) who was not even nominated for an Oscar, and it's down Alice's Rabbit Hole with Jo Van Fleet (OScar winner in previous Kazan film playing much older than she really was..again..like actors should be able to do in famous Hollywood films) decrepit, sane, just and bigoted ...all in the same paragraph (while sitting in a rockintg chair) with mud, dogs, Negroes, corruption, and the Tennessee commission.

A wonderful film. An 8 out of 10. Best performance = Lee Remick. There are other gliding Southern performances that grace the Magnolia trees, gator bait, and overalls that we have all come to love in an artistic, American way. Find this one!

Lee Remick's own favorite among her movies, and fine late Elia Kazan, this historic romance of the TVA and progress vs. tradition is beautifully crafted, gorgeous to look at, exquisitely acted, and quite frightening in its depiction of potential mob violence. Cleverly adapted from two books by Paul Osborn, it takes its time spinning out a gripping tale of a government agent (a restrained Montgomery Clift, his private life a wreck, but none of it shows on screen) trying to evict a stubborn, proud old woman (Jo Van Fleet, magnificent; Shirley Jones won over this? Really?) from her island so it can be flooded and power brought to all those poor Tennesseeans. He enlists the aid of her widowed-mom granddaughter, Remick, and the relationship between her and Clift is wonderfully ambiguous and rich. It's intelligent, moving, and convincing, and nobody went to see it in 1960. Very worth seeking out.

I had to say this movie was so stunning for me. The beginning black and white newsreel of a man who lost his three children in a flood is actually a real clip and it is my grandfather, so I was so amazed to see this. He passed away in 1972. My father lost his brothers and sisters in the flood which was in the 1930s Trumansburg, NY. I believe is was the flood of 1935. How amazing to see an actual news reel of my grandfather!!! I had a hard time finding the movie until I come across it on ebay. My father once had it, but he ended up losing it as the movie was not marked it was a blank VHS and it was unfortunately thrown away. I am holding onto the movie that I got until his birthday. It will make a unforgivable gift.

Once again I endured American Movie Classics' merciless mangling of one of their rarely shown archival masterpieces, "Wild River," shown non-letterboxed, interrupted excessively by endless strings of commercials and their completely unpalatable promotions for showings of future films and special programs. I've complained about this in other IMDb comments I've posted so I won't give into the almost irresistible temptation to rail against AMC once more. That said...

This film contains one of the all-time greatest performances by an American actress that it is possible to see. Jo Van Fleet is so convincing as the intransigent matriarch, who refuses to leave her island, that the injustice of her not receiving an Academy Award nomination for her performance still rankles. Perhaps the members of the Academy could not decide to grant her a nomination as the lead actress or as an actress in a supporting role and muffed the chance to show their admiration. Other comments here aptly point out all of the other outstanding elements in this film and the pain of seeing it so diminished in this TV broadcast (I did see it during its theatrical release, but had forgotten how eloquently most of it was done.) was, nevertheless, worthwhile. I join others who have expressed a desire for a DVD release (where the CinemaScope ratio would be approximated, we can hope.) Wish we could persuade Fox Classics to see if the response to a video audience would exceed the neglect this film was subjected to during its first exposure to the paying public.

There is little to add to the eloquent appreciations of Wild River by other users. Still, I want to pay my tribute. My father took me to see the film when I was a little girl and it made such an impression on me I have been searching for it for years. Odd, since I remembered nothing of the plot, retaining only fleeting images of autumn colours, Lee Remick's autumnal hair, the old ferry, an indelible impression of Montgomery Clift's face, the old woman surrounded by still 'figures in a landscape'. And the creation of a unique atmosphere so tangible, so lyrical, so elegiac it stayed with me for 40+ years. I've been wanting to know why it clung to me so. And wondering why it seemed to have disappeared without trace. This Christmas, in the fullness of time, my niece presented me with the DVD and I have at last seen it again. Why did it affect me so profoundly? That one's easy. Why had the film disappeared. That one's complex, as you know. What I hadn't expected was that stunning performance from the incomparable Jo Van Fleet. No Oscar? Were they mad? It is intensely interesting and sobering to reflect how politics can hold art hostage.

A young field administrator (Montgomery Clift though first choice was Marlon Brando) for the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) comes to rural Tennessee to carry out what none of his predecessors have been able , he has to oversee the building of a dam on the Tennessee River . As the dam is already built downstream with that section of the valley soon to be flooded . He finds opposition the local people , in especial from a farmer who objects to his employment of local black workers . He attempts to evict the stubborn octogenarian (Jo Van Fleet) from her home on an island in the River before the rising waters engulf her , but things go wrong . Meanwhile , the young man has a love affair with that woman's widowed (Lee Remick) granddaughter . One of the real problems is that Carol is engaged to kind and caring Walter Clark (Frank Overton) , a man she doesn't like and would only marry for a father for her two small kiddies .

