
Shadow Casting: The Making of 'A River Runs Through It'
- Year:
- 1992
- 124 Views
Long ago, when I was a young man..
...my father said to me
"Norman, you like to write stories. "
And I said "Yes, I do. "
Then he said
"Someday, when you're ready...
...you might tell our family story. "
"Only then will you understand
what happened...
...and why. "
# melancholy violin
In our family, there was no clear line
between religion and fly-fishing.
great trout rivers in Missoula, Montana...
...where Indians still appeared
out of the wilderness...
...to walk the honky-tonks
My father was a Presbyterian minister
and a fly-fisherman.
There is one yonder...
And though it is true that one day a week
was given over wholly to religion...
...even then he told us about
Christ's disciples being fishermen.
And we were left to assume,
as my younger brother Paul and I did...
...that all first-class fishermen
on the Sea of Galilee were fly-fishermen...
...and that John, the favourite,
was a dry fly-fisherman.
The poor without Christ
are of all men the most miserable.
But the poor with Christ...
...are princes and kings of the earth.
In the afternoon, we would walk with him
while he unwound between services.
along the Big Blackfoot...
...which we considered our family river.
And it was there he felt his soul restored
and his imagination stirred.
Long ago, rain fell on mud
and became rock.
But even before that, beneath the rocks...
...are the words of God. Listen.
And if Paul and I listened very carefully
all our lives...
Even so, Paul and I probably received
as many hours' instruction in fly-fishing...
...as we did on all other spiritual matters.
As a Presbyterian, my father believed
that man by nature was a damned mess...
...and only by picking up God's rhythms
could we regain power and beauty.
Ten...
To him, all good things, trout as well as
eternal salv ation, come by grace.
and art does not come easy.
Norman?
So my brother and I learned to cast
Presbyterian style...
...on a metronome.
He began each session
with the same instruction.
Casting is an art...
...that is performed on a four-count rhythm
between ten o'clock and two o'clock.
If he had had his way, nobody
who did not know how to catch a fish...
...would be allowed to disgrace a fish
by catching it.
So it was
with my formal education as well.
Each weekday, while my father
worked on his Sunday sermon...
...I attended the school
of the Reverend Maclean.
He taught nothing
but reading and writing...
...and, being a Scot, believed
that the art of writing lay in thrift.
Half as long.
So while my friends spent their days
at Missoula Elementary, I stayed home...
...and learned to write
the American language.
Again...
...half as long.
Good. Now throw it away.
Norman!
Norman!
Wait for your brother!
However, there was a balance
to my father's system.
Every afternoon, I was set free,
untutored and untouched till supper...
...to learn on my own
the natural side of God's order.
And there could be no better place
to learn than the Montana of my youth.
It was a world with dew still on it...
...more touched by wonder and possibility
than any I have since known.
Goddamn it! Open up the door!
Hey! What the hell is going on?
- Hey, where are you guys going?
- Chicken!
# jazz
Go on, move over.
But it was a tough world, too.
Even as children we understood that,
and admired it.
And of course, we had to test it.
I knew I was tough,
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"Shadow Casting: The Making of 'A River Runs Through It'" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 25 Jan. 2021. <https://www.scripts.com/script/shadow_casting:_the_making_of_'a_river_runs_through_it'_17001>.