Fun Facts about the Movie “A River Runs Through It”

A River Runs Through It premiered on October 9, 1992 – more than 25 years ago. Based on the novella by Norman Maclean, “A River Runs Through It” launched the career of Brad Pitt and boosted interest in fly fishing. Even as it celebrates its 25-year anniversary, the movie continues to captivate viewers who resonate with its story of tragedy, family, the American West, and fishing.

The movie is set in Missoula, Montana, though most fans know that it was filmed 200-plus miles east of Missoula in Livingston, Montana. Livingston served as Missoula, and the Gallatin River served as the Big Blackfoot River.

But there are some fun facts about its filming which you won’t find in most reviews or articles. This information comes from two primary sources. First, I lived in the very area where the filming took place. I could take you to the exact spots on the Gallatin and Boulder Rivers (and Mill Creek in Paradise Valley) where the scenes were shot.

Second, my podcast partner, Dave, and I had an extensive conversation with Gary Borger about his role as a consultant. Even Gary’s son Jason was part of the movie.

So if you’re curious about some of the details, keep reading.

The House

The “Maclean house” is across the road from the Springhill Presbyterian church, fourteen miles north of downtown Bozeman, Montana. The porch was built specifically for the scene where the Maclean brothers climb out of their bedroom window.

Then, when they drive away in the dark with their cronies, the church is visible, and it looks as much like a schoolhouse as it does a church.

Fly “Pole”

In the scene where the father teaches his young sons the art of fly casting, Tom Skerritt (the actor who played the role of Rev. Maclean) originally said: “Go get the fly poles.”

This happened to be Gary Borger’s first day on the set, and he told the line producer that a fly fisher never would have referred to a fly rod as a “fly pole.” So the line producer got producer Robert Redford’s attention.

“Go get the book,” Redford said.

He found the passage that says that “it is always supposed to be called a rod” — not a pole. And rod it was.

Fly Casting

Most of the fly fishing scenes were filmed on the Gallatin River in the Gallatin Canyon south of Bozeman.

In these scenes, Gary Borger’s son, Jason, did almost all the fly casting for the actors in the movie. This includes the memorable “shadow-casting” that Paul Maclean performed while standing on a big rock in the middle of the river. When Jason did that particular cast, an elderly, long-time friend of the Maclean brothers was on the set. After the scene was filmed, he approached Jason and said, “You are Paul.” The friend was stunned that Jason had captured the essence of Paul’s artistry with a fly rod.

While Jason did most of the fly casting in the movie, the actors picked it up rather quickly. Tom Skerritt (the elder Maclean) had done some fly fishing previously. Both Craig Sheffer (Norman) and Brad Pitt (Paul) were quite athletic. Jason made sure that Skerritt and Sheffer used the traditional forearm style, while Pitt used the more open freearm style that Paul Maclean would have used.

Fighting Trout

The “trout” the Maclean brothers hooked into and fought were mostly non-fish.

In several scenes, the fish on the end of their line was actually a half gallon milk jug with rocks in it. In the scene where Paul fights a fish hidden from view behind a large boulder, the fish is actually John Bailey of Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop in Livingston, Montana. John was behind the rock, pulling on the line!

In the final scene of “A River Runs Through It,” when Paul is fighting a monster trout, the producers filmed the water flying off of his fly reel in a city park rather than in the river. The city park was Lindley Park in Livingston, Montana, and the producers created this effect by dipping the fly reel in a bucket of water. Then, after an actor lifted it out of the bucket, someone on the end of the line immediately started pulling it to get the spool spinning and flinging off beads of water.

Riding the Rails

The scene where Norman’s girlfriend, Jesse, pulls her car onto the railroad tracks and drives through a tunnel was filmed on the CA Ranch forty miles or so north of Bozeman. The exact location is the Eagle’s Nest tunnel on an old railroad grade that the Ringling brothers used to haul their circus equipment to Ringling, Montana, for off-season storage. The railroad trestle leading into the tunnel towers over Sixteen Mile Creek. There is a brief view of the creek in the movie.

