The River Rat

1984 "After thirteen years in prison, Billy McCain thought he'd met up with everything, until he met up with his own daughter Jonsy."
6.3| 1h34m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 28 September 1984 Released
Producted By: Paramount
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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On the lazy banks of the Mississippi, a young girl is reunited with her time-served but innocent father. But the reunion is tainted with the whereabouts of the stolen loot, and those who come looking for it...

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Director

Thomas Rickman

Production Companies

Paramount

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The River Rat Audience Reviews

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life
Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.
Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
philramage I was lucky to be able to watch a lot of the production of River Rat. Several scenes were filmed on the Ohio River at Smithland, Ky, where I lived and also operated the local ambulance service. My Father was a Deputy Sheriff and became very friendly with Tommy Lee Jones during the filming. I also had the honor of having breakfast with Mr. Jones.Smithland was also the location of most of the "Rivers" segments of the classic movie " How The West was Won ". I still have cast photos and autographs from Jimmy Stewart, Agnes Morehead, George Peppard and Debbie Reynolds from that movie. " The River Rat " was and in my opinion is a great movie.
DreXor Since this movie listing seems to be missing a plot / synopsis of the movie i'm commenting one : An entertaining tale of a father (Tommy Lee Jones) and daughter (Martha Plimpton) who run a bait/fishing shop on a river. They build a fishing boat together and is christened "The River Rat". The father is meanwhile harassed by his parole officer for information due to the father being the only survivor of a childhood crime involving a large sum of lost money. The father served time but the money was never recovered. After some history and character building has taken place, the movie transforms into a coming of age story combined with a competitive treasure hunt.
Pepper Anne The 'River Rat' was a surprisingly better film than I expected. If you have seen 'Square Dance' or 'Shy People,' you learn to be weary of Deep South small-town dramas, especially those about broken relationships between parents and their children, as they usually turn out to be quite depressing if nothing else. But not 'River Rat,' what starts out as a decent drama about the reunion of a young girl (Martha Plimpton) and her father (Tommy Lee Jones), who was recently released from jail, almost immediately turns into a Deep South caper when someone from the jail tracks down the father looking for some loot. And this is where the real fun begins.The father was in jail for a crime he committed as a kid when he, another boy, and a young girl (who bears his child) decide to break into an old woman's house and steal a load of money that she was rumored to keep by her bedside. Only, things go wrong, and the other boy winds up killing the women while both boys take off, on the run from the cops. The father, as a boy, is eventually caught and incarcerated. To get his parole, he didn't have to show remorse, but he did have to tell all to the prison doctor (Brian Dennehy) who would give the recommendations (or not) to the parole board. Promised a cut of the money, the father agrees and is released. Only the doctor wants his money now, and is willing to kill the father and anyone else who stands in his way to get hold of that money. So, the father, the doctor, the daughter, and the daughter's young neighborhood friend, all hop aboard the 'River Rat,' and sail down to Memphis to retrieve the finds if all goes well.It seems unbelievable at points in the film, especially throughout the climax, when the doctor doesn't seem entirely dangerous or much like any kind of adversary, since he goes about things (sometimes) rather more civilly than one expects. So, that kind of detracts from the mood, but otherwise, it is a pretty decent movie. If you're in the mood for a good mix of drama and adventure (they're almost like two distinct halves of the same movie with the drama part being resolved first), then this is probably good for you. Or, if you want to see the cast since it has both a young pre-Goonies Martha Plimpton and Tommy Lee Jones (who never really looks young).
helpless_dancer When convicted felon Billy McCain gets paroled from the big house, his troubles are far from over. A sinister man wants to get his hands on the stash that Billy supposedly hid away before doing his stint in the gray bar hotel. Is the money there or was it destroyed before Billy ever got caught? Can Billy and his daughter escape the clutches of this evil person and live happily ever after? Will Mighty Mouse never come!!?? To find out go see this excellent film which shows the power of love, the ugliness of greed, and the joy of repentance.