Remembering Curtis Hanson: A Salute to 'The River Wild'

This week, movie fans are mourning the death of Curtis Hanson. Best known for his neo-noir masterpiece, L.A. Confidential, which won him an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Hanson directed an impressive variety of films, including Bad Influence, Wonder Boys, and 8 Mile. But upon hearing of his passing, the first movie I thought of — and the one I’ll watch again (and again) to remember him by — is 1994’s whitewater rafting thriller,The River Wild.

‘The River Wild’: Watch the trailer:

Coming off his two previous films, Bad Influence (1990) and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), it’s clear Hanson had no problem taking on this high-stakes dramatic thriller that required filming in challenging locations and morphing Meryl Streep into a woman who is a major physical force. The movie centers on a dysfunctional family on a whitewater rafting vacation forced to take two armed robbers on the lam through deadly rapids (nicknamed The Gauntlet).

Streep’s Gail is a badass heroine who has the strength and skill to steer a raft solo through Class 5 rapids, deal with her troubled marriage, and protect her vulnerable husband and child from a psychopath. Twenty-two years after its release, The River Wild is still the only true action movie in the actress’s filmography. David Strathairn (who would team with Hanson again in L.A. Confidential) plays her workaholic architect husband, Tom, who transforms into a man of action just in the nick of time. And fresh from Jurassic Park, Joseph Mazzello plays their son, Roarke, and proves as scrappy in dealing with violent criminals as he was in combatting raptors.

With powerhouses like Streep and Strathairn as the film’s heroes, Hanson needed one hell of a bad guy, and he found him in Kevin Bacon. In perhaps one of the most layered performances of his career, Bacon plays Wade, an escaped bank robber, who is equally charismatic and sinister. Bacon is a pure joy to watch, initially charming Gail and Roarke into letting him and his “friend,” Terry (John C. Reilly) tag along with them downriver, then gradually revealing a menacing and ultimately terrifying presence.

Hanson manages to balance the tense intimacies of the group against the backdrop of the raging river that, with the help of the beautiful photography by Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood), is as much of an adversary as Wade. Hanson’s filming of Tom’s race to arrive at “The Gauntlet” ahead of his family’s raft is masterful. Strathairn scrambling up rocky cliffs and outracing the catapulting river? Streep expertly guiding a raft through a maelstrom? Hanson and his terrific cast manage to sell even the most unbelievable of circumstances through every minute of the film’s enthralling two-hour run time. A terrific score from Jerry Goldsmith, who would go on to write the music for L.A. Confidential, is icing on the cake.

If you haven’t seen The River Wild, remedy that immediately. And if you have, you won’t regret revisiting this underrated gem to celebrate Curtis Hanson’s filmmaking legacy.