A River Runs Through It

Paul:
Oh, I'll never leave Montana, brother.

Norman:
Truth is, I'm not sure I want to leave.

Jesse:
Montana? Why? It'll always be here.

Norman:
Not Montana.

Jesse:
Then what? WHAT?

Norman:
I'm not sure I want to leave you.

Norman:
Dear Jesse, as the moon lingers a moment over the bitterroots, before its descent into the invisible, my mind is filled with song. I find I am humming softly; not to the music, but something else; some place else; a place remembered; a field of grass where no one seemed to have been; except a deer; and the memory is strengthened by the feeling of you, dancing in my awkward arms.

Norman:
I've said I told you all I know. If you push me far enough, all I really know is that he was a fine fisherman.

Rev. Maclean:
You know more than that, he was beautiful.

Norman:
Yes, he was beautiful. He should have been. You taught him.

Rev. Maclean:
Each one of here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing help, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.

Jesse:
Why is it the people who need the most help... won't take it?

Norman:
And I knew just as surely, just as clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last.

Norman:
You're late, Neal.

Neal Burns:
Yeah, yeah, I didn't get in until late.

Paul:
Well, I didn't get in at all but I was here.

Norman:
Neil. Paul. Paul. Neil.

Paul:
Neal, in Montana there's three things we're never late for: church, work and fishing.

Paul:
Couldn't you find him?

Norman:
The hell with him.

Paul:
Well, I thought we were supposed to help him.

Norman:
How the hell do you help that son of a b*tch?

Paul:
By taking him fishing.

Norman:
He doesn't like fishing. He doesn't like Montana and he sure as hell doesn't like me.

Paul:
Well, maybe what he likes is somebody trying to help him.

Norman:
I'm in deep trouble.

Paul:
Yep. Want me to come over and protect you?

Paul:
Hello, Jess.

Jesse:
Hey, Paul.

Paul:
How's your brother?

Jesse:
You both left him alone.

Paul:
Well, I'm sorry about that. That was my fault.

Jesse:
Well, you're not forgiven.

Paul:
Was Norman forgiven?

Jesse:
Norman's not funny.

Older Norman:
As time passed my father struggled for more to hold on to asking me again and again had I told him everything. And finally I said to him maybe all I know about Paul is that he was a fine fisherman. You know more than that, my father said, he was beautiful. And that was the last time we spoke of my brother's death.

Paul:
As I live and breathe.

Rawhide:
[hungover] Buster here wants to fish.

Norman:
You're late, Neal.

Neal Burns:
Yeah, yeah, I didn't get in until late.

Paul:
Well, I didn't get in at all but I was here.

Norman:
Neal, Paul. Paul, Neal.

Paul:
Neal, in Montana there's three things we're never late for: church, work and fishing.

Neal:
Anywho, this is... [introducing Rawhide]

Paul and Norman:
[in uncaring unison] We've met.

Jessie:
If he came back next summer, would you try and help him?

Norman:
If you wanted me to.

Jessie:
Well he's not coming back.

Norman:
Well, at least he's got friends out there.

Jessie:
Who Ronald Coleman? Why is it the people who need the most help... won't take it?

Norman:
I don't know Jess.

Norman:
So, what do you think?

Jessie:
What do I think? I think it's the berries!

Norman:
You do?

Jessie:
Yeah, to get away, Chicago, God it's haven.

Norman:
Have you ever been?

Jessie:
No, not anywhere. Helena. Congratulations Norman!

Norman:
Truth is, I'm not sure I want to leave.

Jessie:
Montana? Why? It'll always be here.

Norman:
Not Montana.

Jessie:
Then what? WHAT?

Norman:
I'm not sure I want to leave you.

Rawhide:
" Watch that last step. It's a lulu."

When Norman asked his brother Paul, “Come with us.” Norman had planned to marry Jessie. And there, on the banks of the river, Brad Pitt replies, “Oh, I’ll never leave Montana brother.”

Love this film.

Norman Maclean:
In my family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in Missoula, Montana where Indians still appeared out of the wilderness to walk the honky tonks and brothels of Front Street.

Norman Maclean:
[narrating] My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things - trout as well as eternal salvation - came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy.

Norman Maclean:
The Burns family ran a general store in a one store town and still managed to do badly. They were Methodist, a denomination my father always referred to as Baptists who could read.

Norman Maclean:
[narrating] In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing.

Norman Maclean:
The world is full of bastards, the number increasing rapidly the further one gets from Missoula, Montana.

Norman Maclean:
[narrating] That was the only time we fought. Perhaps we wondered after 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 well suggested.