River Men

SPOTLIGHT

Pitt, Sheffer, and Skemif: an other white-collar roll call in corporated in Delaware?

Hardly. The names belong to the trio of talented actors hired by director Robert Redford to incorporate white-water machismo into his screen version of Norman Maclean's Montana memoir A River Runs Through It A ruminative masterpiece, the book—and now the film—concerns Scottish women, halfbreed broads, cold beer, brotherly love, the precepts of Presbyterianism, and, most important, how in the precise artistry of an expert fly-fisherman the male heart takes its rightful place in Mother Nature's body. Maclean, who died in 1990, published his story after retiring as a professor of English from the University of Chicago, and it instantly became a cult classic. Redford has long wanted to film the work, and has succeeded in catching the author's laconic lyricism—both in his own heartfelt narration of the film and in the ebb and flow of domestic scenes juxtaposed with that majestic Montana scenery. "If anything, this film is a reflection of Robert Redford. It is the distinct vision of a good man," says Brad Pitt, who portrays Paul, the gambling, hooch-guzzling younger brother. Indeed, Redford possesses, as did Maclean, a westerner's unabashed wistfulness, in which men can recite Wordsworth to one another. Worship both the Lord and leisure. Brawl. Wail. Breed.

Guess? jeans guy Tom Skerritt plays the story's patriarch, a Presbyterian vicar, with just the right amount of grizzled prissiness, but Craig Sheffer as Norman Maclean anchors the film. "Norman was quite self-aware, and used to joke that he was a cross between a ballerina and a lumberjack," Sheffer says. It is just such square-jawed sensitivity that lends his portrayal—and the film—an uncommon glow. And what was the best part of working for a ruddy legend like Redford? "Because of his background as an actor," says Sheffer, "he never complained when you asked for another take." Says Pitt, "He didn't like to get up early."

KEVIN SESSUMS