Who'll Stop the Rain
Encyclopedia
Who'll Stop The Rain is a 1978
psychological drama film
released by United Artists
. It was directed by Karel Reisz
and produced by Herb Jaffe
and Gabriel Katzka with Sheldon Schrager
and Roger Spottiswoode
as executive producers. The screenplay
was by Judith Rascoe and Robert Stone from Stone's novel Dog Soldiers
. The music score was by Laurence Rosenthal
and the cinematography by Richard H. Kline
.
The film was entered into the 1978 Cannes Film Festival
.
(US) for fiction in 1975. For its original US theatrical release it was re-titled Who'll Stop the Rain, after the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival
, which features prominently (along with several other popular CCR tracks) on the film's soundtrack. The film was released as Dog Soldiers for release in several foreign territories. Some copies of the DVD
of Who'll Stop the Rain actually contain prints titled Dog Soldiers.
Stone based the character of Ray Hicks (Nolte) on Beat
writer Neal Cassady
, with whom Stone became acquainted through novelist Ken Kesey
, a classmate of Stone's in graduate school at Stanford University
.
Hicks' death scene on the railroad tracks at the film's conclusion was directly based on Cassady's death along a railroad track outside of San Miguel de Allende
, Mexico
in 1968. Also, the hippie
commune
setting, where lights and stereo speakers placed throughout the woods are utilized in Hicks' escape plan, was partially based on Kesey's home in La Honda, California
, where Kesey and his friends — known as the Merry Pranksters
— famously wired the surrounding woods with lights and sound equipment to enhance their experiments with LSD
. Though technically not a commune, Kesey's home was a frequent site for large parties attended by a mixture of literary luminaries such as poet Allen Ginsberg
and journalist Hunter S. Thompson
, music figures (including Jerry Garcia
, whose group The Grateful Dead later became the house band for Kesey's famous Acid Tests
), and outlaws, especially members of the infamous Hells Angels
motorcycle club. These parties are described intimately in works by Ginsberg and Thompson and in Tom Wolfe
's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
.
.
John Converse (Moriarty), a disillusioned war correspondent, approaches Ray Hicks (Nolte), a merchant marine sailor and acquaintance of Converse from back in the US, for help in smuggling a large quantity of heroin from Vietnam
to San Francisco, where he will exchange the drugs for payment with Converse's wife Marge (Weld), who has become addicted to dilaudid
. When Hicks discovers that he is being followed by thugs connected either to Converse or his suppliers, he goes on the run with Marge and the heroin, and is eventually pursued by the corrupt DEA
agent (Zerbe) who initially set the deal in motion. As Marge is separated from her supply of prescription drugs, she experiences withdrawal
, and Hicks decides to help her wean off her dilaudid addiction by using the heroin. Hicks also attempts to find another buyer for the heroin before his pursuers can catch up to him.
1978 in film
The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....
psychological drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
released by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. It was directed by Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
and produced by Herb Jaffe
Herb Jaffe
Herb Jaffe was an independent film producer in the United States.He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and began his career as a literary agent, working for the likes of: Paddy Chayefsky - Marty , The Hospital and Network , Reginald Rose - Twelve Angry Men , Joseph Heller - Catch-22 , Something...
and Gabriel Katzka with Sheldon Schrager
Sheldon Schrager
Sheldon Schrager is an American film producer most notable for producing The Karate Kid, Part III and The Prince of Tides. He was at one time married to director Norman Taurog's daughter, Patricia. From 1978 to 1996, Schrager was married to Aliza Gur.-References:...
and Roger Spottiswoode
Roger Spottiswoode
Roger Spottiswoode is a Canadian-born film director and writer, who began his career as an editor in the 1970s. He was born in Ottawa, Ontario. He has directed a number of notable films and television productions, including Under Fire and the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies starring...
as executive producers. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was by Judith Rascoe and Robert Stone from Stone's novel Dog Soldiers
Dog Soldiers (book)
Dog Soldiers is a 1974 novel by American novelist Robert Stone. The story revolves around journalist John Converse, Merchant Marine sailor Ray Hicks, Converse's wife Marge, and their involvement in a heroin deal gone bad...
. The music score was by Laurence Rosenthal
Laurence Rosenthal
Laurence Rosenthal is an American composer, arranger, and conductor for theater, television, and films.Born in Detroit, Michigan, Rosenthal attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied piano and composition...
and the cinematography by Richard H. Kline
Richard H. Kline
Richard Howard Kline, A.S.C. is an American cinematographer. The son of cinematographer Benjamin H. Kline, he joined Columbia Pictures at the age of 16 in 1943.-Credits:...