Here Elia Kazan reflects the peculiar characters , rural sets in realism way , folkloric customs , glimmer landscapes as well as evocative interior homes . Much of the screenplay revolves around the eviction of an elderly woman and Kazan achieves a real emotion and sensibility by means of slow-moving scenes and close-ups of protagonists . This dramatic story is full of dialogues dealing with essential and fundamental feelings as family love , lands , friendship or tradition . Elia Kazan is capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses , as Montgomery Clift , as a TVA bureaucrat who comes to evict people , gives a very good acting , though at the time of the film , Clift was alcoholic and sick . Lee Remick as an unfortunate and attractive widow is pretty good . Support cast is frankly excellent , such as : Albert Salmi , Jay C. Flippen , Frank Overton , Barbara Loden , Pat Hingle , James Westerfield , film debut of Bruce Dern and Robert Earl Jones, father of James Earl Jones . Special mention for Jo Van Fleet who steals the show as obstinate and proud grandmother.

The motion picture was well directed by Elia Kazan and considered to be one of the best films of the year , he said it was his favorite of all the movies he made and including biographic elements ; in fact, he worked in this area in 1934 during the height of the Great Depression. During his career, he won two Oscars as Best Director and received an Honorary Oscar, won three Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. Kazan directed four performers to Best Actress Oscars: Celeste Holm, Kim Hunter, Eva Marie Saint and ¨Jo Van Fleet¨. Greek-Turkish director Elia Kazan who being a child emigrated along with his family to United States made magnificent films . Some of them describe memories , emotions and infancy images , narrating the persecution to Greeks and Armenians by Turkish that finished in genocide as in ¨America , America¨ . Kazan directed a string of successful films as ¨Gentleman's agreement¨, ¨Man on a tightrope¨, ¨panic in the streets¨, ¨Pinky¨ , ¨Splendor in the grass¨, ¨Baby doll¨, ¨the engagement¨, ¨a Street named desire¨, ¨East of Eden¨ and especially ¨On the waterfront¨ his greatest hit .

I found this little gem to be an exquisite piece of ensemble work by some of the best screen actors to ever to be in front of a lens. Elia Kazan impeccable direction and a performance by Jo Van Fleet that could be a learning tool for some of these putrid so-called actress that now are being lauded as the neo-contemporary actress's of the day. When you see a film of this artistic magnitude you can easily understand the dumbing down process of the American cinematic media. Not one of the so-called stars of today could measure up to Lee Remicks complex and sensitive portrayal of Carol in Wild River. Montgomery Clift an actors actor , there will never be another. A master of controlled raw emotion and body language. Gone are the days indeed when this kind of movie production will return. Not special effects or remake after loathsome remake or some equally obnoxious star or starlet will match this cinematic jewel.

A TVA bureaucrat (Montgomery Clift) comes to the river to do what none of his predecessors have been able to do - evict a stubborn octogenarian (Jo Van Fleet) from her island before the rising waters engulf her.

I appreciate the attempt to use a real setting: Exterior locations for "Wild River" were filmed on Coon Denton Island on the Hiwassee River, upriver from Charleston, Tennessee; in the town's old business district; and on a peninsula west of Cleveland, Tennessee, on Chickamauga Lake. I also appreciate how this was the debut film of the now-legendary Bruce Dern.

But this is also just a great story of progress and property rights. You can understand where the TVA is coming from and their quest to provide power for the people of the region is a good cause. But you also have to respect the old woman. She might be offered a good deal of money, and eminent domain may be the law of the land, but there is something very American about holding one's property as the highest ideal.

WILD RIVER is one of Elia Kazan's best films, with brilliant affecting performances, beautiful cinematography, atmospheric settings, and a multilayered plot with important thematic points to make about the rights of the individual vs. the needs of the larger society as a whole. Jo Van Fleet gives one of the all time great performances of the screen in this film as far as I'm concerned. The music is also beautiful and evokes the time and place of the setting, 1930s Tennessee.Why isn't this film on video? Wonderful, one of my favorite movies.

I can see why this movie is considered a classic. A particular version of rural Tennessee is captured very starkly with the characters and atmosphere seeming to walk right out of a painting. That much alone makes it worth a view.

The acting is excellent, especially in the supporting and minor roles. They create and carry the film. Given that, Montgomery Cliff, although a great actor, is not as good as one might expect. The attempts at romantic moments with Lee Remick really fall flat and it seems to be his presence that is the problem not hers or the director's. She puts out a good effort but it is not believable when it is pointed in his direction. His other scenes are much better but even with those, this is not one of the great Montgomery Cliff vehicles.

There is one confrontation scene that is a bit confused in that it is not exactly clear what the motivations of all the participants are and their actions are likewise difficult to make sense of. It almost came across as a scene that was artificially built up with extra characters that the director wanted to show but had no other logical place in which to do it. It could have been scaled back and been more effective.

