After directing three paranoid and voyeuristic thrillers—The Bedroom Window (1987), Bad Influence (1990), and the box-office hit The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)—director Curtis Hanson pivoted to something decidedly more grandiose and action forward. On paper, Hanson’s The River Wild (1994) is an old-fashioned adventure film shot on location at river rapids in Montana and Oregon. But while its title and studio marketing campaign conjure images of water-logged disaster, Hanson’s film about a married couple on the brink of divorce whose ten year-old son ends up in the hands—and river raft—of a group of killers is indebted to the visceral psychological thrills of John Boorman’s similarly river-set adventure/thriller Deliverance (1972).
What’s immediately notable about The River Wild is that Hanson assembled a remarkably capable crew for the film that includes composer Jerry Goldsmith (Alien, 1979), cinematographer Robert Elswit (who eventually DP’d There Will Be Blood, 2007), and editors David Brenner (Born on the Fourth of July, 1989) and Joe Hutshing (JFK, 1991). Despite being a modestly budgeted studio B-movie, Universal and Hanson treated The River Wild like an awards contender, which is not only evident in its behind-the-scenes crew, but also its talent in front of the camera. If The River Wild is remembered for anything three decades later, it is likely for Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon’s Golden Globe-nominated performances as protagonist and antagonist, respectively.
It would be reductive, but not unfitting, to refer to Hanson’s film as The Hand That Rocks the Cradle on a river raft since it has a similar propulsive energy, trades in domestic turmoil, and, at its core, is a film about psychological manipulation. Only this time, the family in peril is thousands of miles from their Boston home instead of standing ground against a psychopathic antagonist within the confines of their own house. Opening up the battleground for this consistently palpable tension allows The River Wild to feel larger in scope while also placing its protagonists in unfamiliar territory.
The River Wild was released at the tail end of September in 1994, a month that was lacking for action at the American multiplex, save for the JCVD-starring sci-fi thriller Timecop and Charlie Sheen’s skydiving crime opus Terminal Velocity. But those films lacked an Oscar-winning actress like Streep doing much of her own stunts, including one that nearly drowned her. Like Deliverance before it, what makes Hanson’s film work as well as it does is a palpable commitment from everyone involved. If the audience isn’t constantly worried about the characters onscreen, they are for the actors portraying them. The film remains a harrowing watch today and is much better than its ill-conceived remake last year. It’s a taut, impressively economical domestic thriller played out in the open, a textbook example of how to mash sub-genres together and not only make it work, but craft something wholly unique in the process.
The River Wild screens tonight, April 22, on 35mm at Nitehawk Prospect Park as part of the series “Thrillers in Motion.
