The River

Not a great movie. Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek's characters were bland as wet toast. It seems like a third or half the movie got sidetracked with the union workers/strikebreakers storyline and more could have been made of Joe Wade's involvement. He seemed to know everyone in town and even respect people like Tom Garvey; meanwhile, Wade and Mrs. Garvey apparently had a thing for each other, but that wasn't fleshed out. The ending was inspirational, but since Tom was kind of one dimensionabke and unlikeable, that took away from the ending's impact. Also, I'm trying to figure out how this film cost $18 million to make in 1984. Other than the river overflowing, there weren't many or any scenes that required great special effects or elaborate work. Last, the premise of Wade flooding the valley didn't make sense unless he had a government contract to do so under imminent domain from the government. A private company can't just up and decide to destroy private property (even with compensation) for its own purposes. In any case, I wouldn't recommend this one unless you just like 80s movies and want to cover as many of them as you can.