River Red (1998)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Eric Drilling

Writer:

Eric Drilling (writer)

Release Date:

6 November 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young man (Tom Everett Scott) is placed in the position of having to kill his drunken, abusive father...

Plot Keywords:

Fratricide | Independent Film

Cast

Tom Everett Scott	...	Dave Holden
David Moscow	...	Tom Holden
Cara Buono	...	Rachel
David Lowery	...	Billy
Denis O'Hare	...	Father
Michael Kelly	...	Frankie
Leo Burmester	...	Judge Perkins
Tibor Feldman	...	Dr. Harry Fields
James Murtaugh	...	Chief Bascomb
Michael Angarano	...	Young Tom
Peter Anthony Tambakis	...	Young Dave
Ted Travelstead	...	Gas Attendant
Marcia DeBonis	...	Sara
Christopher Cantwell	...	Mr. Taylor
Andrew Van Dusen	...	Convenience Store Clerk

MPAA:

Rated R for language and violence.

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:R

Company:

Drilling Films

Different approach to movie making!

This is obviously a low budget film brought to the screen following its success as a theatrical production and it still seems to retain some of the elements of the theatre. I'm not sure if it's the actors, sets or plot. It's a good film though and rivets your attention. It uses some unusual techniques in movie making. First of all there is almost constant back-ground music ( compare the old silent movies ), several interrogation scenes are mimed ( no dialogue ) with a musical back-ground and there are numerous telephone calls between the brothers, the younger being in jail (we get only one end of the conversation and we are left to fill in the rest like a "missing words" competition). The plot has its tense moments. It's about violence within a family, patricide and the consequences when one brother takes the blame for another. The brothers have a secret they have sworn to keep and when their conscience intervenes we wonder how soon the truth will be revealed. The main characters spend a lot of time down by the lake peering at the water and looking for a resolution of their mounting problems. Again no dialogue of course, but the music takes over signifying their mental torment. Apparently, one way of getting anger and frustration out of the system is to chop wood. Never in my life have I seen so much wood chopped as in this film. I give this film a high rating not for its perfection but because of the sincere efforts of the principal actors, the clarity of the plot and the attempts to try out some new ideas in the production.