Coppola charts a perilous new freedom both in people's lives and in the industry
The Rain People (1969)
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Reviews Counted:10
Fresh:8
Rotten:2
Average Rating:6.5/10
Synopsis: THE RAIN PEOPLE is Francis Ford Coppola's character study of a Long Island pregnant housewife who writes a goodbye note to her sleeping husband and runs away. Natalie (Shirley Knight) feels like... THE RAIN PEOPLE is Francis Ford Coppola's character study of a Long Island pregnant housewife who writes a goodbye note to her sleeping husband and runs away. Natalie (Shirley Knight) feels like her life is not her own now that she's a wife and soon-to-be mother. She drives west, where she picks up a hitchiking college football player. Killer Kilgannon (James Caan), who suffered brain damage on the field, has been given $1,000 in cash by his college and told to leave. The two travel together, and slowly Natalie realizes that Killer has no place to go and no one to help him. After she finds him a job working for a sadistic rancher (Tom Aldredge), Natalie speeds guiltily away only to be pulled over by a motorcycle cop, Gordon (Robert Duvall). Killer and Natalie are reunited briefly until she leaves for a date with Gordon, whose own miseries quickly surface. THE RAIN PEOPLE was notable for being the first time Coppola worked with some of the cast and crew who would become Zoetrope regulars: actors James Caan and Robert Duvall, editor Barry Malkin, sound engineer Walter Murch, and producer Mona Skager. [More]
Starring: James Caan, Shirley Knight, Robert Duvall, Tom Aldredge
Starring: James Caan, Shirley Knight, Robert Duvall, Tom Aldredge, Marya Zimmet, Andrew Duncan, Sally Gracie, Robert Modica, Alan Manson
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Producer: Bart Patton, Ronald Colby
Composer: Ronald Stein
Reviews for The Rain People
This odd odyssey was not a hit, even though over the years it has been regarded as one of Coppola's more personal pictures and has attained a limited following.
Coppola's fourth feature, a fascinating early road movie made entirely on location with a minimal crew and a constantly evolving script.
As for Coppola and his world, It's difficult to say whether his film is successful or not. That's the beautiful thing about a lot of the new, experimental American directors.
There are acres of psychoanalytic material to juggle with, and Caan and Duvall are superb as the brain-damaged football player and the sex-obsessed policeman respectively.
Like its main character, the movie hits the road with no final destination in mind, and the manic inventiveness that sustains the early passages becomes strained and weird by the end.
Latest News for The Rain People
December 12, 2007:
Walter Murch on Youth Without Youth: The RT Interview (With Exclusive Photos and Clips!)
This week, Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth hits theaters in limited release. The tale of a writer who becomes young again after being struck by lightning is a... More...
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