Elia Kazan (1909–2003)

I did not finish this book. The writing was good, but the subject matter left me cold. I read to page fifty, had a sneaking suspicion and skipped to the last twelve pages to check. I was correct in that the story hadn't moved on from the first fifty pages. It is a study in the psychology of a Broadway "Star" and his protégé; the gratitude, the resentments, the love and hate, the twist of the affections when the protégé becomes the Star and the old actor lives on his handouts. I'm not sure what the three hundred pages I didn't read were about, but I suggest they were only depressing. Your mileage may vary.… (more)

It is a shame this film fell into obscurity over the years. Though overshadowed by Elia Kazan’s more heralded and flashier efforts, I have always found “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and “Wild River” to be his best. Thanks to a scarred Montgomery Clift and a young and earthy Lee Remick, “Wild River” has a feeling of quiet reality.

Monty’s genius was to be so much the person he was portraying that he seemed to disappear on-screen. Clift’s sensitive performance here, coming after the accident which altered his appearance, is one of his best. It is matched by a young and incredibly lovely Lee Remick.

Clift works for the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) and has come to Jo Van Fleet’s rural home to move her off her land so room can be made for a dam. Clift is not uncaring, and his sympathy for the older woman is complicated even further by his attraction to her young granddaughter, Lee Remick.

He is also unpopular because of his fair treatment of blacks whom he is employing to help build the dam. But the violence simmering just beneath the surface here is less on his mind than Remick. He cannot have her because of what he is forced to do. Yet it is torture for him.

Clift’s sensitivity and Remick’s heart, torn between what she knows he has to do and what she feels within for him creates a frustration for the would-be couple the viewer can really feel. One scene in particular, as Remick paces back and forth in front of a sitting Clift, reveals the ache in Clift which finally blows.

Beautiful location filming by Kazan adds a further sense of reality to this quiet yet moving film. This was one of Clift’s best post-accident performances. This quiet film needs to become recognized for the masterpiece that it is.… (more)