Norman McLean’s a River Runs Through It

A River Runs Through It is a story about a pair of brothers who live in Montana and love to fish. It revolves around one family, the Maclean family. It takes place in the early 1900’s. The two sons are Norman who is the narrator and author, and Paul, his younger brother. The setting is set in Montana along a big river. It’s a scene that you can picture and get the feel of by just reading the book. The author paints a picture within the book that is just incredible. It’s something that I don’t think the movie is able to capture within the two hours of a film. Yes, the movie is a little bit older and the quality of movies weren’t the same as they are today, but I think that you have to establish the scenery if it’s a big part of the book.

A lot of people have seen the film A River Runs Through It. I’m not sure, but how many people do you think know that it was a book first? For about two years after I had watched the movie I was finally aware that it was originally a book. This doesn’t really surprise me based on the fact that I hardly ever read. Especially if it’s just for pleasure or fun. Once I got to English my freshman year and found out that I was going to get to read this book I actually got a little excited. Since I had seen the movie and I enjoyed the film a little bit, I was excited to get to read. Now I usually never get excited to read but this was a rare occasion for me. When I found out that we were reading the book I was curious to see the differences between the book and film and I can easily say that there were a few differences. Once I read the book and watched the movie again I had to take some time so I could really get an understanding on the differences. I let the book sit on my mind and I think I was able to find some differences.

Before reading it for the first time. I watched some clips online to try to get a grasp on the idea of the book and to revisit the movie again. There are very few movies that can capture the essence of a book and do the book justice. There is simply just not enough time in a film to get every moment from the book. I think that A River Runs Through it does an okay job of getting the feel of the book into the movie. I read an article about the person who made the film adaptation of this book and his other movies are far from the original context of the stories, like a River Runs. It sucks for the people who have only seen the movie because in my opinion the book is much better than the movie. There are multiple differences between the book and the movie. Some of the most notable differences Most of the book is based around Norman who is the oldest son and the smartest. For a while in the book he leaves Montana to go to college. In college he leaves for about 6 years for school. Which is never really talked about in the movie.

The youngest son Paul stays in Montana to remain close to home and be close to his friends and family. He also wanted to stay in Montana due to the fishing that he and his brother had done for many years. Fishing is a big piece of this story and it’s not surprise that he never wanted to leave his passion. Once the brothers get to see each other for the first time after Norman comes home from school in the movie, they decide to take a fishing trip on a river that they call “their river” the Big Blackfoot. On this fishing trip Norman tries to get in touch with is past and he tries to find his love of fishing again. Norman figures out that Paul really kept up with his fishing. And had become some sort of expert or master at fishing. This comes as a surprise to Norman because he thought that Paul was mainly just going to forget about fishing and focus his attention on girls or other stuff. He thought that was the reason he had stayed in Montana.

Norman stayed in Montana and became not only an expert fly fisherman, but he also became an artist of some sorts. Reading the book first and then watching the movie second you get to clearly see the differences between the book and the movie. You can’t fault the movie on this because it’s hard to completely capture the magic of the book into two hours of film. In the beginning of the film there’s a scene where the two brothers steal a boat and attempt to go down a river where at the end there is a water fall. This is clearly a dangerous thing to do but the brothers insist on proceeding with their mission. Now this scene is not in the book at all but it is in the movie. In my opinion I think this a good thing to add because it shows the spontaneity that the boys have. It’s a good scene to show their youth and the type of people they are.

Although it’s not in the book I think is something that could have been written into the novel based on the fact that it establishes at an early stage in the story on who these people are. There’s another scene in the movie where Norman gets called at night to get Paul out of jail. Paul had been drinking and dancing and getting into imaginable trouble with this girl who happens to be and Indian. At that time native Americans were not the most liked people in the states. Paul was in love with this girl and he had to and wanted to defend her against someone who was discriminating against her. Eventually both Paul and this girl get thrown into jail.

Eventually Norman has to come to their rescue and bail them out of jail. During that scene in the book, Norman tells us about Paul’s huge right hand, which all of the fly fishing that Paul does seems to have grown bigger than the other hand. In this scene, Paul tries to use his hand to cover his face while he is in the jail cell, he is doing that as if he is hiding behind it and he doesn’t want to be seen by his brother Norman. Maybe he could be using it to move the viewers’ attention away from his shame and towards to the power that Paul has in himself. Paul doesn’t want to be seen as a bad person to his brother Norman, he wants to be seen as a good person and the innocent younger brother that he is. When you watch the movie, this scene takes place in the car ride after Norman picks them up from jail. I don’t think the movie portrays the emotion and the power behind this scene.

In the book it shows that even the people who seem innocent may not be innocent and they make mistakes too. In the movie it’s just another scene where the brothers are talking. You don’t feel the shame behind Paul. Paul feels bad that his brother has to come pick him up from jail. Another part of this story is the movies decision to focus more on Normans family and not as much on the fishing portion of the story. The book goes into great detail about his fishing and what he had accomplished with his fishing. However, the book doesn’t talk as much about his fishing and goes into showing his family. And the inner workings of what goes on in his family. In the book it only tells us that Norman and Jessie are courting and they are in the beginning stages of their relationship. While in the movie we get to see that Norman and Jessie are already married.

I think that the movie messed up in this case. If your trying to keep the movie pure and as close to the novel as possible then you have to keep details like this the same. I also think that if the main idea about your movie is centered around the idea of fly fishing then you should incorporate it more into your film. Most of the fishing you see is in the beginning of the movie when the brothers are kids and they are learning how to fish. You don’t see too much of the fishing when they are older. I think that this is a mistake on the movies fault because fly fishing is kind of the one thing that keeps the brothers together and is one of their main passions.

In the end Paul eventually passes away, for things that are not known by the other characters. While the big river that they talk about is the Blackfoot, they refer to it as the river of his youth. The river in this story the story is actually in fact a thought of love and compassion that is felt for the early of part of the book are filled with promise and love and them as kids. The middle part of the book is scary and deep and mysterious. The final part of this book is where everything wraps together and you get the final idea of what this whole story is about. In the end you get to see many differences between the book and the novel. I discussed a few of the details and differences between the two.