<P> A River Runs Through It is a 1992 American period coming - of - age drama film directed by Robert Redford and starring Craig Sheffer, Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt, Brenda Blethyn, and Emily Lloyd . It is a based on the 1976 semi-autobiographical novel A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean, adapted for the screen by Richard Friedenberg . Set in and around Missoula, Montana, the story follows two sons of a Presbyterian minister, one studious and the other rebellious, as they grow up and come of age in the Rocky Mountain region during a span of time from roughly World War I to the early days of the Great Depression, including part of the Prohibition era . </P> <P> The film won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1993 and was nominated for two other Oscars, for Best Music, Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay . The film grossed $43 million in US domestic returns . </P> <P> The Maclean brothers, Norman and Paul, grow up in Missoula, Montana with their father, Presbyterian minister John, from whom they learn a love of fly fishing for trout in the Blackfoot River . They learn to cast using a ticking metronome . The boys become accomplished fishermen as a result . Norman and Paul are home taught and must adhere to the strict moral and educational code of their father . As they grow older, it becomes clear that Norman is more disciplined and studious, while Paul is fun - loving, wild, and the more talented fisherman . </P> <P> Norman attends a July 4th dance with his friends after returning home from six years away at Dartmouth, where he meets Jessie Burns . Paul has become a reporter at a newspaper in Helena . He has angered many of the locals by falling behind in a big poker game at a bar that is a front for gambling and prostitution . He is also dating an Indian woman, Mabel, who is deemed inferior by the community . Paul is arrested after fighting a man who has insulted her, and Norman is awakened in the middle of the night by a phone call from the police to come and bail Paul out of jail . </P>

Who did the fly fishing in a river runs through it