Movies-TV

Who'll Stop the Rain

My husband recommended this older movie which I had never heard of. I jumped on-line because I knew I would find it at Amazon.com. The movie was very good and kept my interest. I would recommend it!

Great almost forgotten movie

Great movie, great price. I saw this movie when it came out years ago and hadnt seen it since. Great flick!! Great price!! Fast, free delivery!!

One the the Best Fims of the Decade

John Converse (Michael Moriarity) plays a morally beaten combat photographer whose idea of a bold, life-changing move is to smuggle a highly profitable quantity of heroin back into the States. Naive and over-his-head,Converse enlists the help of his much more streetwise friend, merchant marine Ray Hicks, played brilliantly by Nick Nolte.

The heroin makes it to Oakland and things go wrong as Converses unknowing wife (Tuesday Weld) and Hicks are pursued by a corrupt federal agent from an unnamed agency (FBI,CIA,DEA,BNDD??) and his two fumbling and amoral goons played greatly by vet actor Richard Masur and the late Ray Sharkey.

Frustrated by the imeptness of Converse but protective of Converse neurotic and clueless wife, Hicks is forced to go on the road from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, trying to pick up some money from the heroin on the way.


I can't think of any film that depicts the collapse of values of once good people that occured in the 70's via drugs and Viet Nam burnout. The idea that a reputable photog and sweet wife would consider selling the worst of drugs is horrible enough- that Weld and Moriarity can play these lost souls with believabilty makes the viewer think they are looking into
human and spiritual tragedy. You may find yourself rooting for Noltes Ray Hicks in this movie as he is the only one capable of taking charge in a chaotic situation, protecting the fragile wife of his befuddled friend, even at the same time protecting a misguided stake in the sale of an addictive and repulsive drug.

Excellent cinematography and great soundtrack featuring Don McLean, Hank Snow and CCR.............

The best and the brightest

This movie is, without a doubt, the best movie about Viet Nam ever made. Each character we meet has something to say about how we got there, how we avoided facing the truth, and how we denied, not only, responsibility for what we did, we very nearly denied it even happened.


This is worth seeing every few years -- there is always something new to see in it.

A Forgotten Masterpiece

This is one of the finest, most honest, and most courageous films to come out of the Vietnam Era. Based on Robert Stone's best-selling novel DOG SOLDIERS, it's a war story, a crime story, an action thriller, and a romance. Distinguished by superb cinematic storytelling and incisive vision, it features performances from Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, and Michael Moriarty that are among the best in each of their careers.

Warning Spoiler - READ ONLY at your discretion...

I don't know - do we need a spoiler warning for a film from the 70's at this point? Anyway, this film was a footnote caught somewhere between Apocalypse Now and Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, etc.. But I liked it in the same way as Billy Jack in that it was an unpretentious story driven off pure character and story. No wiz bang special effects (except maybe the finale) here just people caught up in circumstance. But the ending sticks with me to this day. Nolte double-times it off into the distance, at port arms, improbably singing a Jody call (a real old school non-PC one at that). You can't predict nor control and perhaps even understand what life and fate throws at you but to be true to your own nature in spite of it is about as best as anyone can expect.

Tough Vietnam Era Flick

To the credit of director Karel Reisz, "Who'll Stop The Rain" is a tough uncompromising film that takes an honest look at it's subject matter and doesn't back off. The story concerns a journalist in Vietnam, John Coverse,(Michael Moriarty) who asks his merchant marine buddy, Ray Hicks,(Nick Nolte) to smuggle some heroin back to the States. Hicks does so reluctantly only because Converse is his friend. Once back in the States, Hicks is confronted with a narcotics agent(Anthony Zerbe) and his hired thugs(Ray Sharkey and Richard Masur) trying to hijack the drugs by terrorizing Coverse's wife, Marge(Tuesday Weld). It is now Hicks' sworn duty to protect Marge and unload the stash. The performances in this film by all the principals are uniformly excellent. Though the film is tough going at times it only underlines a strong anti-drug message. A previous reviewer took issue with the film's ending. Not to give anything away, I disagree with that assessment though I've never read the film's source material, Robert Stone's "Dog Soldiers". "Who'll Stop The Rain" is another example of the adventurous filmmaking that was a product of the seventies.

Matthias in something cool.

Great Movie though it blew a perfect ending with the last five minutes.

Ray Hicks Lives!

Converse: "They say this place is where you find out who you really are."
Hicks: "What a bummer for the gooks."


I have to confess: I saw the movie "Who'll Stop the Rain," before I read the Robert Stone's, "The Dog Soldiers", the novel on which the screenplay is based. While I thought the book developed the characters and made them a little more understandable, I thought that overall, the movie was better storytelling.


