| | | The vacation is over.
Features: DVD, French, Spanish, Subtitled, Dolby Surround Sound, Widescreen, English, Dolby Digital (5.1) Surround Sound
Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon and David Strathairn star in this critically acclaimed, suspense-filled, action-thriller about a woman whose courage is put to the test when three deadly strangers threaten to turn a family dream vacation into a living nightmare. From the director of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.
"The River Wild takes your breath away..." Los Angeles Times
"...pulse-pounding thrill ride..." Rolling Stone Magazine
"...exciting, well-wrought adventure yarn..." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Editor's Note
In THE RIVER WILD, Gail (Meryl Streep), a former river guide, plans a white-water rafting trip to celebrate her son Roarke's (Joseph Mazzello) birthday and patch up her troubled marriage to her workaholic husband, Tom (David Strathairn). As the family begins their river adventure, they meet Wade (Kevin Bacon), a novice rafter with a magnetic personality. When the family finds Wade and his friend, Terry (John C. Reilly), stranded and abandoned by their guide, Gail and Tom decide to help them navigate the rapids. However, family fun turns to terror when Wade and Terry show their true colors--they're really criminals trying to evade the police following a major heist. To make matters worse, their escape route requires that they run the Gauntlet, deadly rapids where three rivers converge in violently tumultuous waters. This taut thriller from director Curtis Hanson (BAD INFLUENCE, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL) features Streep in her first role as an action-adventure heroine, while Bacon is truly menacing as the psychotic Wade, a desperate criminal in over his head.
Plot Summary
In this tense action thriller, a couple take their son on a white-water rafting trip in hopes that they can patch up their troubled marriage. While on the trip, the family is hijacked by a pair of criminals who need the wife's rafting expertise to get them down the river.
| Features | Subtitles: Spanish | | Film Highlights | | Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic) | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital Surround, French Dolby Digital Surround | | Interactive Menus | | Production Notes | | Talent Bios |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 6/24/2008 |
| Running Time: 112 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1994 | | Catalog ID: 20043 | | UPC: 00025192004322 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Golden Globe (1995) | | | Kevin Bacon, Nominee, Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role In A Motion Picture | | | Meryl Streep, Nominee, Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture Drama |
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| | Professional Reviews | Premiere
"...[Bacon] makes a fine counterpoint to [Streep]..." - Recommended 04/01/1995 p.146Rolling Stone
"...A pulse-pounding thrill ride....Streep is strong, sassy and looser than she has ever been onscreen..." 10/20/1994 p.155-6 New York Times
"...[Hanson] has the makings of a lean, mean thriller....[Streep] captures both Gail's terror and her exhilaration..." 09/30/1994 p.C8 Entertainment Weekly
"...Awe-inspiring white water thrills..." -- Rating: B 03/10/1995 pp.74-5 Los Angeles Times
"...THE RIVER WILD takes your breath away two times over....Streep has taken this opportunity to once again rewrite the rules..." 09/30/1994 p.F1 Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
Among the best elements of The River Wild" are the performances by Bacon, as the charming but sinister bad guy, and Streep, who puts a lot of humor and intelligence into her character. Robert Elswit's cinematography is great looking; people are going to want to know where this river is, so they can raft it. - Roger Ebert
Time Magazine 7 of 10
It is Streep who rivets our attention and holds the picture together. Under Supermom's omnicompetence, there lurks the spirit of the larky girl who indeed ran the Gauntlet when she was old enough to know better and young enough not to give a damn. You can see that spunky, heedless young woman in her affectionate banter with her kids, in the sexiness of her response to Wade's come-ons, in the exultation with which she confronts the river's perils. This is smart and subtle acting and a gift that is above and beyond this movie's routine call to duty. - Richard Schickel
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