40 Rivers To Freedom

I’ve had a fresh copy of Rise sitting on top of my TV for the last couple weeks.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to watch it until my weekend trip to the International Fly Tying Symposium in Somerset fell through on Friday afternoon.

The day before I recieved a text message from a friend that read, “Rise Sucks.”  I couldn’t really say I was surprised by this message, as I wasn’t the biggest fan of Confluence Films previous movie, Drift.  Not to mention, the trailer I saw for Rise gave me little to look forward to.

So instead of unpacking my suitcase, I popped a bag of popcorn in the microwave and my copy of Rise in the DVD player.

Basically, the film is broken up into 6 locations: Venezuela, Idaho, Florida, Alaska, New Orleans, and Patagonia.

The film opens with the Florida section, and it majorly sucked-  felt like I was watching a Fly Rod & Reel Magazine article.  I can’t remember what section was next, the part on two friends starting an outfitting business in Patagonia, or the part on Louisiana Redfish, but what I do remember is that both of those parts sucked, too.   Then came the Venezuela sections which wasn’t too bad, but it still sucked.  It just didn’t seem like it sucked so bad cause the parts before it sucked so much more.

At this point, I was pretty sure I’d be sending my friend a reply to his text, agreeing with his diagnosis.  Then, the part on Idaho’s Henry’s Fork got going.  The beginning was a little sketchy, then they did a brief piece on Rene Harrop that probably saved the whole DVD from the garbage can.  The Alaska part wasn’t bad either, but this might have been due to the fact that it had a great act take the stage ahead of it.

Overall, I’d give Rise 3 outta 5 stars.  Without the Idaho piece, I’d give it 1 outta 5.

To all of the other fly fishing film makers out there, including you, Confluence; take note of the Idaho piece.  Seems like you have all fallen into the trap of the personal interview.  You know, the part where you try to add substance to the fish porn.  Well, as mentioned above, your substance is turning into the equivalent of stale old fly fishing magazines.  How about skipping the interview altogether and replacing it with the narrator reading a really great essay on the topic at hand while the video rolls?   Cause like I said before, you can do better than this.