First, Nick Nolte as Ray Hicks: Nolte does an outstanding job of interpreting Stone's vision of a modern American Samurai on a journey into hell. A former Marine with the discipline of a dedicated warrior, Hicks' motives and reasons for his own existence are mercenary in the extreme. I can't imagine anyone other than Nick Nolte playng this part.

Tueday Welde as Marge does not quite fit Stone's original version of the wayward schoolteacher who works as a ticket girl in the front of a seedy porno theater on the outskirts of San Francisco's tenderloin district. Welde comes across as a little less buxon and whorelike. In the book, Marge has few redeemable qualities and no spiritual values. Even though her part isn't as coarse, Welde still gives a pretty good interpretation of the character.

"Who'll Stop the Rain" closely follows the novel it was based on, but the screenplay diverges in several places: When converse contacts Hicks in Vietnam; When Hicks brings the packages to port in Oakland; When Hicks and Marge catch up to Eddie Peace; When Hicks and Marge reach the compound of Those Who Are. The screenwriters also saw fit to drop a minor character, Dieter, whose role in the novel version was as Ray Hick's mentor.


Fortunately, Stone also worked on the screenplay, so a lot of the great dialogue was still left in place with some minor alterations. "Who'll Stop the Rain" moves faster, cuts to the chase, and is very lean storytelling. There's not a lot of superfluous stuff, just a sequence of events that brings each of the characters into a quagmire of his or her own making - very much like "The Dog Soldiers".

Of course, both the movie and the novel are about a world going to hell over war and drugs. Both the movie and the book make a case that even though heroin is dangerous and lethal (Hicks calls it "the king of highs"), war is probably the ultimate drug.


The film hints at it, but "The Dog Soldiers" is more explanative about the origins of Hicks through his recollections before he dies. As he fades away, Hicks visualizes his past, which gives the reader an idea of how this character could have evolved into being.


If you want to know what Stone had in mind when he created Ray Hicks, read "The Dog Soldiers". If you want to see this vision enacted in a though-provoking, suspensful action movie, see "Who'll Stop the Rain."

Not a great film. But I loved it anyway.

This 1978 film is a fast paced action-packed adventure story. It's not real and not supposed to be. But it kept me intrigued for more than two hours. And that's saying a lot.

The film starts in Vietnam, where Nick Nolte is a merchant marine. When his good buddy, Michael Moriarity, a disillusioned journalist, asks him to smuggle two kilos of heroin to California, Nolte reluctantly agrees. Tuesday Weld is the journalist's wife and she's the one who's supposed to get the package. But things go wrong and Nolte and Weld start playing a cat and mouse game with some bad guys who are supposed to be rogue cops. Moriarity has his share of troubles too; he's abducted and painfully mistreated by the bad guys. From there on the story is simple, but the action kept me so busy watching that it didn't really have to make sense.

Nolte is cast as the lead, but it didn't challenge his acting abilities very much. He's the righteous tough guy who's had a bad life and refuses to be stepped on. There's a lot of scenes of him with his shirt off. He looks good, but I couldn't help thinking that if this were filmed today, he'd have a lot more definition to his muscles. Tuesday Weld is a druggie housewife and most of the time she's awfully sleepy. Michael Moriarity, however, is supposed to be weak. That's a harder role to play. And he does it well. There's a great soundtrack of seventies music which moves the action along, and some original special effects. There's a lot of violence and hard drugs. Also, as it was filmed in the 70s, the atmosphere of that time is captured perfectly.

This is not a great film. It's implausible, the story is weak, and the acting not exceptional. And yet, I loved it. And I can't quite understand why. It's not for everyone of course. But I do recommend it.

Good book, terrible movie

I had recently read Robert Stone's book "Dog Soldiers" and thought it was very good. I had heard that this movie was a forgotten minor classic and since I like both the book and Nick Nolte, I thought, "How bad can it be." Well, I hated it! Key events from the book were cast in a different light that completely changed the whole point of the story. The acting was for the most part weak, though Nick Nolte did wring as much as he possible could from the script. Michael Moriarty's character was weakly portrayed, and, again, in the book he is a much weaker and less sympathetic person, though his character is much more fleshed out. All the strengths of the book (strong characterization, flashes of humour among other things) are missing. Skip this and read the book instead

Who could?

Flawed? Definitely. No movie that attempts so much could be anything else.But in the midst of chaos and carnage are some gentle moments,which are even more startling because these carachters are,with the exception of Nick Nolte,not self-aware. He is a good guy who does a favor for a buddy and lives to regret it. Tuesday Weld ,at first glance, is fragile to the point of annoying, but there is more to her than we immediately see. The only weakness in the film is during the climax, which seems like a coked-up producers idea of a great finale-in any other movie it would be great, but these people deserve more than a POW finish, and happily,they are allowed one after all the fireworks. That the lead actors are all so messed up is the greatness of this film,because all are capable of being so much more, and , when pushed, become so much more than we, the audience, thought they could be. Searing. More pain than should be experienced. No really-watch the movie.

