Distinctly Montana Magazine

74 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 3 F loating Montana riv- ers has long been a favorite summer activity for my family, as it is for many of those for- tunate enough to reside in the state. For us, the hottest months of the year are made bearable by the grand gift of accessibility to the Yellowstone, the Mad- ison, and the Gallatin riv- ers. Many of my most pri- mal childhood memories involve riding on bright- ly colored pontoons in a lifejacket with river water splashing over the side. In 1994 our family went to the theater to see The River Wild, excited that a movie was centered around one of our favorite activities. While not a "family film" in the typical sense of that term, six-year-old me was nevertheless en- gaged with it on the level of a family adventure on a river (the previous summer my parents had taken me to see Jurassic Park; no, I was not traumatized by either experience). The passing of time hasn't conferred classic status on The River Wild, but it still stands as a watchable action/thriller, as well as an example of the now critically endangered, if not extinct, species of mid-ti- er studio filmmaking that offered dependable craftsmanship at not-astronomical budgets. Montana rivers serving as the setting tops off the cake. The plot centers around the Hartman family: river expert Gail (Meryl Streep), her husband Tom (David Strathairn), their young son Roark (Joseph Mazzello, fresh off his turn as Tim in Jurassic Park), and their yellow Labrador Maggie set off for a rafting vacation on a river where she was once a guide, hoping to bandage the damage wrought by Tom's work-aholism. Along the way they encounter two men, Wade (Kevin Bacon) and Terry (John C. Reilly), who clearly have no experience on the river. It's the type of encounter that many a seasoned floater will re- late to (many folks overestimate their ability to be effective, or at least non-dumb, on the water), though likely not the devel- opment where the two men turn out to be escaped convicts on the run who have already murdered one of their accomplices. The family is taken hostage at gunpoint, with Gail ordered to abet their escape by taking them down past the point where raf- ters are permitted to go, through a deadly gigantic confluence of rapids known as the Gauntlet. Will the Hartmans be able to band together to defeat the criminals and survive the river? River journeys have been reliable staples for literary stories for quite a long time, at least if we take Huckleberry Finn as a starting The River Wild Montana Waterways in the Spotlight MONTANA MEDIA by KARI BOWLES

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