River of no Return, a perfect life's metaphor

There is a river called the river of no return... Sometimes it's peaceful and sometimes wild and free...

Life, love, dreams, freedom, survival... along the river...

We travel with them, we see how fragile life is and how poetic a family can be. They don't know yet but we do. We see how they survive the rapids, the wild river... we listen to their voices when they stop to rest. They drink hot coffee and eat fish, they talk about their pasts, their dreams, their hopes.

Their dialogues are so philosophical... How she has ended up in a saloon, how she has given up her dreams, how she always gets herself into trouble. She tries to excuse her boyfriend, it was life that made him that way. One night she tells him how she would like to live in a place where people could be treated as human beings. The Man says: That's in Heaven.

Let's begin from the beginning.

The Man arrives in his horse to fetch his son. The Boy is waiting in a gold mine camp. The Woman takes care of the Boy and asks the Man, what kind of father are you to leave your son in a place like this.

They'll meet again, in different circumstances. The Woman's boyfriend, the Gambler, is in a hurry to claim a gold mine he won in a poker game before the owner... well, he has to go to Kansas City. So, they try their luck through the river.

Meanwhile the Man is practicing his new role: being a father. And as a father he teaches the Boy how to use a gun for protection. Here, life is a struggle and danger is real. And don't forget the indians.

When the Gambler, after they were rescued from the rapids, steals the Man's horse, and the indians attack his house, we just know they have no choice. They are in the middle of an adventure: life itself, no guarantees, no certainties, just the struggle to survive.

So, here we have Life (the river), Family (the Man, the Woman and the Boy, before they even dream with it). Soon, we'll have the most magic word in old movies. Just wait a moment. We are getting there.

They manage to survive. They take care of the Boy, they begin to know each other and to trust each other, just like a family. The Boy learns disappointment, one the most difficult lessons of growing up. He discovers his father has shot a man in the back. Soon he'll learn that there are all kinds of men, and sometimes one has no choice.
Arriving Kansas City... Have you noticed how beautiful and poetic this scene is? Everyone may ask for a gift, says the Man. The Woman's will be to give her boyfriend a second chance, to let him explain himself. Marilyn in the Man's coat, so fragile: it must be marvelous to be loved that much...

Here, everything is in its right terms: the Boy will learn how to be a Man and will use the gun to save his father, even if it means to shoot a man in the back. (What difference does it make how you kill a snake, in front or in the back?) Then father and son hug...

Try to watch this scene very carefuly: the Woman picks up her shoes, the only thing that she owns now, and steps in the saloon. Pause... just before entering the saloon she looks back... What a magic moment... Have you noticed that?

Marilyn singing: There is a traveller on the river of no return... he'll never return to me... never...

And there he is. He looks at her and puts her in his back, just like that.

Where are you taking me?

Home.

Life, Family, Home... three magic words in old movies and in hopeless romantic souls.

As mine.