Another one of Francis Ford Coppola’s early films, The Rain People, made its way to Blu-ray courtesy of the Warner Archive Collection.

Disappointingly, The Rain People offers even less than Coppola’s second feature, You’re a Big Boy Now. That disc wasn’t exactly packed either, but at least it included the trailer. Here? Nothing at all. No trailer, no commentary, not even a basic featurette. It’s especially frustrating given how many Coppola titles are accompanied by substantial bonus material. Not even an audio commentary from the filmmaker himself. Not even George Lucas—who worked on the film as a production associate, years before American Graffiti and Star Wars made him a household name. Lucas himself made Filmmaker!

Natalie Ravenna (Shirley Knight), a Long Island housewife, abruptly leaves her husband Vinny (Robert Modica) while he’s still asleep and begins driving west in the family station wagon. She visits her parents, who are alarmed by her sudden departure, then calls Vinny from a gas station to tell him she’s pregnant. He’s thrilled, but Natalie insists she needs time away and isn’t ready to come home.

On the road, she picks up Jimmy “Killer” Kilgannon (James Caan), a former college football star left brain-damaged and aimless after an injury. Natalie first toys with seducing him but ultimately pushes him away. Despite her emotional distance, she becomes protective—driving him to old contacts, nearly finding him work, then pulling away when she fears he’ll be exploited. Her push-pull behavior reflects her own uncertainty about control, care, and freedom.

After several days, a second phone call to Vinny ends in frustration when Killer damages the phone, prompting another emotional rupture. Soon after, Natalie is stopped for speeding by motorcycle cop Gordon (Robert Duvall), who invites her to his trailer. There she meets his neglected daughter and sees firsthand the damage wrought by Gordon’s own grief and rage. When Gordon becomes threatening and tries to assault Natalie, Killer intervenes violently.

The confrontation turns tragic when Gordon’s daughter, Rosalie (Marya Zimmet), frightened by the escalating chaos, fatally shoots Killer. The film ends with Natalie cradling his lifeless body, surrounded by stunned trailer park residents. Her cross-country escape leaves her not with clarity or peace, but with trauma and grief—marking the end of a journey that offered no easy answers.

Coppola shot the film over five months across 18 different states. That may not sound too daunting—until you realize The Rain People was filmed on a road trip with only a 10-person core crew. In each city, they hired local crew members to assist with production. Among the more populous filming locations were New York City and Chattanooga. Interestingly, another iconic road drama—Easy Rider, starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper—made it to theaters before The Rain People.

As a road movie, The Rain People generated a massive amount of footage. Coppola and editor Barry Malkin began with an assembly cut running over four hours, which they ultimately trimmed to a final runtime of 102 minutes. In the pre-digital era, physically cutting that much film is a staggering feat, considering the labor-intensive editing process of the time.

At the time of its release, Francis Ford Coppola was still emerging as a filmmaker. The Rain People reflects a period of experimentation as Coppola honed his voice and visual language—just before entering what would become the defining decade of his career in the 1970s.

DIRECTOR/SCREENWRITER: Francis Ford Coppola
CAST: James Caan, Shirley Knight, and Robert Duvall, introducing Marya Zimmet, with Tom Aldredge, Laurie Crews, Andrew Duncan, Margaret Fairchild, Sally Gracie, Alan Manson, Robert Modica

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts released The Rain People in theaters on August 27, 1969. Grade: 3.5/5

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