The River

Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek star as Tom and Mae Garvey, a couple of farmers struggling to maintain the American dream as they hover perilously close to foreclosure in director Mark Rydell's "The River" (1984). Their farm sits next to a river that both nourishes their land and threatens to overflow its banks and destroy their crops. Though the family attempts to continue working its farm, debts and a poor season finally force Tom to accept a low-paying factory job as a scab in this deeply affecting, beautifully photographed film.