"A River Runs Through It" A masterpiece created by a fateful encounter between Robert Redford and Brad Pitt

Redford took on the challenge of writing a novel that seemed impossible to make into a movie.

The path to making it into a movie was by no means a smooth one. Redford began thinking about adapting the book into a film in the early 1980s. It was a time when he won the Academy Award for `` Ordinary People ,'' and the Sundance Institute was starting to move, and he was aiming for further progress as a creator.

At that time, my friend, writer Thomas McGuane (author of ``The Missouri Break,'' which was also made into a movie), encouraged me to read Norman MacLean's novel ``A River Runs Through It.'' The translated title was ``McLean's River.'' McGuane considered it one of the best novels that captured the charm of the West.

"'This is real,' he said. I didn't believe him right away. But when I read the first line, I had a feeling that this might be something special. And when I got to the last line, I knew it. When I finished reading the novel, I knew I wanted to make it into a movie." (Robert Redford, author of the 2017 American version of the novel) (from the preface)

MacLean was a professor of English literature at the University of Chicago, where he taught English literature such as Shakespeare and Wordsworth. His classes were reportedly attended by popular writers such as Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. He began writing novels after his retirement, finishing ``A River Runs Through It'' in 1976, when he was 74 years old.

Many publishers refused to make the book into a book, but it was eventually published by the University of Chicago Press, where he belonged, and with the quiet support of students, it eventually became a long-seller. In the film version, there is a scene in which a young boy, MacLean, is forced to rewrite his sentences by his pastor father, but this novel also has a streamlined writing style, and was thought to be reminiscent of Hemingway. His worldview has been compared to works such as `` Walden '' (written by Henry David Thoreau), a monumental work in American literature depicting nature.

“A River Runs Through It” Preview

When Redford approached him about making a film, the author of the original, MacLean, was skeptical about making a film version and apparently turned down other film adaptation offers (actor William Hurt was also interested in playing Paul). I tried to contact the original author, but it seems that he refused.) Redford recalls meeting him as follows in the aforementioned book:

"We met at Sundance in Utah in the mid-'80s. MacLean was very polite and courteous, but he seemed a little anxious and seemed like a very genuine person. I thought it was important to cultivate a sense of trust with him as a person, regardless of his evaluation.''

After that, Redford continued to talk with the writer and suggested that he read the first draft of the script and if he didn't like it, he would reconsider making it into a movie. After spending more than three years refining the scenario, the 87-year-old MacLean passed away just as filming was about to begin in Montana. It happened in the 1990s.

Just before his death, he wrote a non-fiction book called `` McLean's Valley: The Tragedy of Young Smoke' ', which was published posthumously (in 1992), on the theme of the large-scale forest fires of the 1940s. , which also won the National Book Critics Circle Award. There was also talk of making a movie starring Clint Eastwood, but that never materialized.

As for ``A River Runs Through It,'' the film version could only have been made possible because of Redford's passion and sincerity. According to blogs from people who knew MacLean when he was alive, he looked similar to Paul Newman. Redford is also an actor known for his great partnership with Newman, so I feel a strange connection in that respect.

The story of a lost family