Along a stretch of the Gallatin River in the shadow of the Montana Rockies, a fisherman, dripping wet from wading in the current, poses before a camera and proudly displays his prize catch, a 28-inch rainbow trout.
But before a photograph can be snapped, a problem develops: The glistening red-striped trout has bashed its snout against a rock. The bruised specimen is carefully placed back into the water as a stand-in trout is tenderly lifted from a holding tank and substituted in the fisherman`s grasp. Finally, the picture is taken.
Fly fishers have a reputation as perfectionists. But these finicky anglers are striving to capture more than a flawless fishing trip. They are seeking to satisfy Robert Redford as he tries to make a perfect movie out of what some consider a perfect book.
The book is ”A River Runs Through It,” a favorite among fly fishermen and Western history buffs by Chicago author Norman Maclean, who died last year.
Redford, directing his third film, has chosen the project to further his environmental agenda and tell the poignant story of a Scottish family`s life in Montana in the 1920s.
”The book impressed me because it was the true West from every angle,”
Redford said during a recent interview between takes on the Gallatin. Filming wrapped up this month; the movie is to be released in the fall of 1992.
The film is adapted from the book`s title novella, a lyrical, autobiographical account of a family bound by a deep love of the land and fly fishing.
Hailed by literary critics, the book was written by Maclean after his retirement as a professor of English from the University of Chicago. It has sold 275,000 copies and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1977 after being the first original work of fiction published by the U. of C. Press.
Maclean weaves memories of his youth in Big Sky country; of fishing with his brother, a gambler, journalist and streetfighter; and his father, a strict Presbyterian minister.
The story captivated Redford, who said he believes the country is losing touch with its immigrant strains. He was especially interested in filming it, he said, because Scots have industriously blended into the melting pot, leaving their story rarely told.
In making the movie, Redford said, he has immersed himself in details of the Macleans` life, listening to tapes of Norman`s lectures on poetry, reading family letters and other writings, even tacking up dozens of old Maclean family photographs around his office and home.
”I have lived in their world and life and time for several months now,” Redford said. ”I purposely have not had anything to do with the outside world. I`ve not read a paper or watched television, and I have only vague knowledge of what`s happening in the Soviet Union.”
Redford said that Montana author Tom McGuane gave him a copy of the book in 1980. He said he knew he wanted to turn it into a film after reading the book`s now-famous first line.
”In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing,” Maclean wrote.
Redford said that Maclean`s father reminded him of his grandfather and of his own Scottish-Irish upbringing-one of ”absolute, fierce toughness,” in which emotional issues were avoided in conversation and parental disapproval was shown ”by the use of silence as a weapon.”
Fly master
Inspired by Maclean`s accurate descriptions of fly fishing, Redford has religiously attended to detail in shooting the movie`s fishing scenes.
Maclean`s boyhood fishing pal, George Croonenberghs, has been used as a period fishing consultant and instructor for actors Tom Skerritt, Brad Pitt and Craig Scheffer-none of whom ever had cast a fly before portraying the movie`s three main characters.
Croonenberghs, 73, taught the actors proper casting techniques using the antiquated paraphernalia of the 1920s: bamboo rods, silk lines and
Croonenberghs` own hand-tied flies of fur and feathers.
The fishing scenes ”are as authentic as we can make them,” said Croonenberghs, wearing one of his handmade flies tucked into the brim of his cap. His considerable talent for tying flies was made famous in Maclean`s book.
”This brings back a lot of memories,” Croonenberghs said, watching the crew film the emotional scene in which Maclean recalls his final fishing trip with his brother, Paul. ”If I tied a fly wrong, Paul used to throw me in the water. Paul was my best friend.”
Another technical adviser on the set was John Bailey, who owns one of Montana`s best-known fly fishing equipment shops. In 1983, Bailey`s father presented Maclean with one of the sport`s most prestigious honors, the Dan and Helen Bailey Memorial Award. Family members said the prize box of Bailey flies meant more to Maclean than being nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Tainted Blackfoot
Montana`s legion of fly fishing enthusiasts are hoping Redford`s movie, like Maclean`s book, will increase interest in the sport by communicating its grace and beauty.
”Hopefully, that will result in more people wanting clean rivers,”
Bailey said. Redford, too, has said he hopes the movie will focus attention on the importance of preserving the nation`s rivers and river habitats.
The book`s title refers to the powerful Blackfoot River, which runs near Missoula, the place where Maclean grew up and learned to fish. But Redford chose to film the movie 200 miles away in the scenic Gallatin canyon, about 30 miles south of Bozeman, and in the historic railroad town of Livingston.