My podcast partner, Dave, and I have both caught trout underneath that trestle (pictured above – Dave, in fact, took the picture). In the movie, Jesse and Norman actually enter and exit the same end of the tunnel. Today, there are no railroad tracks; it’s a one-lane gravel-and-dirt road.

A Final Thought

Sometimes, knowing insider information on how a movie was filmed can spoil it. But both the cinematography and the story itself prevent his from happening. If you’ve never watched the move “A River Runs Through It,” you simply must. Even if you watched it years ago, it’s worth revisiting. I’m convinced that after watching it, you, too, will be haunted by waters. And haunted by one of the underlying themes: sometimes it’s the ones you love most that are hardest to understand.

If you want to listen to our podcast episode with Gary Borger on the movie, visit Gary Borger on the Making of “A River Runs Through It”

27 Replies to “Fun Facts about the Movie “A River Runs Through It””

  1. I watched, imitated and loved this movie. Ultimately though I loved and enjoyed Norman Maclean. He captured a time, a moment and a place where all that we hold true came to light and tradgety. Life is fleeting. It’s up to us to identify our success, our time, our heros. Fly fishing- of your friends don’t do it, they will never understand it and you can’t explain it.

  2. I am trying to learn the marvelous art of Fly Fishing…it’s one of my goals I totally enjoy being outdoors, by the water always….I was given this movie as a gift and have watched it several times especially on snowy days like this in the northeast. One of my dreams is to come out and visit and fly fish in Montana….had a park ranger friend who had a fly fishing and fishing store here in CT- has relatives out there in Montana .. Dan Delekta…..someday I am getting out there!

    1. Thanks, Christy. Let us know when you make the trip, and we’ll point you in the right direction for the best rivers at the different times of year.

  3. Thanks for the back stories. Love the movie and recently read the novella. I’m so inspired by what Montanians call “The Movie” I’ll be visiting the sites above this summer! Thanks for the fishing location tips!

  4. Although I never met Norman Maclean, my good friend, the late Bud Moore, knew Norman very well. Bud told me a fascinating story. After Norman finally got the U of Chicago to publish his book, and it turned out to be a financial success, Norman was approached by the national publishing firm that had rejected A River Runs Through It, to purchase Norman’s second book, Young Men and Fire. Norman’s response: “If you were the last publishing firm in the world and I was the last author, literature as we know it, would cease to exist.” Bud’s comment as he told me the story: “that pretty well sums up Norman Maclean.” Dan

    1. Now that is a wonderful story. I love it.

      Thank you so much for posting this!

      Dave

  5. The River Runs Through It . Is an all time classic that changed the world of fly fishing for ever. I never get tired of watching the movie I have on DVD .. I’ve read the book a couple times . Nothing better on a cold winter’s night to settle down with.

  6. thanks for these insights on a film that grows more beautiful every year.

  7. I both love and hate this movie. I started fly fishing about 1962 when I was 11 years old. I had my streams that I could fish in solitude until this movie came out. I didn’t even learn of it until 2 years after it was released when I saw a poster in a fly shop in Boone North Carolina. But I had noticed in the previous 2 years that my solitude was gone on the streams. All of a sudden, it seemed every yuppie was fly fishing. For that I hated the movie. I know, I was being selfish, but I’ve always been a loner and cherish my privacy. However, I finally did watch the movie and loved it.

    1. I am totally with you. I hate the crowds. Hate the pressure on public lands. The movie made me appreciate the males in my family – my father and brother. And then when I had kids – both sons and daughters – the movie affected me even more profoundly.

