Shadow Casting: The Making of 'A River Runs Through It' Page #2

- Where's...?

Preach, you OK?

Sure.

You will go to church this day

and pray for forgiveness.

Your mother spent the night sick with

worry. Did you think of her feelings?

Mrs Campbell called.

Who gave you the boat?

- We, um...

- We borrowed it.

Borrowed?

Boys, what have you done?

Well, you will work off

every cent of its value.

Yes, sir.

I'll work it off, Father. It was my idea.

Whoo!

What you making?

Know what you need on that?

- Ham, cheese, sardines. Delicious.

- I hate sardines.

I'll show you.

Can you believe those guys?

They'll be telling everyone

the class of '19 did it.

I should write an article.

- "Macleans Conquer Chutes. "

- I don't like sardines.

You could get it in the school paper, I bet.

- Chub!

- Jeez, Pauley.

- What a skeezix!

- I don't want any goddamn sardines!

No! Stop it!

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop!

- You hit her, you son of a b*tch!

- You knocked her down, you bastard!

- Son of a b*tch!

- Please, I slipped, I slipped, I slipped!

I just slipped, that's all.

That was the only time we ever fought.

Perhaps we wondered afterwards

which one of us was tougher.

But if boyhood questions aren't answered

before a certain point...

...they can't be raised again.

So we returned

to being gracious to one another...

...as the church wall suggested.

I then saw something remarkable.

For the first time, Paul broke free

of our father's instruction...

...into a rhythm all his own.

OK.

OK.

They're both marvellous.

I'd say the Lord has blessed us all today.

It's just that he's been

particularly good to me.

North Coast! Stops in Helena, Bozeman...

The year ended with my acceptance

into Dartmouth College.

Sometime before, Father had told me...

...I could attend

any college in the world I could get into.

I knew he earned

no more than $1,800 a year...

...so his offer meant more to me

than anything in my life.

Well, do your best.

I will.

All aboard!

Hey, Norman! Norm!

So, in the autumn of 1919...

...I boarded the Northern Pacific

for a 3,000-mile trip east...

...to the unknown.

To the son of a Montana minister,

Dartmouth was more than an education.

It was a revelation, exposing me

to a world I'd only guessed at.

As part of my degree...

...I had to enlighten incoming freshmen

on the wonders of the Romantic poets.

And although I was unaware of it then,

teaching fit me.

But most of the time, I sat

in the card room of my fraternity house...

...giving my blue-nosed brothers

a lesson in Front Street poker.

In all, I spent six years at Dartmouth...

...away from home nearly all that time.

On the other hand,

Paul stayed home for college...

...unwilling to leave the fish

he had not yet caught.

After graduation, he took a job

as a reporter for a Helena newspaper...

...and moved to that town...

...his connection with the family

growing as slight as my own.

It was not until the spring of 1926...

...that I finally did come home.

Dinner is in half an hour,

so you have time for a bath.

Do I look thin, Mother?

Do I look old, Norman?

No, you look, uh...

I wish Paul could have been here tonight.

He's working late.

Norman?

Won't you come in?

I'm sorry Paul won't be here.

The life of a newspaperman.

Well, you know how Paul likes to...

I do.

Sit.

I also hear that he...

Well, I hear everything, don't I?

The Lord forbid

my flock keep me in ignorance.

Yes.

You can bet that everyone from here to

Helena knows all about your education.

It is an achievement.

To what use

shall you put this achievement?

Uh... Well, I've been considering

the Forest Service.

As a career?

No...

No, for the summer.

As a break.

Well, that's a good idea.

- The body fuels the mind.

- That's what I was thinking.

And after?

I'm not absolutely sure yet.

Well, you've had six years

to become sure, Norman.

Have you considered

an advanced degree?

- The law? Medicine?

- No.

The ministry?

I've applied for several teaching positions.

- Have you?

- College level, but I haven't heard yet.

No, no, it's early, but...

Now, you have taught classes already,

haven't you?

Yes.

And did you find that experience

rewarding?

That is to say...

...do you feel this could be your calling?

My calling?

Dinner, gentlemen!

Pee in their pants?

If it's so funny, how come I'm not

laughing? Yes, pee in their pants.

I got a better story.

- Paul Maclean?

- In there.

The rules at Anaconda mines say

"No breaks, not even for the john. "

So the poor bastards pee in their pants.

- What about the late, uh...

- George Masterson!

- Oh, I'll take that.

- She's 23 and built like a brick shithouse.

- No, no!

- You take the Anaconda thing...

- I'll interview the grieving widow.

- But I'm the boss, Maclean!

Fine by me, Boss!

Brother!

Look at you!

Boys, this is my big brother,

the professor.

- Gentlemen.

- Hiya!

Come on!

Sit.

Thanks for coming to see me last night

I am sorry about that. I wanted to be there.

I wanted to hear the old man say

"Norman, come into my study, please. "

Jeez, the professor!

We should celebrate!

Yeah!

A little early for me.

Oh! The east is making you soft.

Is that right?

Do much fishing out east?

None.

None?

Well, what do you say? The Big Blackfoot.

- You set?

- Yeah.

- Why don't you take this hole? It's good.

- No, it's all right.

No, it's a good hole.

Too tight. Try a roll-cast.

The fish are out further.

Just a little... further.

Cast your line into the current.

It'll give you better base,

add some distance.

You're just rusty, that's all.

He called it shadow-casting...

...keeping his line above water

long enough, and low enough...

...to make a rainbow rise.

And I realised

that in the time I was away...

...my brother had become an artist.

And one day my coach says "Mac,

how'd you like to meet John L Sullivan?"

John L Sullivan?

Yes, the John L Sullivan, the last

bare-knuckle champion of the world!

It was then I knew I was home.

Standing on the steps

of the Missoula library once again...

...late at night...

...telling stories to the same boys who had

sat there and listened 100 times before.

- Irish or Scot?

- Scot.

And who had, in my absence,

become men.

It just goes to show

the world is full of bastards...

...the number increasing the further

one gets from Missoula, Montana!

Amen!

See, Professor, that's why you need

to stick around here from now on.

Hey, where's the gargle?

Yes, pass this way!

I'll take you to the Fourth of July dance.

Every girl you need to know will be there...

without Momma!

Ooh!

Find you a little Sheba.

Gentlemen, it's been swell...

...but I have to rush.

Where are you going?

- Heavy date, Paul?

- Where you going, Pauley?

- With the poker table!

- They got new signs on the way down.

"Does your husband misbehave?"

"Grunt 'n' grumble, rant and rave?"

"Well, shoot that brute

some Burma-Shave!"

The road to where?

- Lolo.

- Lolo Hot Springs.

Being back in my father's church

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