The River (1984 film)

The River is a 1984 American Southern Gothic drama film directed by Mark Rydell and written by Robert Dillon and Julian Barry, who based the screenplay on actual stories of East Tennessee farmers who lost their crops due to damage caused by bad weather, and having to reluctantly work industrial jobs as strikebreakers in nearby cities to avoid foreclosure on their farmland.

Starring Sissy Spacek, Mel Gibson (in his American film debut), and Scott Glenn, the film is set in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians countryside of East Tennessee where farm couple Tom and Mae Garvey, played by Spacek and Gibson, and their children struggle to operate their multi-generational family farm along the banks of a river prone to flooding destroying their crops, and a increasingly dire financial situation due to loan rejections and a risk of foreclosure. Their financial situation prompts Gibson's character to find work at a steel mill, unknowingly as a strikebreaker, leading to confrontations with striking millworkers. After surveying a flood event, land developer Joe Wade, played by Glenn, aggressively seeks to acquire farmland, including the Garvey farm, for a massive dam-based economic development project he is spearheading.

Filming took place from September to December 1983 primarily in East Tennessee on farmland in Hawkins County along the banks of the Holston River for the Garvey farm, with additional scenes shot in Jonesborough for the farm auction scenes, Gate City, Virginia and Kingsport, Tennessee for the scenes depicting the small towns near the Garvey farm, and in Birmingham, Alabama for industrial scenes depicting the steel mill where Tom Garvey finds work.

Considered by Rydell to be a tribute to the vanishing American family farm, The River was the last of a trio of "farm films" released by Hollywood in 1984, with the others being Country and Places in the Heart. It was theatrically released on December 19, 1984, by Universal Pictures. It was a box office failure, grossing only $11.5 million against a $18 million budget.

The film received mixed reviews with critics praising Spacek and Glenn's performances, the realist nature towards the topic of the decline of American family farming, the musical score by composer John Williams, and the cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond, but criticizing the screenplay, execution, and Gibson's performance.

The film received four nominations at the 57th Academy Awards; Best Actress (for Spacek), Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, and won the Special Achievement Award.