Follow The River

"An Enthralling Epic Of One Woman's Grit, Loyalty, And Determination"

1995 1h 31m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

★7.3TMDB · 17

DramaAction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Mary Ingles is pregnant when she and her two sons are captured from their homestead in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains by Shawnee Indians. Her husband, Will, narrowly escapes death during the attack. Impressed by her grace under the pressure of captivity, Wildcat, the Shawnee chief, confers special privileges on Mary and her children, eventually proposing that Mary become his mate. Surprised by her attraction to the handsome brave, Mary nonetheless opts to remain faithful to Will and engineers a plan for her escape. Separated from her children, Mary joins another female settler, and together they embark on a harrowing homeward trek. Her odyssey comes full circle more than a decade later when she is finally reunited with her long-lost children.

“An Enthralling Epic Of One Woman's Grit, Loyalty, And Determination”

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Cast

Ellen Burstyn
Gretel
Sheryl Lee
Mary Ingles
Tim Guinee
Will
Eric Schweig
Wildcat
Andy Stahl
Henry Lenard
Tyler Noyes
Tommy Ingles
Gabriel Macht
Johnny Draper
Tony Amendola
LaPlante

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Martin Davidson
Writers: Jennifer Miller
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

31 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

CRAFT

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Martin Davidson, shot by Michael Gershman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Bonnie Koehler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Ellen Burstyn and Sheryl Lee and Tim Guinee carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "An Enthralling Epic Of One Woman's Grit, Loyalty, And Determination".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0113091 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 17 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Martin Davidson directs. Michael Gershman behind the camera. Bonnie Koehler cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

131 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
3Directed by Martin Davidson, shot by Michael Gershman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor Bonnie Koehler shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Ellen Burstyn and Sheryl Lee and Tim Guinee carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "An Enthralling Epic Of One Woman's Grit, Loyalty, And Determination".
7IMDB entry: tt0113091 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 17 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
9Classified under 15 themes, including "husband wife relationship", "based on novel or book", "escape", "kidnapping".

The technical file

Cinematography: Michael Gershman
Editing: Bonnie Koehler
Runtime: 91 min · 1h 31m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: Follow The River (1995)

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Martin Davidson

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2025-05-12
★ 7/10
Settlers vs Shawnee in the heart of Appalachia, 1755 After a raid at Draper's Meadow settlement in what is now the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, several Caucasians are taken captive and brought northwest to the Shawnee village in what is present-day South Portsmouth in northeast Kentucky, and, later, to Big Bone Lick, which is further west. The resilient Mary Ingles (Sheryl Lee) hatches a plan with an older German captive (Ellen Burstyn) to possibly find their way back over the 350 miles of wilderness. Eric Schweig plays the chief warrior. “Follow the River” (1995) is an American settler survival adventure with the general milieu of "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992) except with a budget and tone closer to the later "Battle of the Brave" or "The Sign of the Beaver," aka "Keeping the Promise.” It’s very similar to “Alone Yet Not Alone,” which came out eighteen years after, and concerned a similar raid, also in 1755, albeit by the Delaware (Lenape) 275 miles to the northeast in central Pennsylvania. You’ll be inspired to look up the historical account. The movie has heart and should be commended for keeping the gist accurate, although what happens at the close is glaring fiction (you’ll know what I mean). Nevertheless, the flick gives you a good peak at what it was like in the wilderness of Appalachia in the mid-1700s when the French and Indian War was starting (and lasted from 1754-1763). It runs 1 hour, 31 minutes, and was shot in Sapphire and Turtleback Falls in southwest North Carolina, both about a 1.5 hour drive west of Charlotte. GRADE: B

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