.
The film was entered into the 1978 Cannes Film Festival
1978 Cannes Film Festival
The 31st Cannes Film Festival was held on May 16-30. This festival saw the introduction of a new non-competitive section, 'Un Certain Regard', which replaces 'Les Yeux Fertiles' , 'L'Air du temps' and 'Le Passé composé'.- Jury :*Alan J...
.
Cast
- Nick NolteNick NolteNicholas King "Nick" Nolte is an American actor whose career has spanned over five decades, peaking in the 1990s when his commercial success made him one of the most popular celebrities of that decade.-Early life:...
- Ray Hicks - Tuesday WeldTuesday WeldTuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...
- Marge Converse - Michael MoriartyMichael MoriartyMichael Moriarty is an American-Canadian actor of stage and screen, and a jazz musician. He played Benjamin Stone for four seasons on the TV series Law & Order.-Early life:...
- John Converse - Anthony ZerbeAnthony ZerbeAnthony Jared Zerbe is an American stage, film and Emmy-winning television actor. Notable film roles include the post-apocalyptic cult leader Matthias in The Omega Man, a 1971 film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, I Am Legend; Milton Krest in the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill;...
- Antheil - Richard MasurRichard MasurRichard Masur is an American actor who has appeared in more than 80 movies during his career. From 1995-1999, he served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild . Masur sits on the Corporate Board of the Motion Picture & Television Fund.-Biography:Masur was born in New York City to a...
- Danskin - Ray SharkeyRay SharkeyRaymond "Ray" Sharkey, Jr. was an American actor best known for his role as Sonny Steelgrave in the television series Wiseguy.-Early life and career:...
- Smitty - Gail StricklandGail StricklandGail Strickland is an American character actress.Strickland was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the daughter of Theodosia and Lynn Strickland, who owned a tire shop...
- Charmian - Charles HaidCharles HaidCharles Maurice Haid III is an American actor and director, with notable work in both movies and television. He is known for his portrayal of Officer Andy Renko in Hill Street Blues....
- Eddie Peace - David OpatoshuDavid OpatoshuDavid Opatoshu was an American film, stage and television actor. He was born as David Opatovsky in New York City, where he was reared and educated. His father was the Yiddish writer, Joseph Opatoshu.-Television:...
- Bender - Joaquín Martínez - Angel (as Joaquin Martinez)
- James Cranna - Gerald
- Timothy Blake - Jody
- Shelby Balik - Janey
- Jean Howell - Edna
- José Carlos RuizJose Carlos RuizJosé Carlos Ruiz is a Mexican film actor, born in the City of Jerez Zacatecas, Mexico who stars in Mexican movies and Mexican Telenovelas such as Soñadoras, Mariana de la noche, Sortilegio and Soy Tu Dueña....
- Galindez (as Jose Carlos Ruiz)
Background and production
The film is based on Robert Stone's novel Dog Soldiers, which had been winner of the National Book AwardNational Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
(US) for fiction in 1975. For its original US theatrical release it was re-titled Who'll Stop the Rain, after the song by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
, which features prominently (along with several other popular CCR tracks) on the film's soundtrack. The film was released as Dog Soldiers for release in several foreign territories. Some copies of the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
of Who'll Stop the Rain actually contain prints titled Dog Soldiers.
Stone based the character of Ray Hicks (Nolte) on Beat
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
writer Neal Cassady
Neal Cassady
Neal Leon Cassady was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. He served as the model for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road....
, with whom Stone became acquainted through novelist Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
, a classmate of Stone's in graduate school at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
.
Hicks' death scene on the railroad tracks at the film's conclusion was directly based on Cassady's death along a railroad track outside of San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende is a city and municipality located in the far eastern part of the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. It is 274 km from Mexico City and 97 km from the state capital of Guanajuato...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in 1968. Also, the hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
commune
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
setting, where lights and stereo speakers placed throughout the woods are utilized in Hicks' escape plan, was partially based on Kesey's home in La Honda, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where Kesey and his friends — known as the Merry Pranksters
Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in California and Oregon...
— famously wired the surrounding woods with lights and sound equipment to enhance their experiments with LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
. Though technically not a commune, Kesey's home was a frequent site for large parties attended by a mixture of literary luminaries such as poet Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and journalist Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 .He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to...