4 stars to the movie, but...

just ONE star to the DVD. The first reel seems taken from a TV-master, and the image is blurred and smudged even in the beginning credits. MGM should have done a better work. The corny cover image is deceiving, too, and makes clear that they didn't know how to market this great movie.

A different "Vietnam" film

I saw this movie in Tokyo, Japan and it was rightly titled "Dog Soldiers" obviously because for Japanese moviegoers the title "Who'll stop..." didn't make much sense. I was so excited after seeing this movie I took another friend to see it the following weekend. I don't know why people pan it, it's one of Nolte's best films. The film really captures the era; 60's, Vietnam, drugs, music, etc. I've been waiting for it to come out on DVD...finally!

Who'll Stop the Rain

This is a terrific movie. I watch it every couple of years or so and find something new in it each time. Nolte, Weld, and Moriarity are wonderful. The story is a relentless exploration of how the war in Viet Nam affected us. One of the best movies I have ever seen.

Vietnam meets Psychedelia

I, a very lazy person, have been impelled to write about "Who'll Stop the Rain" because of the review below which refers to the movie as one of the "ten worst films of all time". The review not only pans the movie, it refers to the CCR song by the same title as "not particularly good". "Who'll Stop the Rain" (the movie) is an extraordinarily intense and disturbing (i.e., *good*) movie about an attempted drug deal that turns spectacularly bad. The main characters (Weld & Nolte) are stunningly portrayed, which is one of the reasons I have watched the film repeatedly over the years-- but only one of the reasons. The film is dark, weird (remember the sixties?), unpredictable, and riveting. But it is more than just another action flick; it is a literary tragedy (in the Shakespearean sense). There are no "good" characters in the movie; they range from ethical shades of grey to black. The hero (Nolte, in the best role of his career) is doomed from the beginning due largely to intrinsic flaws and bad decisions on his part, but he wields nontheless a valiant, futile battle against the turpitude and chaos. The finest moment of the movie is the hallucinatory nightmare that erupts on the side of a mountain (in California?) near the end of the movie. I believe that this scene is the defining moment of the movie. It is entirely accurate to say that "Who'll Stop the Rain" is a "Vietnam-war movie"-- the war implicitly provides the moral and cultural driving forces behind the events and characters-- and yet the movie takes place almost entirely in the U.S. It is the apocalyptic battle scene at the end which finally draws the two worlds-- the hell of Vietnam and the psychedelic confusion of the sixties-- together into one consummating, symbolic horror scene. What I am writing here may sound like blathering fandom, but watch the movie and you'll see what I mean. This movie is a (minor?) masterpiece. (And by the way, the song "Who'll Stop the Rain" is one of CCR's best songs ... jeez.)

A modern version of "The Treasure of Sierra Madre"

I'm not sure why this film has brought out such negative reaction, nor why it has been virtualy forgotten among modern classics- great book, wonderful actors and a thoughtful screenplay- my only concern was the name-change from the original title, "Dog Soldiers". It has been one of the few films (and novel) that have stood up to repeated viewings- perhaps you have to know the elements that make up the plot (the allure of easy money, smak, and/or the sense of honor, that each character desires) before you can appreciate what is really a timeless tale of longing and need. One of my favorite films.

On my list of the ten worst films of all time

The first mistake the filmmakers made was changing the title of this film from Robert Stone's great novel "Dog Soldiers" to "Who'll Stop the Rain." A wimpy title attemping, and ultimately failing, at cashing in at the box office with a CCR tune, and not a particularly good one at that. Their second mistake was casting the lead with the most dull and unconvincing actor in Hollywood: Nick Nolte. Uninspired direction from Karel Reisz (who?) only adds to the insult. In the hands of a Scorsese or a Kubrick this could have been a great film. Alas, its a muddle and doesn't even get much air time on late-night TV. But then again, why sould it?

Mobsters, drugs, automatic weapons, and Tuesday Weld.

This is a visual and audio experience for lovers of action and anti-hereos. Lot's of known faces in this one.

Great Book turned into a Great Movie

The book was great and while I don't usually think Hollywood does a very good job translating the book into a movie in this case they have done an excellent job.Nick Nolte is outstanding as Ray Hicks, a marine vet doing a favor for a buddy by smuggling 2 keys of pure heroin back into the U.S.A. When he gets stateside and goes to his buddy's wife to make the drop all hell breaks loose and Nolte tears up the screen. Also features an outstanding supporting cast with Michael Moriarty as Nolte's buddy John Converse, Tuesday Weld as Marge Converse, Anthony Zerbe as Antheil and Richard Masur and Ray Sharkey as Zerbe's henchmen. The ending is surrealistic and one of the most memorable finale's I have seen.