White Mile

1994 gave us two white water rafting movie experiences: The River Wild and White Mile. Which one is better? They're both great in their own way. The River Wild is an action/thriller while White Mile is more of a drama/thriller. White Mile is a sadder, heavier story. It feels very realistic, almost like watching an actual real life disaster unfolding. I found this specific getaway gone wrong scenario, and the toxic workplace environment element relatable in some hard ways. Going down river rapids outside of a raft is terrifying. To a degree, I knew personally this fear portrayed by these characters. The latter third of this movie is an interesting and emotional court room drama. The characters go back and forth about what is morally right in the aftermath of the tragedy. Alan Alda and Peter Gallagher lead a strong cast of quality actors. They bring the drama and their characters teach us some important lessons. Alda especially nails his role as a conceited, bully of a boss. There is depth here and a heaviness which is successfully conveyed to the viewers.

This TV movie have already been aired in France, but I certainly missed it. Anyway, the story described here, and an actual one, is interesting at the most. In the line of DELIVERANCE and THE EDGE, but also of an another french movie called FAIR¨PLAY, released in 2006, and telling the story of a bunch of executive lead by a ruthless head chief who push them to the limit, in order to make them real "killers" for the business. Like in this item, character description is at a top level. and also in FAIR PLAY, it is question of rafting in dangerous waters. I guess many more films or épisodes were made around this scheme, because it is actually very used in major companies for their executives, to make them real sharks, for each other and for the clients. Terrifying.

There is nothing about this film that I would describe as a "thriller" or suspense movie, it's more of a drama. So a group of coworkers go rafting and the boat flips. Apparently there were too many people on the raft for the catagory 5 rapids. The part of the film I thought was a little ridiculous was after the boat flips the men, who are all wearing life vests act as if they never swam before. One man was trying to swim upstream against the rapids instead of to shore. It was a bit unrealistic. Anyway Alan Alda's character is a domineering boss who planned the trip and is the unsympathetic hard CEO who sees his workers as weak or strong, this I take it is the "thriller" part as there becomes controversy surrounding the trip that was planned by him.