Who'll Stop the Rain | | Cast : | Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld | | Director : | Karel Reisz | | Studio : | MGM/UA Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | August , 1978 | | DVD Released Date : | July 10, 2001 | | Language : | Unknown (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed), English (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 03, 2005 | | Summary | Warning Spoiler - READ ONLY at your discretion... | Content
 | I don't know - do we need a spoiler warning for a film from the 70's at this point? Anyway, this film was a footnote caught somewhere between Apocalypse Now and Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, etc.. But I liked it in the same way as Billy Jack in that it was an unpretentious story driven off pure character and story. No wiz bang special effects (except maybe the finale) here just people caught up in circumstance. But the ending sticks with me to this day. Nolte double-times it off into the distance, at port arms, improbably singing a Jody call (a real old school non-PC one at that). You can't predict nor control and perhaps even understand what life and fate throws at you but to be true to your own nature in spite of it is about as best as anyone can expect. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 19, 2005 | | Summary | Tough Vietnam Era Flick | Content
| To the credit of director Karel Reisz, "Who'll Stop The Rain" is a tough uncompromising film that takes an honest look at it's subject matter and doesn't back off. The story concerns a journalist in Vietnam, John Coverse,(Michael Moriarty) who asks his merchant marine buddy, Ray Hicks,(Nick Nolte) to smuggle some heroin back to the States. Hicks does so reluctantly only because Converse is his friend. Once back in the States, Hicks is confronted with a narcotics agent(Anthony Zerbe) and his hired thugs(Ray Sharkey and Richard Masur) trying to hijack the drugs by terrorizing Coverse's wife, Marge(Tuesday Weld). It is now Hicks' sworn duty to protect Marge and unload the stash. The performances in this film by all the principals are uniformly excellent. Though the film is tough going at times it only underlines a strong anti-drug message. A previous reviewer took issue with the film's ending. Not to give anything away, I disagree with that assessment though I've never read the film's source material, Robert Stone's "Dog Soldiers". "Who'll Stop The Rain" is another example of the adventurous filmmaking that was a product of the seventies. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 06, 2004 | | Summary | Matthias in something cool. | Content
| Great Movie though it blew a perfect ending with the last five minutes. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 22, 2003 | | Summary | Ray Hicks Lives! | Content
| Converse: "They say this place is where you find out who you really are."
Hicks: "What a bummer for the gooks."
I have to confess: I saw the movie "Who'll Stop the Rain," before I read the Robert Stone's, "The Dog Soldiers", the novel on which the screenplay is based. While I thought the book developed the characters and made them a little more understandable, I thought that overall, the movie was better storytelling.
First, Nick Nolte as Ray Hicks: Nolte does an outstanding job of interpreting Stone's vision of a modern American Samurai on a journey into hell. A former Marine with the discipline of a dedicated warrior, Hicks' motives and reasons for his own existence are mercenary in the extreme. I can't imagine anyone other than Nick Nolte playng this part.
Tueday Welde as Marge does not quite fit Stone's original version of the wayward schoolteacher who works as a ticket girl in the front of a seedy porno theater on the outskirts of San Francisco's tenderloin district. Welde comes across as a little less buxon and whorelike. In the book, Marge has few redeemable qualities and no spiritual values. Even though her part isn't as coarse, Welde still gives a pretty good interpretation of the character.
"Who'll Stop the Rain" closely follows the novel it was based on, but the screenplay diverges in several places: When converse contacts Hicks in Vietnam; When Hicks brings the packages to port in Oakland; When Hicks and Marge catch up to Eddie Peace; When Hicks and Marge reach the compound of Those Who Are. The screenwriters also saw fit to drop a minor character, Dieter, whose role in the novel version was as Ray Hick's mentor.
Fortunately, Stone also worked on the screenplay, so a lot of the great dialogue was still left in place with some minor alterations. "Who'll Stop the Rain" moves faster, cuts to the chase, and is very lean storytelling. There's not a lot of superfluous stuff, just a sequence of events that brings each of the characters into a quagmire of his or her own making - very much like "The Dog Soldiers".
Of course, both the movie and the novel are about a world going to hell over war and drugs. Both the movie and the book make a case that even though heroin is dangerous and lethal (Hicks calls it "the king of highs"), war is probably the ultimate drug.
The film hints at it, but "The Dog Soldiers" is more explanative about the origins of Hicks through his recollections before he dies. As he fades away, Hicks visualizes his past, which gives the reader an idea of how this character could have evolved into being.
If you want to know what Stone had in mind when he created Ray Hicks, read "The Dog Soldiers". If you want to see this vision enacted in a though-provoking, suspensful action movie, see "Who'll Stop the Rain."
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| Rating | | | Date | November 30, 2002 | | Summary | Not a great film. But I loved it anyway. | Content
| This 1978 film is a fast paced action-packed adventure story. It's not real and not supposed to be. But it kept me intrigued for more than two hours. And that's saying a lot. The film starts in Vietnam, where Nick Nolte is a merchant marine. When his good buddy, Michael Moriarity, a disillusioned journalist, asks him to smuggle two kilos of heroin to California, Nolte reluctantly agrees. Tuesday Weld is the journalist's wife and she's the one who's supposed to get the package. But things go wrong and Nolte and Weld start playing a cat and mouse game with some bad guys who are supposed to be rogue cops. Moriarity has his share of troubles too; he's abducted and painfully mistreated by the bad guys. From there on the story is simple, but the action kept me so busy watching that it didn't really have to make sense. Nolte is cast as the lead, but it didn't challenge his acting abilities very much. He's the righteous tough guy who's had a bad life and refuses to be stepped on. There's a lot of scenes of him with his shirt off. He looks good, but I couldn't help thinking that if this were filmed today, he'd have a lot more definition to his muscles. Tuesday Weld is a druggie housewife and most of the time she's awfully sleepy. Michael Moriarity, however, is supposed to be weak. That's a harder role to play. And he does it well. There's a great soundtrack of seventies music which moves the action along, and some original special effects. There's a lot of violence and hard drugs. Also, as it was filmed in the 70s, the atmosphere of that time is captured perfectly. This is not a great film. It's implausible, the story is weak, and the acting not exceptional. And yet, I loved it. And I can't quite understand why. It's not for everyone of course. But I do recommend it. |
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