The Blackfoot, which Maclean considered one of Montana`s ”great trout rivers,” has deteriorated because of logging-induced erosion and overuse by fishers and campers. Silt from timber cutting operations pours into the Blackfoot and other Western streams in the spring runoff, burying trout spawning beds.
John N. Maclean, the author`s son and a Chicago Tribune reporter, said he hoped the movie would spark interest in development of a comprehensive plan to clean up the Blackfoot.
”It`s a damned mess,” said Maclean, who fished the stream twice this summer. ”The banks are like a KOA campground, and there aren`t many fish left. It`s not a river I can go back to as my father did.”
To satisfy the Montana Humane Society, no fish were killed in making the movie. A society representative and a fish biologist were present during the filming of all fishing sequences to ensure that the hatchery-bred trout starring in the picture were not overly stressed.
Actors ”hooked” plastic milk jugs bobbing beneath the water. Underwater scenes were filmed using mechanical trout.
To display their ”catches” for the camera, actors held the fish tenderly by the jaws, not the gills, so as not to hurt them. Each night, the trout were returned to the hatchery, carefully transported from the river in a truck outfitted with special water and oxygen tanks.
No go for William Hurt
Aside from such technical issues, Redford`s biggest challenge was producing a compelling movie script from a literary work that depends more on characters than on plot for its impact.
Screenwriters, aided by Norman Maclean and his children, combed Maclean`s old love letters, poems and high school yearbook to flesh out characters with real-life anecdotes not found in the book. Also dug up were copies of church sermons by Norman`s father and old newspaper articles written by Paul Maclean, who worked as a reporter in Helena.
Despite changes and additions to the story, in spirit ”the movie is very faithful to the book,” said Jean Maclean Snyder, Maclean`s daughter and a lawyer with the Chicago firm of D`Ancona & Pflaum.
The movie covers some events a decade earlier than the book, providing glimpses into Maclean`s courtship of his wife, Jessie, and his decision to leave Montana and accept a faculty post at the U. of C., where he went on to teach English for 45 years. Meanwhile, his brother, brooding and self-destructive, slips deeper into gambling, drinking and womanizing.
In one true-life scene added to the script, Jessie takes Norman on a wild and terrifying car ride along a railroad trestle to punish him for angering her. In another, a young Norman and Paul incur their father`s wrath by riding over a waterfall in a rowboat.
Maclean wrote the book to come to grips with the unsolved beating death of his brother in a Chicago alley 50 years ago, an event he viewed as the tragic result of the family`s inability to communicate with one another.
The author was distrustful of Hollywood and the potential for commercial tampering with the story. He turned down William Hurt`s request for the movie rights after going fishing with the well-known actor. Boastful of his prowess as a fly fisherman, Hurt arrived at the river bank with a Hollywood-style entourage but no fishing license. Maclean wasn`t impressed.
Redford contacted Maclean in the early 1980s and invited him to the Sundance Institute in Utah, founded by Redford in part to support low-budget, high-quality filmmaking. ”I told him, `I don`t know you and you don`t know me. But let`s work toward trust,` ” Redford recalled.
Redford said he met with the author three times in Chicago, leaving two weeks between each meeting to mull over their discussions about ”film, fishing, Montana, the West and literature.” He offered the author a say in developing a first draft of the screenplay, a concession Redford said is
”unheard of in Hollywood, where the attitude toward authors is `pay `em and get rid of `em.` ”
Once Maclean approved the draft, Redford asked the author to promise ”to step aside and let me make the film.” The two finally struck a deal giving Redford the screen rights in 1988.
Grief and excitement
Nevertheless, family members have been involved throughout the project.
Maclean`s son-in-law, Joel Snyder, a U. of C. art professor, has worked on the movie as a still photographer, taking pictures of the cast that will be used on screen in designating passage of time. Grandsons Jacob and Noah Snyder also had a hand in various tasks, from feeding the crew to appearing in bit parts.
Maclean`s children found the experience a bit unsettling and yet therapeutic.
”Paul`s death was a pivotal event in my family`s life,” said John Maclean. ”It`s strange as hell to have a bunch of people you don`t know poring over the intimate details of your existence when you`re still living with the repercussions.”
Grief-stricken from her father`s death at age 87, Jean Maclean Snyder found herself rummaging through her parents` belongings and reading their love letters to help scriptwriters round out characters.
”Doing it in that framework made it tolerable and exciting,” she said.
”It was an amazing experience. I was reading the letters, wanting to know what happened next. These were the people I knew and yet not the people I knew.”
”I was skeptical that a good movie could be made from this book,” Jean Snyder said. ”But the cast has been so eager to know about my parents that they actually started to become these people for me.”
