Overrated

Amateur movie with Big budget

A lot of fun.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Similar to the movie, my Mom had a group of friends in the 70's that she'd go to the lake with. They weren't river guides, but they'd get naked, drunk, and sing Jerry Jeff Walker, just like in the film. Watching it I recognized the era and the setting immediately and I recalled the general feeling of that time, when I was still a kid. I also found myself contrasting the middle age live's of these people with my Mom's life as she got older. In my Mom's case, the drugs and alcohol became permanent, so there were more problems than just settling into middle class life and aging. Like Robb Moss though, she kept a couple of old photo albums of her lake trips and looked back with fondness. She would always say it was more fun to be young back then. It was probably the only time it felt normal to be naked with your friends.

This is the movie of all of us in a lot of ways. It follows life from the carefree and uninhibited days of twentysomething to the burdens of fortysomething. With one exception, each of the half-dozen river guides of the 70's grew up, settled down and became entangled in the humdrum, perplexities and small successes of adulthood. Yet in watching film of themselves mostly naked and carefree 20 years earlier there's little wistfulness, nostalgia or regret for the loss of youthful abandon. That was then, this is now. As one woman said, "we did it because we could." But most people can't do it forever and these former river rats have largely found as much adjustment and peace amid mortgages and child-raising as they did floating through the Grand Canyon.One of the most interesting aspects is the fact that three of them have held elected office, and in fact two are mayors of their small towns. Not what anyone would expect watching them negotiating rafts through the rapids in the early footage.The filmmakers, and particularly the editor, did a masterful job of letting characters in his documentary reveal themselves. It's a compelling film, not as powerful as "When We Were Kings" or "Don't Look Back", but nonetheless a strong and worthy effort. It was highly recommended by the New York Times reviewer and I concur wholeheartedly. No doubt will be appreciated by middle-aged people who, like myself, were lucky enough to have a few years of completely uninhibited life before being drawn into much more conventional settings.I was surprised to even find this movie at the video store because it never really found distribution outside the film festivals. You may have to dig around for it but it'll be well worth your trouble. A good, solid eight.(I have sympathy for the kinds of people who watch this movie and can only focus on the nudity.)

Where has the time gone? Those thoughts raced through my mind during this compelling all too brief documentary. Hey, if I had been unable to relate to this who would?Happily, I did and totally enjoyed it. My rebellious contemporaries were fun to observe, then and now, and the film has started some dialog among my long-time friends. While it is striking that two of the five actually had political careers (although small-time), I often wonder how I ended-up seeking the joys (comfort) of a corporate world - and boy was I a rebel (without drugs).Surely part of my pleasure from the film was it holding a mirror of sorts to me, so I was pre-sold, I was bound to find this story engrossing. As for the film-making, good to see how a very small (relatively) investment could pay off in such high satisfaction, at last for this viewer. Was the budget a reason why the other dozen of the original group 1978 elected not to get involved in the project - ? Updates would be welcome.

Ladies and gentlemen… naked hippies! Enjoy! Okay, that said, I have to say this documentary, a sequel to filmmaker Robb Moss's 1978 documentary, "River Dogs," catches up with his fellow former Colorado river guides in the present day. It's been compared to Michael Apted's "7Up" series, but it plays more like a real life "Big Chill," minus the soap operatics of a full-blown reunion, but, alas, complete with (thankfully few) existential musings on these fifty-somethings transitions from just-out-of-college wandering river rats, to successful politicians, fitness gurus and… well… river rats. Yeah, I know, life is just a long strange trip for the flower children turned `yuppie scum,' and yet, the film still comes off like a hilariously funny and occasionally sad little story about human beings. Go figure.