Wild River

Set in the 1930s, Wild River follows Chuck Glover, a government agent sent to a rural stretch of the Tennessee Valley to carry out a federal dam project. The reservoir it will create requires residents to sell their land and move, and most have already agreed. The holdout is Ella Garth, an elderly woman who refuses to leave the island her family has farmed for generations. As Chuck tries to persuade her and to hire local Black laborers over the objections of white townspeople, he also grows close to Ella's granddaughter Carol, a young widow.

Elia Kazan directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Paul Osborn. It was released in May 1960 and followed a run of his earlier features including On the Waterfront, East of Eden, Baby Doll and A Face in the Crowd, and it came between those films and Splendor in the Grass the following year. Montgomery Clift plays Chuck, with Lee Remick as Carol and Jo Van Fleet as Ella; Albert Salmi, Jay C. Flippen and James Westerfield appear in supporting roles.

Reaction has been favorable across the decades. On IMDb the film holds a 7.5 rating from roughly 6,600 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.2 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 8.5 from 13 reviews places it higher than either audience figure.