As is often the case, Great movie but even better book. Re-mastered or not, you can't beat the visuals that are painted by the books words.

Good movie, yet I hate it, or at least I hate what it represents. It represents one of the waves of flyfishing trendiness. It represents part of what got the people that give flyfishing a bad name into flyfishing. The newbie, yuppie, urbanite losers that got into it because they saw this or read that and decided it would be cool. I'm sick of hearing people run their mouths about "legendary" streams as if they grew up there just because they took one guided trip there. As if being there once gives you status as a real angler. Where are the real, old school, before it was cool flyfishermen? Or should I say flyfisherwomen? Because my mother and here parents were fishing those "legendary" waters long before the posers knew they existed, or before they were even born.

What's Blu-ray?

Also, forget the movie. Buy the book!

The book by Norm McClean is a true American classic. The movie is well done, and i enjoyed it many times. I am not, however, a fan of Robert Redford or Brad Pitt and i refuse to spend money on their endeavors.

this movie is one of the reasons I left montana...hordes of well-heeled LL bean models from back east descended upon the rivers like a plague of false-casting locusts...they drove the value of river-front property through the roof, so that the common man would never be able to afford the property taxes, much less the property itself...If I ever see Mr. Redford in person, I will punch him squarely in the nose...

"this movie is one of the reasons i left Montana"

Dude, WTF?

Lest we forget, the 80s were not the hay day for MT flyfishing you guys seem to remember. Before the rush of interest and awareness this movie helped create, there were no trout in the clark fork above Drummond. The Blackfoot was riddled with mine waste, and the North Fork and Gold Creek were trampled by cattle and silted from logging runoff. The revenues brought here by those yuppie, urbanite losers has had a huge positive impact on the fishery, and on the books of local guides and shops.

Are there idiots on the river? Absolutely! But the worm chucking yokels take more fish out that the guided tourists, and the blackfoot is harmed far more by co-eds on float tubes than anyone trying to imitate Redford or Pitt.

If you want to get away from the crowd, try getting the hell out of bozeman, or fishing somewhere other than rock creek or the bitterroot. To experience true solitude and pristine fishing, try walking 10 minutes off any road.

There is no question that MT rivers are in better shape now than they were 20 years ago, and tourist money helped make that possible. If that means dealing with an idiot from out of state now and then, so be it.

I'd rather fish with a well intentioned out of state idiot than a "local" snob elitist any day.

Being "The Guy" that Redford hired to supervise the fly fishing scenes in the film perhaps I am a target (sounds like Redford and I need boxing gloves). Having fished around the world with everyone from baitcasters to spey rodders (the latter who could not bear to see me tie on a nymph), I realize that it is impossible to please everyone, however I do think that my team of anglers and I did a good job making the film seem realistic -- and it was a ton of work.
There is no question that the film did bring a lot of people to guide shops and that fisheries were hammered in certain places, but to Big Mike's point the more that people who are NOT necessarily life-long anglers get out and see just how much these places need our support, the better. Provided they are properly coached.

Certainly the old schoolers would like to go back to the days when trout were plentiful and keeping fish (rather than releasing them) was not an issue on most prized trout fisheries.

The reality today is that media can help drive awareness to facts like what is happening to our oceans. The United Nations reported recently that since the early 1950s more than fifty percent of the ocean's fish stocks have been depleted....

My point is that if Norman Maclean had been fishing the Blackfoot in the 1980/early 1990s rather than the 1930s/early 1940s he probably would not have written a book about the fishery at all. The fact that we made a film about this story, and realized how mining, cattle grazing, and clear cutting had all but ruined this fishery, woke people up to it once was -- and thankfully the restoration of the Blackfoot is one of the most successful conservation stories there is.

While I like to look back, I prefer to look forward and hope that our site http://hook.tv will be a great resource for this kind of discussion. I prefer to think that guides and outfitters are stewards of most fisheries; this is a resource that they have to watch over if they want to have a business.

As for hordes of people fishing who have no business being out there, there is a way to go back in time to place where the trout are as big as your arm and there are very few anglers... It is called New Zealand! And hopefully we have learned something about conservation that can be applied there; it fishes like Montana did in the thirties and it would be nice if it stayed that way.

I would invite any of you to check out our site http://hook.tv. All discussion welcome. Tight Lines!

Yes, it was a great movie, but having read the book last month for the almost bazillianth time, I have to say that there is no comparison to the way Norman MacLean put it in words on paper.

I don't like Redford or Pitt for their politics and social liberalism, but I do respect them as artists in the film genre. They truly do good work.

Yes, I recognize that many people who would otherwise never have enjoyed flyfishing got into it because of this movie, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing...it makes people aware of the conservation issues involving streams and rivers, and it brings new converts to the sport.

Also, just because it brings hordes of noobs to the fabled trout, salmon and steelhead streams does not mean we who are more advanced, or who like fishing in solitude or with just a couple close friends, cannot enjoy our fishing:

It just means that we have to keep our secret spots and tricks secret, and that when we do venture out among the throngs of incompetents (whether due to newness to the sport or simple inability), we can wow them with our proficiency and success....a state of affairs not at all unlike when Norman and Paul were fishing the Big Blackfoot and that couple came down the trail past Norman and just stood in awe of Paul fishing below them, muttering "Jesus..." and other exclamations of bewildered amazement at the artistic mastery of the line, rod and reel displayed before them.

Thats just one of the perks of having started fly-fishing at age 8.