  8. Thanks for the information. My husband and I have tried to figure out where the movie was filmed as we know most of our rivers and streams here in our state. We have land near 16 mile on Grassy mountain and figured the trestle out but were not sure of the rest.
    I agree withe the other comment regarding love/hate. We seem to be increasingly over run by tourists and it is affecting the places we love.
    So, we are trying to find new places, which is difficult as out of staters buy up and close off land.
    Sad but true.
    But, as with this poetic movie, we can revisit these places in our memories and know that we have experienced the true meaning of the good and pure feelings which they create. I particularly like the word “truth” as it is the best descriptor. If you have never been alone and at peace on an untouched waterway, you will never know what I am referring to.
    Thank you for reminding me that with all of the horror going on in our world, we can still find that place.
    Joy

  9. Granted this is 25 years ago but I hate to see how inaccurate this is…. if you look at the credits in the film you will see that I supervised all the fly fishing scenes in THE film and was the Department Head. I worked on the project for nearly a full year but am never mentioned in the post…. Jason was my assistant and also was the storyboard artist and a casting double…. Gary was a credited as one of the many consultants I hired but had very little to do with the project. He never pulled a line through the water and was NOT behind the rock during the Shadowcastinf scene (those were my roles after spending six months figuring how to make those scenes). There were many casting doubles, mainly Jerry Siem, myself and Jason. Jerry did the beautiful long casts. I hired him because he could throw an entire fly line with his hands!! While I don’t want to downplay the contribution Jason made to the film, this just feels like someone posting a prized fish that I caught as though they were the ones who caught it!

    1. John,

      Thank you for posting. We’re grateful for your response.

      Would you be open to a podcast interview? We’d love to do one with you.

      Email me at [email protected] – if you are open to the idea. We could do the interview by phone!

      Dave

  10. What great facts! I was in Livingston when the movie was being filmed. I spent my summers on a ranch (Lucas ranch) just a mile from Sixteen. I used to fish down Hay Creek to Battle Creek which flowed into Sixteen. I’d fish down to the town of Sixteen and then walk back to the ranch. What an amazing time and place for a 14 year old kid from West Virginia!! I’ve spent days fishing Sixteen. Of course, when I was fishing Sixteen the trains were still running and you had to be careful going through Eagle Nest tunnel. I’ve caught trout you can’t imagine out of those creeks. I go back every year!

  11. We’ve fished off of (around) what was referred to as “Brad Pitt Rock” on the Gallatin around Storm Castle or that Church Camp ….if that is accurate , what scene is it referring to? Silly question .

    1. Rockhaven Camp; my husband been the Director there for the past 13 years. We often hear frustrated fishermen cursing their rotten luck in the river around the bend from the High Ropes Course. We get a great view of Castle Rock from the top of the climbing tower.

      Rockhaven is owned by First Presbyterian Church of Bozeman and that is our church’s pulpit used in the church scenes filmed in Livingston.

      The scenes in front of the Police Station are on the next block over from the church, NE corner of Babcock & Tracy, in the HRDC building. There is a plaque in front of the building commemorating the filming site.

      1. Do you happen to know the address to the Maclean house from the movie? Or a point of reference? I would love to see it.:)

  12. Watching the movie now (again). Love the beauty and poetry of the scenes and scenery. I love both mountains and water.
    Thank all for the information.
    ? Toni

  13. this movie i watched when I was younger.. but rewatched with my pops last weekend in my 34th bday. I been fishing a ton recently and thats a new hobby, as I didn’t grow up doing a ton of fishing. But staying clean leaves idle hands and fishing… specifically fly fishing.. is therapeutic… i am blessed to live in seattle where there’s great spots all over just outside the city. I learned with classes then a guide and went solo for first time yesterday.. and didn’t get any bites (I didn’t stay long and was mid day and hot) but my casts and mending and just fluency… i retained so much info and utilized it.

    Fly-fishing is the purest form, and most technical fishing… against smart native trout… i was blessed to learn on the Yakima and Naches rivers… blue ribbon. I will do this for the rest of my life. Between the synergy you create when u fly fish, between you and nature… is tangible. You study the bugs and use flys accordingly… im fuckin.HOOKED on fly fishin now ?

  14. Fun fact for the compulsive: Norman’s wife spelled her name Jessie, not Jesse.

    I enjoyed this post!

  15. Lindley Park is located in Bozeman. Maybe the wet fly reel shots were filmed at Sacajawea Park in Livingston?

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