, music figures (including Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
, whose group The Grateful Dead later became the house band for Kesey's famous Acid Tests
Acid Tests
The Acid Tests were a series of parties held by Ken Kesey in the San Francisco Bay Area during the mid 1960s, centered entirely around the use of, experimentation with, and advocacy of, the psychedelic drug LSD, also known as "acid."...
), and outlaws, especially members of the infamous Hells Angels
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
motorcycle club. These parties are described intimately in works by Ginsberg and Thompson and in Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a work of literary journalism by Tom Wolfe, published in 1968. Using techniques from the genre of hysterical realism and pioneering new journalism, the "nonfiction novel" tells the story of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters...
.
Plot
The film opens in Saigon at the height of the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
John Converse (Moriarty), a disillusioned war correspondent, approaches Ray Hicks (Nolte), a merchant marine sailor and acquaintance of Converse from back in the US, for help in smuggling a large quantity of heroin from Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
to San Francisco, where he will exchange the drugs for payment with Converse's wife Marge (Weld), who has become addicted to dilaudid
Hydromorphone
Hydromorphone, a more common synonym for dihydromorphinone, commonly a hydrochloride is a very potent centrally-acting analgesic drug of the opioid class. It is a derivative of morphine, to be specific, a hydrogenated ketone thereof and, therefore, a semi-synthetic drug...
. When Hicks discovers that he is being followed by thugs connected either to Converse or his suppliers, he goes on the run with Marge and the heroin, and is eventually pursued by the corrupt DEA
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
agent (Zerbe) who initially set the deal in motion. As Marge is separated from her supply of prescription drugs, she experiences withdrawal
Withdrawal
Withdrawal can refer to any sort of separation, but is most commonly used to describe the group of symptoms that occurs upon the abrupt discontinuation/separation or a decrease in dosage of the intake of medications, recreational drugs, and alcohol...
, and Hicks decides to help her wean off her dilaudid addiction by using the heroin. Hicks also attempts to find another buyer for the heroin before his pursuers can catch up to him.
Soundtrack
- Del ReevesDel ReevesFranklin Delano Reeves , better known as Del Reeves, was an American country music singer, best known for his "girl-watching" novelty songs of the 1960s including "Girl on the Billboard" and "The Belles of Southern Bell"...
- "Philadelphia Fillies" - Jackie DeShannonJackie DeShannonJackie DeShannon is an American singer-songwriter with a string of hit song credits from the 1960s onwards. She was one of the first female singer-songwriters of the rock 'n' roll period.- Life and early career :...
- "Put a Little Love in Your HeartPut a Little Love in Your Heart"Put a Little Love in Your Heart" is a song originally performed in 1968 by Jackie DeShannon, who composed it with her brother, Randy Myers, and Jimmy Holiday. In the USA, it was DeShannon's highest-charting hit, reaching #4 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Adult Contemporary charts...
" - Don McLeanDon McLeanDonald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...
- "American Pie" - Slim WhitmanSlim WhitmanOttis Dewey Whitman, Jr. , known professionally as Slim Whitman, is an American country music singer and songwriter, known for his yodelling abilities. He has sold in excess of 120 million albums in unit sales and has had numerous successful recordings...
- "I'll Step Down" - Creedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
- "Hey Tonight" - Creedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
- "Who'll Stop the RainWho'll Stop the Rain (song)"Who'll Stop the Rain" is a song written by John Fogerty and originally recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival for their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory...
" - Creedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater RevivalCreedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
- "Proud Mary - The Spencer Davis Group - "Gimme Some Lovin'Gimme Some Lovin'"Gimme Some Loving" is a song written by Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis and Muff Winwood, and originally performed by The Spencer Davis Group. The basic riff of the song was borrowed from the Homer Banks song " A Lot of Love", written by Banks and Willie Dean "Deanie" Parker. The song was a UK #2 in...
" - Hank SnowHank SnowClarence Eugene "Hank" Snow was a Canadian-American country music artist. He charted more than 70 singles on the Billboard country charts from 1950 until 1980...
- "Golden RocketThe Golden Rocket (song)"The Golden Rocket" is a 1950 single by Hank Snow. "The Golden Rocket" was his follow up release to "I'm Movin' On", and spent two weeks on the Country & Western Best Seller list and a total of twenty-three weeks on the chart....
"