When A River Runs Through It…

When I am at the studio, I listen to a lot of music. I dare to reveal my age by proudly confessing that the love of my life is Pink Floyd music, but this is not the reason of this note. I love movie soundtracks too and there are many that rank high on my list.

One of my favourite movies is“A River Runs Through It” based on the 1976 semi-autobiographical novel of Norman Maclean and nominated for two Oscars, one being for Best Music. Made in 1992, directed by Robert Redford and had Brad Pitt starring among a hugely talented cast (girls reading this, you know what I mean 😉). At the time, I had no family of my own yet, no kids, no limitations at all… and yet it was just heart felt. Still, this poetic Montana story sends shivers down my spine with this beautiful quote in the opening moments of the film:

“All good things……come by grace….. and grace comes by art…. and art does not come easily.”

And still fills my moments with grace and inspires me to try for more, do more and do art. And I guess the river continues to run through it…

The closing scene is of the elderly Norman, once again fishing on the same river, with director Robert Redford narrating the final lines from the original novella;

“Of course now I’m too old to be much of a fisherman, and now I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn’t. But when I’m alone in the half light of the canyon, all existence seems to fade to a being with my soul and memories, and the sounds of the big blackfoot river, and the four-count rhythm, and the hope that a fish will rise. Eventually all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops; under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”

— Norman Maclean, (1976)