This movie features Jo van Fleet, a terrific actress who has been forgotten.

As usual, her performance carries the movie.

Some should remember her as the mother of the James Dean character in East of Eden, where her scenes with Dean are the most powerful in the film.

Elia Kazan, who directed Wild River, also directed East of Eden.

Kazan said in an interview he considered van Fleet a "great" actress, and expressed irritation that she had been "forgotten."

In Wild River the character she plays so believably is decades older than she actually was.

One previous reviewer here is so fixated on politics that he really uses his pretense of reviewing this movie to give his own personal political views, which are of no interest to me, and which do not belong in a forum of this type.

When a movie character evoke the kind of feelings and emotion thought only capable in real life you can't help but wonder. Yet as a young man I literally fell in love with Carol Garth Baldwin in Eli Kazan's Wild River. Obviously you can't help but be attracted to the beautiful Lee Remick yet it is her portrayal of a 23 year old widowed mother of two and the backdrop of an obscure little Tennessee town that sets the stage for one of the true loves of my life. Jack Palance's character in City Slickers refers to a women he saw only once at a distance as being the love of his life. To this I can relate. Remick would go on and do some notable work in the years that followed this 1960 production and sadly die much to young of cancer at age 55. Yet what she and Kazan were able to do with this story and character will always hold a place in my heart. See Wild River, look into Carol's eyes and smell the cool damp October air in her hair. For me it will always be hauntingly magical.

The three main reasons for wanting to see 'Wild River' were for a story that sounded incredibly powerful on paper, a talented cast (including Montgomery Clift post-accident) and that it was directed by Elia Kazan. Not to mention how positively it has been received by many. The story could have been soapy and over-baked, but the potential for it to have a big emotional punch was massive. Clift, Lee Remick and Jo Van Fleet were great in other things and Kazan was a truly fine and influential director.

One that may have had the odd not so great/good film (i.e. 'Sea of Grass'), like most directors, but his best work (that included 'On the Waterfront' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire) were masterpieces and even lesser work was better than the lesser work of a lot of directors. As cliched as that sounds. 'Wild River' may not be one of his all-time greatest or his most important. It is though incredibly powerful and near-uniformally fantastic, that it was a commercial failure at the time apparently is hard to fathom. As is that it is not better known, though it is brilliant that many hold it in very high regard.

'Wild River' could have developed its main relationship a little more, as it didn't quite feel fully fleshed out or smoulder enough. Though it is played absolutely beautifully and with intensity and poignancy.

Clift though is wonderful here and gives a contender for his best later years performance, in some of his later performances one can tell how much the accident had more than understandably affected him and how he had not fully recovered but not here. Remick is sympathetic and very touching. The best performance though comes from the richly layered powerhouse that is Van Fleet, that she wasn't even nominated for an Oscar here (when her performance is for me even better than the performance that garnered her a nomination, the excellent 'East of Eden') is one of the biggest mistakes the Academy ever made in my view.

Kazan directs very effectively and one can see what his appeal was and why he was so influential from watching the film, even if other films of his did it even better. His direction of actors and how they interact and how he managed throughout his career to do wonders with getting such great performances from so many actors (including those that didn't always impress elsewhere) are here in 'Wild River'. It is a very beautifully made and shot film, with a lot of atmospheric lighting. The music score is neither too constant or over-bearing, nothing iconic but it fits the film's atmosphere expertly.

In terms of writing, 'Wild River' is very intelligently written without resorting to over-wordy rambling or over-bubbled soap. The story is deliberate but never dull, again it is intelligent story-telling and also very moving. Will admit to crying and getting goosebumps, have not felt that about every recently seen film.

To conclude, absolutely wonderful. 9/10

The DVD case with this release carries a comment describing the film as a 'hidden gem'. How often has that promise been fulfilled for buyers? In this case, for me, it definitely was. I like most of Elia Kazan's films, and 'Wild River' is an excellent example of his work.

Kazan gets fine performances out of the whole cast. He tells the story without flourishes or cinematic indulgences, pacing the action and character development with wonderful skill and feeling. (A fine musical score contributes to the mood.) The film starts out with newsreel footage of flooding along the Tennessee River in the 1930s. The use of historical material is a simple and effective way of setting up the situation: the attempt by a Tennessee Valley Authority bureaucrat to persuade a woman landholder to move off the island she owns in the river, the last property not yet repossessed for a dam project. But Kazan's film is not of the 'cinema realism' type. It is a study in character: the bureaucrat who comes to do a job in the public interest, the old woman who refuses to surrender her birthright, and her widowed granddaughter who craves to rejoin society. The story takes these three characters through a convincing and interesting journey. There are no plot surprises, and yet the outcome is never obvious. Jo Van Fleet, as the woman hold-out, gives a powerful portrayal of someone soured in her rightness. Montgomery Clift, as the bureaucrat, is as good here as in any of his films. The reserved quality of his acting style is put to good use, in character terms, by Kazan. Lee Remick, as the granddaughter, demonstrates the emotional range and subtlety of performance that mark her best work. She is also strikingly beautiful. This film is a treasure.

