The Rain People

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Francis Ford Coppola directs. Wilmer Butler behind the camera. Ronald Stein scores. Barry Malkin cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Shot for just $0.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
• 257 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 3Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, shot by Wilmer Butler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Original score by Ronald Stein. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 5Editor Barry Malkin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6James Caan and Shirley Knight and Robert Duvall carry the top of the cast.
• 7Marketing tagline: "Rain people are very fragile…one mistake in love and they dissolve.".
• 8IMDB entry: tt0064873 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 9Only 84 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Wilmer Butler

Original score

Ronald Stein

Editing

Barry Malkin

Runtime

101 min · 1h 41m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$750,000

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

The Rain People (1969) ↗

Also by

Francis Ford Coppola

• 
  The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980

  1992 · ★ 8.9
• 
  The Godfather

  1972 · ★ 8.7
• 
  Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television

  1977 · ★ 8.6
• 
  The Godfather Part II

  1974 · ★ 8.6
• 
  Apocalypse Now

  1979 · ★ 8.3
• 
  Faerie Tale Theatre

  1982 · ★ 8.1

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  The Rain People - Available Now on DVD

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Wuchak2024-09-21
  ★ 7/10

  Coppola's mundane and melancholy late ’60’s arthouse road movie A 30-ish wife on Long Island (Shirley Knight) needs to just get away and so enters her station wagon and drives west. To where? She doesn’t know, but she picks up an ex-college football player (James Caan) before meeting a motorcycle cop (Robert Duvall). “The Rain People” (1969) was made three years before Francis Ford Coppola became famous with “The Godfather.” It was his first movie in which he had total creative control, writing and directing on the road without producers breathing down his neck. The story was inspired by Francis’ mother curiously leaving home for a few days when he was a kid. It’s about a woman’s haphazard search for freedom from the manacles of domestic life. Unlike the domineering male protagonists of “Patton” (which he wrote), the Corleone patriarchs and Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now,” Coppola shows us here several females manipulating men: Natalie with Kilgannon, Gordon and even Vinny; Ellen with Kilgannon and her father; and Rosalie with her dad. Interestingly, it's the express opposite of Francis’ previous movie, the fun “Finian’s Rainbow,” which was based on the 1947 Broadway hit. One is an energetic musical with a large cast while this has an everyday, depressing tone, made with a small cast & crew. While neither were successful at the box office, they both went on to garner cult followings after Coppola’s great success in the 1970s-90s (of course he had a few movies that didn’t do so well, but what else is new?). I can see where many viewers would find “The Rain People” dull, but it features a daring premise and has historical significance, not to mention some notable cast members. Plus, it’s a quality period piece for the late ’60s. In regards to the commendable premise, Natalie loves her husband, but is uncertain about the responsibility of having his child and so instinctively flees the scene. Ironically, Killgannon becomes her surrogate ‘child’ on her road odyssey wherein she struggles with her obligations. Concerning the ‘historical significance,’ the industry proudly cites “Stand Up and Be Counted” as the first flick to address women’s liberation, which it overtly does. But this came out three years prior and few people noticed at the time because it’s so covert. It was ahead of its time. Francis originally intended to include a scene at the end to clear up what Natalie decides to do from there, but it wasn’t needed because everything is explained in her monologue. Listen. It runs 1 hour, 41 minutes, and was shot over the course of five months in several American states with a 10-person crew (along with a smattering of locals). The locations include: Garden City (opening shot), Manhattan (Lincoln Tunnel) & Hofstra University, New York; the Pennsylvania Interstate; Harrisonburg, Virginia (restaurant scene); Clarksburg (the drive-in theater) & Weston, West Virginia; Chattanooga, Tennessee (the parade); Brule (the burning house) & Ogallala (the reptile ranch), Nebraska; and other places for exterior shots. GRADE: B/B-

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

  US

• 

  American Zoetrope

  US

Key crew

• Assistant EditorRichard Marks
• Camera OperatorRalph Gerling
• Sound EditorWalter Murch
• SoundNathan Boxer
• Assistant EditorJoel Cox
• Assistant EditorFred Talmage
• Boom OperatorJames Sabat
• GafferBill Neil
• Assistant EditorMarcia Lucas
• Art DirectionLeon Ericksen
• Assistant DirectorRichard C. Bennett
• ProducerBart Patton
• ProducerRonald Colby
• EditorBarry Malkin
• Assistant DirectorJack Cunningham
• Unit ManagerRonald Colby
• ProducerFrancis Ford Coppola
• GafferTom Ryan
• Associate ProducerGeorge Lucas
• Associate ProducerMona Skager

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• runaway
• housewife
• hitchhiker
• pregnant woman
• road movie

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1969-08-27R

Also known as

International titles

• Llueve sobre mi corazónES
• 雨のなかの女JP
• Liebe niemals einen FremdenDE