The Rainmaker

Distributed by
Pioneer LDCE

Cat.no: PFLEC 37721

Cert: 15

Running time: 130 minutes

Sides: 3 (CLV)

Year: 1997

Pressing: 1998

Chapters: 34 (10/10/14)

Sound: Dolby Surround

Widescreen: 2.35:1

Price: £24.99

Extras : Trailers for "The Rainmaker", "Kiss The Girls", "Primal Fear"

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Director:

Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather 1-3, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, Rumble Fish)

Cast:

Matt Damon (Rounders, Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan)
Claire Danes (William Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet, U-Turn)
Jon Voight (U-Turn, The General)
Mary Kay Place (The Big Chill, New York, New York)
Mickey Rourke (Rumble Fish, Double Team)
Danny DeVito (L.A. Confidential, Mars Attacks!)

One of the better (possibly the best) adaptations of a John Grisham legal novel, this is also one of those movies which initially appears confident if unremarkable but improves on subsequent viewings. Law student Rudy Baylor (Damon), lacking the rich family connections that assured his student contemporaries places in high flying, mega-paying law firms, finds himself working for distinctly dodgy Memphis law firm head "Bruiser" Stone (Rourke) - outside whose offices, immediately prior to first disc's sidebreak, are gathered FBI, police and assorted officials to shut him down. As Stone himself puts it, the "non-salaried" operation he runs is, "not a company exactly - more everyone for himself".

Baylor, who brings two cases with him from a local law workshop, is promptly assigned to Deck Schiffler (DeVito), who runs off to the hospital casualty department to sign up hot medical insurance clients by sneaking into their rooms when no staff are around, a practice derided by the idealistic newcomer as "Ambulance Chasing". Nevertheless, Stone pushes Baylor to chase a police wife-beating report which sends the ingenue in the direction of the heavily battered Kelly Riker (Danes). Her case - and indeed her person - will have considerable impact on Rudy's immediate life and career, as also will his original two cases.

The first, involving drafting Miss Birdie's (Teresa Wright, from Hitchcock's Shadow Of A Doubt/1943) will, makes him a friend and lands him a reasonably priced room to lay his head. The second, involving Dot Black (Place) and her dying son Donny Ray (Johnny Whitworth) will pit him against monolithic insurance corporation Great Benefit and its hardbitten legal team headed up by the intelligent but ruthless Leo F.Drummond (Voight).

There being no way 130 minutes could be anything other than three LD sides, Pioneer have opted against having one side at 30 minutes to get CAV (it's hard to see what use that could have served on this particular movie) and in favour of minimum plot disruption with two breaks that make considerable dramatic sense because characters come and go after appearing for their allotted time onscreen. While this is in part due to the "Call The Next Witness" approach of the courtroom drama genre - which in part categorises the film and throws in among others the ever watchable Virginia Madsen and an especially slimy Roy Scheider as key witnesses on side three - writer-director Coppola has a few additional tricks up his sleeve.

He allows insurance case judge and tobacco lobby supporter Harvey Hale (Dean Stockwell) to die offscreen of a coronary after his brief appearance early on in side two for replacement by former civil rights champion turned judge Tyrone Kipler (Danny Glover). As mentioned, "Bruiser" Stone (and Baylor and Schiffler's initial office premises) vanishes after side one. Throughout all the comings and goings, Coppola takes great delight in juggling his main insurance scam court case plot with the beaten-wife Danes/Damon's love interest on the one hand and the case which turns into friendship with Damon's landlady Wright on the other. Indeed, the sidebreak between sides two and three occurs after an outburst by Voight in a courtroom and prior to Damon getting Danes to sign a divorce form. Other highs include DeVito's continued failure to pass the bar exam while Damon passes and get sworn in as a trial lawyer almost immediately, thanks to the duplicitous Voight.

The disc's picture looks fine (and is presented in its correct widescreen aspect ratio) marking yet another great job by cinematographer John Toll (Legends Of the Fall, Wind) whose work always seems to transfer well to laserdisc. While the sound may not exactly be awash with rear speaker activity, the Memphis-flavoured music - part indigenous electric piano doodling, part thriller drama atmospherics - is both beautifully reproduced and an original soundtrack to die for.

As for the movie itself, it may not measure up to Coppola's greatest films (a high standard indeed), but proves satisfying enough as a routine, studio picture. Which is certainly a lot more than can be said for the man's other recent work, as Director For Hire on the truly appalling children's movie Jack. In short, then, Pioneer's The Rainmaker is a decent little disc.

Film: 5/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Jeremy Clarke, 1999.