Main Cast: Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, Jo Van Fleet, Albert Salmi, Jay C. Flippen
Release Year: 1960
Country: US
Run Time: 115 minutes
Plot
Filmed on location in the Tennessee Valley, Wild River is set in the early 1930s. Montgomery Clift plays an idealistic TVA agent, assigned to convince the locals to move from their property so that a beneficial dam can be built. The principal holdout is feisty octogenarian Jo Van Fleet, who refuses to budge from her land, convinced that she will die if she ever gives an inch. Her prophecy turns out to be true, as Van Fleet becomes yet another sacrifice to progress. Clift also runs into opposition because of his fair treatment of the local black population. Lee Remick costars as Van Fleet's granddaughter, who comes to love and understand the sensitive Clift. Some dated fuzzy-headed liberalism aside, Wild River is a masterful recreation of a difficult, complex period in American history. Watch for an uncredited Bruce Dern in his film debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Elia Kazan became a pariah for fingering supposed Communist sympathizers in the entertainment world during the HUAC hearings of the 1950s. But Kazan, himself a former leftist admirer of socialism, made many films which were powerfully liberal. One notable example is The Wild River, the 1960 story of an old woman who refuses to give up her property to the U.S. government's Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1930s. Montgomery Clift plays the government's chief dam ambassador, who runs into a stone wall in the form of Jo Van Fleet, whose performance is riveting. As a historical drama, The Wild River is authentic, if melodramatic, but Lee Remick's role as the holdout's granddaughter, who falls for Clift, is a typically old-fashioned Hollywood tangent. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
