Brad Pitt holds fishes in a scene from the film 'A River Runs Through It', 1992. (Photo by Columbia ... [+]
Nearly thirty years after 1992’s award-winning, Robert Redford-directed film, A River Runs Through It, travelers (both fly-fishers and land-lubbers alike) are still making a pilgrimage to Montana to find out if that river will give them the same transcendent experience that lifts the family in the film and haunts the sole surviving brother years afterwards.
The semi-autobiographical book was written by Montana author, Norman Maclean in 1976. It was made into an iconic film in 1991-1992 and was one of the blockbuster 90s image-making movies that catapulted a fresh-out-of-the-box Brad Pitt to stardom.
The film also changed the way travelers (and movie-makers) saw Montana and it gave new life to the fly-fishing industry in general. Soon after the film’s debut, the fly-fishing industry exploded, seeing an increase of 60 percent in both 1991 and 1992.
Travel and tourism to Bozeman and to the Gallatin River increased as well.
A field of purple wildflowers atop Peets Hill in Bozeman, with the Bridger Mountains in the ... [+]
"It's been one of the most impactful films, as far as driving tourism goes, as there's ever been," Sten Iversen, manager of the Montana Film Office, has been quoted as saying.
USA, Montana, Gallatin River, Cameron
The river in the book and the film has benefited as well. Today, the Blackfoot River is back as a fly-fishing destination. Thousands of dollars of contributions have helped the River recover and brown and rainbow trout fishing are booming.
Director, Redford chose to move locations from the story’s Missoula, Montana and its Blackfoot River to Bozeman and Livingston, Montana and the Gallatin River. This was partly because in the early 1990s, the Blackfoot River had suffered from industrial pollution and fishing out issues. Missoula was also too built up to stand in for itself in the 1920s–an issue that the film solved by shooting in smaller cities with more of a rural feel.
BOZEMAN, MT - AUGUST: Craig Sheffer who plays Norman Maclean in the film "A River Runs Though It" ... [+]
The 320 Guest Ranch near Bozeman is a 110-year old dude ranch that has been taking guests out on the Gallatin with local fly-fishing guides well before the film made the river famous for “running through it.”
American actors Brad Pitt and Craig Sheffer with actor, director and producer Robert Redford on the ... [+]
Today, the property offers three and more-day fly-fishing excursions, including stays in their riverside log cabins with working fireplaces.
Stay close to the river at the 320 Guest Ranch's Pond and Riverside cabins
The areas along the river where the Ranch’s fly-fishing tours cast their spider-web-like lines and lures are places where Redford actually filmed the movie. Ask nicely and one of your guides might lead you to “Brad Pitt boulder” a rock where the star perched picturesquely in the film.
Gallatin River flyfishing
The Ranch, which was started by a woman doctor over 100 years ago, is laid back and very Robert Redford in chaps-like. There are cookouts with cowboy coffee made over open flames and no one dresses in anything that will get ruined by wading out in the Gallatin or on escapades in nearby Yellowstone National Park.
The property still sees travelers coming on their fly-fishing excursions with dog-eared copies of the book in their jeans pockets and images of Brad Pitt standing in a light-bedecked river in their head.
“What a beautiful world it was once. At least a river of it was,” Maclean says in A River Runs Through It.
Almost 30 years after the film’s debut, the rivers that star in the book and in the film are even more beautiful than they were back then. Big Sky Country still lures travelers who are longing for the peace and art inherent in a a perfect cast of line and a River Still Runs Through It.
Brad Pitt in a scene from the film 'A River Runs Through It', 1992. (Photo by Columbia ... [+]