Wild River (1960) : Brief Review -

Elia Kazan challenges President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal in this subtle but slow drama. Migration has always been a serious issue for some people. In this film, we see an elderly matriarch lady who is not willing to sell her land for President Roosevelt's "dam" campaign. Though it looks like a fair deal in the beginning, Kazan shows the other side of the story, taking a dig at the president's scheme. You need guts to do so, and Elia Kazan had plenty of them. We have all seen that in "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), "Boomerang" (1947), and "On The Waterfront" (1954). Wild River is equally challenging and sensitive, but it is unnecessarily slow and drags too much with its dull romance. Clift and Remick, two gorgeous faces, and I just knew that the intimate romance would be coming soon. It happened exactly like that. The first night they spent together saw them making love, and they didn't even know whether they were in love with each other or not. Then there is the second time, and after that, the girl is desperate to marry the man, but the man is unsure. He won't stop seeing her, though. I didn't like these things, but I hated them more when I realised that they took almost 40 minutes from the whole runtime. That was too much and completely unnecessary. It took the buildup away and diverted the narrative from the main context of the film. No film could have recovered from this, but Kazan did it. Wild River touches a sentimental chord and also manages to give a satisfying answer to a sensitive question like migration. Additionally, the racial remarks amongst the labourers community are well highlighted. Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, and Jo Van Fleet's common sense are noteworthy. Kazan always loved challenging social norms and adding his touch to such stories, and Wild River is exactly that. It may not be as great as his above-mentioned classics, but it is fairly good.

RATING - 6/10*

By - #samthebestest.

In 1934 field administrator chuck glover(Montgomery Cliff working for the Tennessee Valley Authority is dispatched to oversee clearance of land & property which will soon be flooded but a stubborn landowner refuse to leave while widow granddaughter(Lee Remick) falls for him.There's trouble along the way when he hire's the local coloured work force to work along side the white counterparts which the townsfolk aren't impressed by, especially by his liberal views.the grandmother (Jo Van Fleet) soon moves out leaving Cliff & Remick to marry & leave with her 2 children to a better life.Great location area shot with opulent flavour,nicely directed by Elia Kazan & nicely acted all round.

Wild River has a strange story, but if you're a Jo Van Fleet fan and want to see her in a solid character role, you can try it. She stars as an eighty-year-old stubborn woman (still in her 40s in real life) living in the sticks who refuses to vacate her home even though it's not safe anymore. It's on the Tennessee River banks, and not only does she risk the floods every year, but she's also standing in the way of building a dam for the safety of the other town's residents.

Montgomery Clift is a northerner, and when he's sent down to make sure the building of the dam goes smoothly, he encounters a massive culture clash with the residents - not to mention endless arguments with Jo. Jo lives with beautiful Lee Remick, her granddaughter, but the strange part of the story is the romance between Lee and Monty. She's a barefoot hick who doesn't even use proper grammar, and even though she's a natural beauty (she doesn't wear a speck of makeup in this movie), I doubt Monty would really want a relationship with her. His work takes up all his energy, and he wouldn't want to upset Jo any further by sleeping with her granddaughter. But few movies get the green light without a romance, so I understand the addition to the story.

As usual, Monty's conflicted expressions work well in the role, and Jo is a pro who knows how to take a large bite out of her elderly characters. It's fascinating to see Lee on retrospect; later in her career, she played classy and cultured (The Competition), a complex alcoholic (Days of Wine and Roses), a Swedish politician (The Farmer's Daughter), and the devil's assistant (Damn Yankees!). In a role where she has to count on her fingers and toes, she's quite different.

Interspersed in this drama are racial tensions and a battle of one against the world - everything you'd expect from an Elia Kazan film. The supporting cast includes Jay C. Flippen, Barbara Loden, and Bruce Dern in his film debut. If you like this one, check out 1984's The River.

Try to see this movie before you spent any money on it, as I did.

Sure, there is a lot of beautiful scenery. And some of the acting is great; Jo van Fleet is brilliant! But Elia Kazan's directing is too heavy handed for Clift and Remmick. Clift does his line and then performs the face he is told to show. But there is no connection between the line and the face. Remmick does the same, but since it her début I can't hold that against her. This effect makes this movie difficult to watch.

The story is full off holes too: the relation between Clift and Remmick starts totally unbelievable. Wouldn't a mother think of her kids? Her house is her future but check out the map in the beginning of the movie and form your own opinion. (since I'm trying to avoid spoilers I can't go into details)