Browse: Home / Attention Must Be Paid: River Phoenix

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

Attention Must Be Paid: River Phoenix

Posted By Gillianren on November 28, 2020 in Features | Leave a response

Strange to think that River was the one on track to basically have Joaquin’s career. Yet I think a lot of younger people only really know him from Stand By Me and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and are not aware of how things could have been. Of what we were expecting from him. He was nominated for an Oscar for his sixth movie, Running on Empty. He lost to Kevin Kline for A Fish Called Wanda, and the other nominees that year were Sir Alec Guinness, Martin Landau, and Dean Stockwell. It’s an impressive list. And, yes, the Phoenixes are the only brothers to both be nominated for Oscars. But in a different timeline, they both could have won.

It’s clear that Joaquin is aware of this. Actually, three of River’s nephews ended up being named after him—one sister named her son Rio, and one named her son Indiana. Granted, only Joaquin has reference River in an Oscar acceptance speech, but neither Liberty nor Summer have won Oscars, so they haven’t had the chance. But it seems as though Joaquin has a lot of weight on him, being River’s Brother. He was four years younger. And in the last 27 years, he’s done no few projects I could’ve seen River in.

River was so talented. So talented and, yes, so beautiful. It’s hard to believe, sometimes, that Stand By Me was only his second movie. His performance as Chris Chambers is the best in the movie. All the kids do impressive work, for kids their age, but River was doing impressive work for someone even older. His character was supposed to be old for his age, and Phoenix captured that. Sure, all right, he was sixteen and playing a twelve-year-old, but even for sixteen, the performance is so pure and so vulnerable.

At nineteen, he was selected by Harrison Ford to play young Indiana Jones, having previously played Ford’s son in The Mosquito Coast. It’s the only full-on blockbuster he ever did, though goodness knows how that might have changed, all things considered. It’s the only time I ever saw him on the big screen, though my friend Reema was crazy about him even before that and was the only twelve-year-old with a Running on Empty poster, if I remember correctly. It was certainly the only movie of his I wouldn’t have had to make an effort to see.

I have, in later years, seen some of his movies after that. He was a varied performer. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him in a full-on comedic role, but certainly he captured any number of different feelings. All edged with that beautiful vulnerability. It’s so hard not to keep using the word “beautiful,” honestly, because even in that dreadful Chris Chambers crewcut, he was a lovely young man. One of the few people I’ve written about who was, at the time of his death, younger than I am now—I am a few years shy of twice the age he was when he died. But he is with Heath Ledger and James Dean on the list of people whose lives will always make us wish they’d lived longer.

I’m not as poor as the Chambers family, but it would be nice if you’d contribute to my Patreon or Ko-fi!

Posted in Features | Tagged Attention Must Be Paid, River Phoenix, tribute

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

Life is a mysteryCelebrating the Living: Madonna→

Clearly Pryor knew a thing or two about wooing womenAttention Must Be Paid: Richard Pryor→

Definitely how most people picture him.Celebrating the Living: John Cameron Mitchell→

A sexy hot mess bigot!Attention Must Be Paid: Patricia Highsmith→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38530 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    31147 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30545 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27730 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23642 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!