Wild River
“The Wild Language... The Wild Hungers... The Wild Furies!”
A young bureaucrat for the Tennessee Valley Authority goes to rural Tennessee to oversee the building of a dam. He encounters opposition from the local people, in particular a farmer who objects to his employment (with pay) of local black laborers. Much of the plot revolves around the eviction of a stubborn octogenarian from her home on an island in the river, and the young man's love affair with that woman's widowed granddaughter. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation.
A stark, atmospheric drama that feels both epic and intimate. It captures the raw beauty of the landscape and the harsh realities of human conflict, all underscored by a simmering, doomed romance.
