Trivia

Mark Rydell has said of this film: "The River (1984) is a tribute to a vanishing America - - the America of the independent farm family. The Garvey family represents the lifestyle that made America work: continuity of generations, the passing on of traditions, and of knowledge and skills, from fathers to sons, from mothers to daughters - a way of life in which every member of the family is unique and necessary for the survival of all."

The casting of Mel Gibson, according to Wikipedia, went as follows: "Mel Gibson begged (Mark) Rydell to let him play the Tennessee farmer, who reminded him of his (own) father, but the director was reluctant, because of Gibson's Australian accent. Before Gibson left for England to film The Bounty (1984), he begged Rydell not to cast the part yet. Rydell recalled, "He came back to my house in Los Angeles, and started reading the script, talking, reading the newspaper, in this perfect Tennessee accent. I was really impressed, even when he stood next to Sissy, who's like a tuning fork when it comes to accents, he had damn well done it."

Director Mark Rydell once said of Sissy Spacek: "She is the consummate American rural young woman, with strength, and fiber, and a luminous quality."

Filmed in Gate City, Virginia, and Hawkins County (Church Hill, Surgoinsville, and Rogersville), Tennessee. Much of the movie was filmed on four hundred forty acres of the Hawkins County land, purchased by Universal Studios by the Holston River in Tennessee. It was cleared, and turned into working farms in four weeks. The production used a real river, regulated for flood scenes, with a dam that was slated for repair. The dam was fixed, and altered, with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

According to Wikipedia.com, "Mel Gibson later regretted that his portrayal of Tom Garvey was so stubborn that the audience lost sympathy, and said that he had been miscast for the role, because he was too young and 'pretty' at the time."