On my list of movies involving the wilderness or rivers, Whitewater summer is just about at the top of my list. The river Wild is another good one. Kevin Bacon stars in both, but that is 100% coincidental. I think incvluding Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves here is not quite fair, but Christain Slater's awesome river-tax limerick and the ensuing fight will always make me laugh.
Why is WhiteWater summer so great? Maybe it's because it came out in 1987, and I ignored it, only to discover it sometime later on cable. I like how a timid Sean Astin begins the film and a strong Sean Astin ends it - it says that nerdy guys can be heroes, and 11year-old-me probably ate that up along with Star Wars and a whole bunch of fantasy novels.
As an interesting thing I just discovered, Astin's narration in the movie was evidently filmed 2 years after the original- I thought it was just movie magic that he l;ooked a little older, like Walt from LOST. I don't know if this was intentional, but you can tell that a much older Sean Astin is narrating and appearing for brief moments.
The action in the folm revolves ariound how Vic, played by Kevin Bacon is a real jerk, and the more the kinds on his guided camping/backpacking trip resist his character-building challenges, the more of a jerk he becomes. This culmibates in Vic breaking his leg, and The kidns having to rescue him by getting him safely down the mountain via the river. Nice shots of rafting,
In addition, the theme music was perfromed by Journey, who I didn't really appreciate until I was in college, but Steve Perry's voice defintely secures for WhiteWater Summer a place in movie history.