The River (1984)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Production Notes Biographies-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer Web Links
Rating
Year Of Production	1984
Running Time	118:39
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:48)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Mark Rydell
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Sissy Spacek Mel Gibson Scott Glenn
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	John Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Danish Finnish Dutch German Swedish Norwegian Polish Czech French Portuguese Turkish Hungarian Bulgarian	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The River is a film detailing one family's struggle to keep their farm, fighting against massive financial debt, land developers and the environment.

    Farm owners Tom (Mel Gibson) and Mae Garvey (Sissy Spacek) are battling to keep their farm from the bank after many years of poor harvests and dropping crop prices. Tom loves the farm that has been in his family for many generations but his wife Mae is tired of struggling to make ends meet and feels no connection to the land. Local businessman and Mae's former love interest John Wade (Scott Glenn) offers to purchase their farm and the surrounding properties in a plan to flood the valley and build a dam. Tom refuses to accept the offer and will go to any length to keep the land he loves.

    The River received a Special Achievement Academy Award for Sound Effect Editing and was also nominated for Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Music. While all the principal actors give excellent performances, the movie still often feels like a tele-movie or an HBO production due to the nature of the content.

    The River is sure to appeal to viewers that enjoy a story of people battling against adversity but many viewers will find the story a little too predictable.

Video

    When viewing the initial release of this disc, a problem occurs during playback at 23:46 with what appears to be an error in the data stream. This results in severe macro blocking and either a pause for a few seconds with major digital dropouts or total player lockup at this point. This problem seems to only affect only a few seconds of video that may be avoided by skipping to Chapter 5. The initial pressing of this disc has been recalled and a new version without the error has been released. These versions may be identified by the identification number relating to the first layer present on the disc's inner rings. The original release has the number U1 20427V2.1.A VA01 while the remastered version has U1 20427V2.1.A VA03.

    The feature is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    This transfer is quite sharp throughout but becomes a little soft in a small number of dark scenes. At no stage during the transfer was any low level noise detected. During the numerous darkly lit scenes excellent levels of shadow detail can be seen.

    The colour displayed in the film is always consistent, but slightly muted as typically found in films of this age.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected at any stage during the feature.

    Aliasing does pose a number of problems for this transfer with numerous occurrences throughout the film. Some examples of aliasing can be seen at 11:06, 22:35, 31:18, 39:55 and 60:05. While none of the aliasing seen in the movie is extremely severe, its frequent occurrence is slightly disruptive to the viewer.

    Consistently throughout the transfer, numerous minor film artefacts can be seen. These artefacts are generally quite minor and only slightly disruptive to the viewer. Examples of these artefacts may be seen at 0:30, 2:20, 4:27, 11:49 and 15:28. Some minimal film grain is also visible during a small number of the dimly lit scenes.

    Fourteen different sets of subtitles are provided on the disc. I sampled the English set and they appeared to be consistently accurate.

    The layer change occurs at 68:48, part way through Chapter 9. This change is in the middle of a conversation and is rather disruptive to the viewer. Numerous other suitable points for a layer change are available and should have been selected by the disc's author.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue is always clear and easy to understand but during a number of scenes it is a little soft. If you are listening to the movie at low levels you may find yourself turning the volume up at a number of points.

    At no stage in the mix were any audio sync problems or dropouts detected.

    The score by John Williams is used extensively throughout and is very typical of his work, supporting the on-screen action very well.

    The surround channels are used extensively throughout the transfer providing an excellent enveloping soundfield. The surround effects utilised in the transfer do not appear to have much directionality and the transfer appears to be very similar to the original surround mix. The sub channel is used for supporting the score and sound effects and never draws attention to itself.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Trailer (3:27)

Cast and Crew Biographies

Production Notes

    Other than a difference in audio and subtitle choices, both versions of this film appear to be identical and I therefore would have no preference for either version.

    The River is a film that should appeal to a number of viewers and many Australian farmers will undoubtedly be able to easily relate to the story.

    The video transfer shows no significant problems but the aliasing and film artefacts are a little disappointing.

    The audio transfer for this film is very good and supports the on-screen action well.

    The minimal extras provided are reasonable quality and provide a little insight to the making of the film.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall