Set in the interwar period just before the Depression, approximately 1926, A River Runs Through It is narrated by Norman Maclean (Robert Redford) as an old man telling the story of the summer between finishing his Masters degree at Dartmouth and taking a position in Chicago as a professor, when he stayed with his family in Missoula, Montana. “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly-fishing.” With all of these dynamic elements present, A River Runs Through It presented the potential for a masterpiece–and in this, Redford wildly succeeded.Ī River Runs Through It – A Perfect Movie Possibly because he recognized its beautiful visual potential, being set in the grand unspoiled nature of Missoula, Montana, or that it was set in the interwar period as a coming of age drama that would produce a unique narrative, or that the tone of the story–of wistful nostalgia, the sadness of a lack of communication and understanding in a family, or the metaphysical questions the story raises–was ripe for the cinematic treatment. Robert Redford, who as a director had always picked his projects carefully, chose to adapt Maclean’s story “A River Runs Through It” for the screen. The book has since become a highly regarded example of semi-autobiographical fiction, and the three stories that comprise the book are fine works of literature in and of themselves with descriptions of nature unmatched since Thoreau and Hemingway. He had written A River Runs Through It after his retirement at the encouragement of his children, based on the stories of his life he had told them. Though unfortunate, it seems to be a fitting non-tribute in itself: besides two scholarly articles, Maclean hadn’t published any work before this one, and in fact would only have one other collection (of non-fiction) published posthumously, two years after his death. It’s a work of art that could only have been written by a man who had already lived most of his life, looking back with a mixture of sentimentality and sadness at the events that contributed to his perspective of the world.Īlthough it was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1977, ultimately the Pulitzer board decided not to award any prize that year. Comprised of three long “short stories,” including the eponymous novella “A River Runs Through It,” it’s a minor American classic, filled with memorable and carefully phrased passages that evoke the majesty of nature and a metaphysical meditation on life from the perspective of a man of advanced age. Writer Norman Maclean published the short story collection A River Runs Through It in 1976 at age 74.
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