Rivers of the Lost Coast was just issued on DVD, and all I can say is it’s about freakin’ time.
This intelligently made film offers a poignant (and often painful) look a the rise and fall of California’s and Oregon’s steelhead rivers – and weaves in a spellbinding story about some of fly fishing’s most iconic figures.
Click for the Rivers of a Lost Coast Web site
Fly fishing legends Bill Schaadt and Ted Lindner began the largely Post-WWII narrative as friends, but ultimately became sworn enemies. Whatever the reasons, the feud divided the nascent steelheading community – which wasn’t exactly an easy club to join.
In interview after interview, people describe the era’s steelhead & salmon runs, the decline in those runs, and how the unique breed of hardcore fly fishermen formed, split, and adapted.
Some didn’t adapt very well – either to diminishing fish populations or the growing crowds of fishermen – and therein lies the true genius of this movie.
“Extreme” characters like Bill Schaadt and Ted Lindner are normally the work of fiction writers, but they’re real – and they’re compelling enough to me that I watched the movie several times.
To sketch the characters, Rivers of a Lost Coast leans heavily on interviews with those who knew and fished with them (including Russell Chatham [read his lengthy Sports Illustrated piece on Schaadt here], Jim Adams, Lani Waller and others).
What emerges is an engrossing – if sometimes hard-to-comprehend – portrait of some of steelheading’s first truly extreme fly fishers.
Most interesting is the picture that emerges of Bill Schaadt, a revered (and often reviled) fly fisherman whose obsessive behavior included hiding his car & boat, and cutting the fly lines of others with razor blades tied in the bends of hooks.
With Chatham and others offering up revelation after revelation during their interviews, the movie flows beautifully – even as the precipitous decline of steelhead and salmon populations plays out (somewhat painfully) before our eyes.
The filmmakers have created something special – something worth a little of your time.
How much did I like Rivers of a Lost Coast? A friend asked me to summarize the film, I told him it’s the movie Ken Burns would have made if he was an obsessed steelheader.
See you at the picture show, Tom Chandler
Resources:
Sports Illustrated article on Bill Schaadt by Russell Chatham
But the Rivers of a Lost Coast DVD
Wikipedia entry on Bill Schaadt
Movie Trailer:
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I really hope this movie ends up on the iTunes music store for purchase there. I think more people (non-fisherman environmentalists especially) would buy it if it were readily available. Vince(Quote)
You’d watch it on your Mac then? Just curious how people are consuming video these days (I watch & review all the videos I receive on my laptops). Tom Chandler(Quote)
Funny, I was just worrying about not being able to watch it my TV because I’m in the UK and therefore not in DVD Region 1. Assuming it’s Region 1 only, of course.
Not that watching it on a laptop is a travesty, it’s just that I have a reasonably nice TV (32″ Phillips LCD) and I like to use it. MHH(Quote)
Oh man, this is the kind of stuff I love. Cool trailer. Can’t wait to see the movie. Thanks for this. Monkeyface News(Quote)
Definitely; all movies I see are on my laptop as well. It’s nice to be able to look topics up on Wikipedia if needed. It’s also nice to be able to purchase, download, and watch a movie in a matter of minutes. It’s really too bad more fly fishing movies (Drift, Rise, Nervous Water, etc) aren’t on iTunes.
Vince(Quote)