The River (1984 film)

The River is a 1984 film, directed by Mark Rydell, which tells the story of a struggling farm family in the Tennessee valley trying to keep its farm from going in the face of bank foreclosures, floods, and other hard times. The father faces the dilemma of having to work as a strikebreaker in a steel mill to keep his family farm from foreclosure. The film was based on the true story of farmers who unknowingly took the jobs as strikebreakers at a steel mill after their crops had been destroyed by rain. It stars Mel Gibson, Sissy Spacek, Scott Glenn and Billy Green Bush.

Director Mark Rydell viewed the characters in this drama as iconically American, and he was eager to cast Sissy Spacek as the farm wife because of her performance in Coal Miners Daughter and her home on a farm in near Charlottesville, Virginia. Rydell said, She is the consummate American rural young woman, with strength and fiber and a luminous quality. Mel Gibson begged Rydell to let him play the Tennessee farmer who reminded him of his father, but the director was reluctant because of Gibsons Australian accent. Before Gibson left for England to film The Bounty, he begged Rydell not to cast the part yet. Rydell recalled, He came back to my house in Los Angeles and started reading the script, talking, reading the newspaper, in this perfect Tennessee accent. I was really impressed, even when he stood next to Sissy, whos like a tuning fork when it comes to accents, he had damn well done it.The River was filmed in the Holston Valley area of Kingsport, Tennessee. The filmmakers purchased 440 acres 1.8km2 along the Holston River for the farm set and planted corn. Most of the filming was done along Goshen Valley Road and around the Goshen Valley Park area. Goshen Valley Road heads south from highway 11W in Church Hill, Tennessee. The cast and their families moved to the area a month before the start of production to connect with the local people and learn farming skills. The floods in the film were supplied by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Army Corps of Engineers with water from the dam. The bank scene was filmed in the town of Gate City, Virginia. The film was completed for undermillion. ........

Source: Wikipedia