MEL GIBSON WAS PERSISTENT IN PURSUING ROLE IN "THE RIVER"
Source: The Deseret News
Posted: Jan. 4, 1985
Mark Ridell has just returned from Italy, France, Germany and Spain where he had been casting "The River".
How's that again? "The River," starring Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson has already opened across the land.
"I was casting the voices for the dubbed version in Europe," the film maker explained. "Those countries require dubbed versions of films as well as subtitled, and I go over there to cast the voices for every picture I make I think it's terribly important.
"If the voices are perfectly right in the foreign versions, a great deal of commercial value can be added. 'The Rose' is still playing in Paris after five years, and I think the voices are largerly responsible."
Rydell returned in time for the holiday opening here of "The River," which drew a mixed response for reviewers and inevitable comparison to the other farmland sagas of 1984, "Places in the Heart" and "Country." The national release will star Jan. 11. (The film will open in Salt Lake City that day).
"I like "The River" as much as any film I've made. I'm proud of it," declared Rydell, whose last effort was the renowned "On Golden Pond."
In 1983 he was preparing a film based on the play "Nuts" when Universal Pictures asked him to undertake "The River" first. The project had been prepared by Edward Lewis ("Spartacus," "Lonely are The Brave"), whom Rydell respected "as one of the few producers with a conscience."
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The casting of Sissy Spacek as the wife farm and mother was easy, Rydell said. "She is the consummate American rural young woman, with strenght and fiber and a luminous quality." Mel Gibson pursued the role of her persevering husband, but Rydell was dubious.
"Mel came to my house and argued for the part," Rydell recalled. "But what do you do with a thick Australian accent in the American midwest? Mel is 28, and though he was born in this country, he has lived in Australia from the age of eleven. He sounds like a cockney.
"He wouldīt give up. 'Let me work on the accent,' he pleaded. 'Don't cast the part until you hear me.' I don't know why he was so eager for the role. Except maybe he saw a lot of Tom Garvey in his father, who took his family 9,000 miles to Australia so his sons wouldn't have to fight in the Vietnam War.
"A few months later Mel called from London. He was planning to stop in California on his way to Tahiti for "The Bounty". His Tennessee accent was perfect. His persistence, even obstinacy made him perfect for the role."
The human actors were easy. Rydell also had to direct a deer and a bull. The deer figures in a key scene, wandering into a steel mill where Gibson works as a strike breaker to help support his family. Seven deers were needed to accomplish the scene.
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The most gripping scene of "The River" comes when Miss Spacek is trapped and bleeding under a tractor. She incites a bull to batter the tractor and thus dislodge her. "That was really tough, because there is not such thing as a trained bull," said Rydell. "We had two animals, one of them a 'killer bull' that had killed a rodeo cowboy and then turned over the ambulance that came for him."
The Garvey farm was created on swamp land near Kingsport, Tenn., the filled-in land planted with a corn crop that grew to harvest during filming. The flood was suplied by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Army Corps of Engineers. Water released from dams raised the river level five feet to provide a frighteningly realistic deluge. Despite the logistics, Rydell managed to complete "The River" ahead of schedule and under the $18 million budget.
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