The River Rat *** (1984, Tommy Lee Jones, Brian Dennehy, Martha Plimpton) – Classic Movie Review 9655

Writer-director Thomas [Tom] Rickman’s powerful 1984 Mississippi-set drama The River Rat is all about the growing love between Billy McCain (Tommy Lee Jones) and his plucky 12-year-old daughter Jonsy (Martha Plimpton), who meet for the first time when he is released from prison after serving 13 years of a sentence for murder.

It is already good on the screenplay level, but it is elevated by spirited playing from Jones and Plimpton (in her second film after Rollover, though she received an ‘introducing’ credit) and from Brian Dennehy as a devious parole officer, Doc Cole.

The gritty, perspicacious script is by Rickman who wrote Coal Miner’s Daughter, making his début as a director.

Rickman also wrote the scripts of Tuesdays with Morrie (1999) and Everybody’s All-American (1988).

Also in the cast are Nancy Lea Owen, Shawn Smith, Melissa Davis, Norman Bennett, Tony Frank, Angie Bolling, Roger Copeland, Tommy Burlison, Tamara Hartley, Mary Harper, James Hurt and Michael Shepard.

The title refers to the name of the boat the father and daughter build. The river they go on is the Mississippi on a boat trip was Memphis, Tennessee. Missisippi River sequences were filmed on the Ohio River at Smithland, Kentucky,

The film was made in association with the Sundance Institute.

Several key crew had worked on Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980).

Brian Dennehy (1938–2020).

RIP Brian Dennehy, who died on 15 April 2020, aged 81. He was a legend with a prolific career over films, TV and stage. His effective performance as the sadistic small-town police chief Sheriff William Teasle in First Blood (1982) put him on the map.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9655

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