Playlist: The Rain People

Francis Ford Coppola to me has one of the most interesting Directing careers of all the great American Filmmakers. He is honest and genuine..and you really get a sense of his insecurity and passion when you listen to a Coppola commentary, or interview. Coppola went to Hofstra University and started to direct plays and then off to California to film school to make shorts, films with Roger Corman and his first feature student film called You're a Big Boy Now. Coppola then had the great fortune to be asked to direct his first film from Warner Brothers and it was a musical staring Fred Astaire. Coppola wanted to direct small auteur films, like 400 Blows from the 1950's...he wanted to be an artist who made personal small films...its not ironic now in his 70's he is back to making those small personal films like Tetro and Youth Without Youth. Coppola has been on hiatus..after years of being in debt and having to make films that a young Coppola would have possibly looked down upon (like Jack, The Rainmaker, etc) to pay the bills and start his wine and hotel conglomerate, and possibly finance these personal films, his career arc has been one of a clear direction...in interviews and commentary Coppola rejoices in all his films, he truly is one who loves the work and not necessarily the prestige that the work may or may not bring. I have come to appreciate the joy of filmmaking through Coppola, and although I may not love all his films, they are all his children, his heartache, his failures and more than equally his successes.

The Rain People is most notable for having pre-Godfather stalwarts, James Caan and Robert Duvall..but the center piece is actress Shirley Knight, who plays a newly married and newly pregnant New Yorker who gets scarred and leaves her husband to get as far away from her responsibilities as possible, foreshadowing of the ideas that Coppola will eventually tackle like Kay wanting an abortion in Godfather II and the road aspect of Apocalypse Now are all here. But this film is magic for all the subtle camera work and character details that Coppola paints, slightly...we come to hate all the main characters at some points and want Shirley Knight's character to succeed and fail throughout.

For 1969 this film must have been a downer...but other films of the time looked at their films as a mirror to society of the 60s..and that society was bleak and had few happy endings.

One last thing..in an interview between Coppola and his latest star, Vincent Gallo, Gallo called The Rain People his favorite Coppola film, especially the ending...I am a fan of Gallo and see clear connections between this road film of 1969 and Gallo's film The Brown Bunny...in Coppola's road film a small crew of young filmmakers and actors went across the country from New York to the far mid-west, and in a just a few weeks made a film, they were poor and struggled to make an engrossing and original film..they dared to make this film..in the group with Coppola was a young associate producer and crew member named George Lucas..I really hope he can find it in his filmmaker soul to go back to his roots as Coppola has and start creating original honest work again.

I recommend the film to anyone who enjoys the process of any hard work, especially from young and talented people.