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.
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.