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point. It is telling that most river trip narratives tend to be trau-
matic in one way or another. Think Heart of Darkness or Apoc-
alypse Now, to say nothing of James Dickey's Deliverance, the
film version of which turned fifty this past summer. The River
Wild isn't as distressingly hard-hitting as the former titles, but
its premise still rests on the subconscious dread of something
happening to your family that the American thriller has long
used as its launching point. Pairing that anxiety with a river, an
elemental force of nature indifferent to human concerns, solidi-
fies it into something that feels that much more possible.
Though implied to be the Main Salmon in Idaho, the river in
the movie is never explicitly named. In reality, the movie river
is an amalgamation of several real ones. Principal photography
was filmed on the Kootenai River outside of Libby and the Mid-
dle Fork of the Flathead River outside of West Glacier; a few
scenes were also shot on the Ruby Horsethief section of the
Colorado River and the Rogue River in southern Oregon. Meryl
Streep, true to her reputation for diligence, learned how to oar
and did most of her own stunt work in the film; though it must
be noted that the extreme white-water sequences were helmed
by professional river guide Kelley Kalafatich, who is credited
as Streep's stunt double in the film. Even so, disaster nearly
struck. At the end of shooting one day, director Curtis Hanson
asked Streep to shoot one more scene, despite her objections
due to fatigue. Nevertheless, she attempted the scene, only to
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