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Who'll Stop the Rain
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Wikipedia article
'Who'll Stop the Rain' is a 1978 American war filmSilver, Alain; Ward, Elizabeth; eds. (1992). 'Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style' (3rd ed.). Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. directed by Karel Reisz and starring Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty, and Anthony Zerbe. It was released by United Artists 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, based on Stone's novel 'Dog Soldiers' (1974), the music score by Laurence Rosenthal, and the cinematography by Richard H. Kline. The movie was entered in the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
The film opens in Saigon at the height of the Vietnam War.
John Converse, a disillusioned war correspondent, approaches Ray Hicks, a merchant marine sailor and acquaintance of Converse from the U.S., 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, who has become addicted to Dilaudid.
When Hicks gets back to the U.S. and discovers he is being followed by thugs connected either to Converse or his suppliers, he goes on the run with Marge and the heroin, and eventually they are pursued by corrupt DEA Agent Antheil, who initially set the deal in motion. As Marge is separated from her supply of Dilaudid, she experiences withdrawal, and Hicks decides to help wean her off her addiction by using the heroin. Hicks also attempts to find another buyer for the heroin before his pursuers can catch up to him.
Cast
* Nick Nolte as Ray Hicks
* Tuesday Weld as Marge Converse
* Michael Moriarty as John Converse
* Anthony Zerbe as Antheil
* Richard Masur as Danskin
* Ray Sharkey as Smitty
* Gail Strickland as Charmian
* Charles Haid as Eddie Peace
* David Opatoshu as Bender
* Joaqun Martnez as Angel (as Joaquin Martinez)
* James Cranna as Gerald
* Timothy Blake as Jody
* Shelby Balik as Janey
* Jean Howell as Edna
* Jos Carlos Ruiz as Galindez (as Jose Carlos Ruiz)
Background and production
The film is based on Robert Stone's novel 'Dog Soldiers' (1974), which won the National Book Award (US) for fiction in 1975. For its original US theatrical release it was re-titled 'Who'll Stop the Rain', after the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, which features prominently (along with several other popular CCR tracks) on the film's soundtrack. The film was released as 'Dog Soldiers' in several places. Some copies of the DVD of 'Who'll Stop the Rain' contain prints titled 'Dog Soldiers'.
Stone based the character of Ray Hicks on Beat writer Neal Cassady, with whom Stone became acquainted through novelist Ken Kesey, a graduate school classmate of Stone's at Stanford University.
Hicks' death scene on the railroad tracks at the film's conclusion is directly based on Cassady's death along a railroad track outside of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in 1968. The hippie commune setting, where lights and stereo speakers placed throughout the woods are utilized in Hicks' escape plan, is 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. Although 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' (1968). Ken Kesey, his Merry Pranksters, and Neal Cassady are also discussed in detail in Martin Torgoff's book 'Can't Find My Way Home'.
The Saigon scenes were filmed on a set in Mexico. There was a casting advertisement in Mexico City for people of any Asian background to represent the Vietnamese.
Awards
* Nominee, Palme d'Or Cannes Film Festival (Karel Reisz)
* Nominee, Best Actor National Society of Film Critics (Nick Nolte)
* Nominee, Best Adapted Drama Writers Guild of America (Judith Rascoe, Robert Stone)
Soundtrack
* Del Reeves - "Philadelphia Fillies"
* Jackie DeShannon - "Put a Little Love in Your Heart"
* Don McLean - "American Pie"
* Slim Whitman - "I'll Step Down"
* Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Hey Tonight"
* Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Who'll Stop the Rain"
* Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Proud Mary"
* The Spencer Davis Group - "Gimme Some Lovin'"
* Hank Snow - "Golden Rocket"
References
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