Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Rain People Blu-ray Movie Review

Next stop: "The Godfather."

Reviewed by Randy Miller III May 23, 2024

With the recent and risky release of Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola's first film in 13 years and one that he evidently spent $120M of his own money on, now's as good a time as any to look back to a humbler time in his long and storied career. Warner Archive is doing so on two separate fronts with the recent Blu-ray debut of 1966's You're a Big Boy Now and The Rain People, released to theaters three years later. Both can be regarded as several years ahead of their time, with The Rain People in particular being a prototypical road drama in the vein of then-recent films like Easy Rider. But there aren't any drug deals here -- just good old-fashioned emotional abuse, infidelity, and domestic violence.

Loaded with fine actors playing mostly horrible people, The Rain People will be tough going for anyone with a strong moral compass. It squarely follows the exploits of one Natalie Ravenna (Shirley Knight), a young New York housewife who feels trapped in domestic life and basically abandons ship one morning, leaving nothing but a note. After a brief stop at her parents' house (where she expects at least some support, but gets none), Natalie hits the highway for what she hopes will be a coast-to-coast road trip and a fresh start. There are only two problems: she's secretly pregnant with her husband's child, and along the way she picks up a hitchhiker who she just can't shake. Despite his nickname, though, Jimmy "Killer" Kilgannon (James Caan) seems to be a harmless young man, an ex-football player who suffered a nasty concussion and now has nothing more than $1,000 in disability hush money. He's like a helpless child; maybe even a litmus test for her motherhood skills, and let's just say that Natalie has trouble adjusting.

Not surprisingly, their adventures together (and briefly apart) give The Rain People an unavoidably episodic feel, and one peppered with Natalie's attempts to leave Jimmy on his own. Two involve job prospects, including a visit to his old girlfriend's house that turns disastrous as well as a potential position at a run-down tourist trap in which the owner will obviously take advantage of Jimmy's limited mental skills. Natalie rescues him from certain disaster both times, yet her fickle nature ensures that she also tries to just dump Jimmy on the side of the road repeatedly despite an attraction to him. Along the way, regular calls to her increasingly angry husband -- who's glimpsed in the first scene (above) and then we only hear his voice -- reinforce the fact that Natalie is an impulsive and unpredictable person who he's clearly better off without. In fact, it's only the second-half entrance of crooked cop Gordon (Robert Duvall), a single dad who makes Natalie look like a borderline saint in comparison, that allows us to begin to sympathize with her.

But it's too little too late for The Rain People, which remains oddly compelling in the visually creative way that certain passages of this road movie are presented but still feels hampered by the frustrating decisions and temperament of its churlish central character. Not enough blanks from her past are filled in, and thus it's almost impossible to grasp what she's running from. Natalie is terribly cruel at times but we don't know why, and the frankly inhumane treatment of Jimmy by her and several other characters gives this film a nasty streak that gets a little lighter in the home stretch before it gets very, very dark. The fatalistic ending -- a regular tradition of films from this particular era -- is the bitter icing on the cake, which cements The Rain People as one of the worst date movies in cinematic history.

Much like You're a Big Boy Now, The Rain People is very much a product of its decade. The treatment of Jimmy's condition is laughably cold at times, possibly making Natalie the template for Forrest Gump's Jenny. There are clear nods to the burgeoning "women's lib" movement -- obvious examples such as Natalie's fierce stabs at independence, and more subtle ones like Gordon's refusal to let his pre-teen daughter wear a bra -- and the expressive visuals are right in line with Coppola's brand of early filmmaking with memorable time capsule footage of countless "Anytown, USA" stops on Natalie's road to California. So while you may never warm up to The Rain People's central character or roll your eyes at the way it shoehorns the title into one random conversation (I certainly did), you'll want to see this one through to the very end. Warner Archive offers fans and first-timers a great way to (re)discover this early almost-classic via their new Blu-ray, which features yet another of the boutique label's purist-friendly restorations.

The Rain People Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Archive's consistently great restoration work is on full display with this impressive Blu-ray, which once again takes a purist-minded approach by presenting it in a way that clearly resembles original theatrical showings. Similar to Coppola's earlier film You're a Big Boy Now (also recently released on Blu-ray by the boutique label), The Rain People has been sourced from a brand-new 4K scan of the original camera negative and, although both films have different cinematographers and visual styles, many of my comments about Big Boy's Blu-ray presentation apply to this release as well. Colors run true, shadow detail and black levels are solid, film grain levels are noticeable, and as a whole it just has that unmistakable late-1960s early 70s appearance that looks great in the right hands. Small amounts of dirt and other damage can be spotted on stray occasions and some of its darker sequences show signs of light flickering, but overall, there's almost nothing to complain about here -- everything about it looks as good as expected.

The Rain People Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix runs an obvious second, but it's no fault of Warner Archive's restoration work: The Rain People just isn't a terribly active film from a sonic perspective, often featuring scenes that are either purposefully silent or driven by conversations that stay below normal speaking levels. Of course, there are quite a few emotional outbursts but everything's fairly naturally presented with only a handful of exceptions, such as when dialogue is paired with a sound-free flashback or other distant memory. From that perspective, this is very much a "gets the job done" presentation and features no obvious signs of damage or other defects, so again no real complaints here.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature.

The Rain People Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with poster-themed cover art and no inserts. Surprisingly, no extras of any kind are included, not even a trailer. (To be fair, it's not apparent that one even exists for this film anymore: the closest thing to it is a YouTube video on WB's official channel that's basically an early scene from the film.)

But just so you don't walk away empty-handed, I'd recommended the short documentary Filmmaker by some guy named George Lucas, in which he talks about serving as a young production assistant on The Rain People.

The Rain People Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A dark and often demoralizing early road movie, Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People is probably best remembered as the last film he made before The Godfather. It's got great performances and memorable cinematography, yet many characters and large swaths of the story are frustratingly presented and will make viewers question certain motivations every step of the way. So while it's definitely not the most accessible blind buy around, The Rain People is worth a look for its place in cinema history and Warner Archive's Blu-ray offers plenty of outstanding A/V support.