Synopsis: An attempt to make a quick buck by smuggling heroin from Vietnam back to the US fails (surprise, surprise!)
Director: Karel Reisz
Actors: Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, Michael Moriarty
Date: 1978
How viewed: Bought via Amazon
Rating: 2/5
David Meyer says:
No movie says more about America after Vietnam. It's clearly a morality tale, but there ain't no moral.
I say:
I found it hard to find any redeeming features in this film. A marine, turned war photographer (Moriarty), is deeply affected by his experiences in Vietnam, so decides to smuggle 2kg of heroin back to the US (why? why?). However, he gets his old Marine chum to do the smuggling (why? why?), and leave the heroin with his wife (Weld). But of course because they are amateurs, the narcotics agents, turned dealers, are on to them, so Nolte and Weld take off (why? why?) to San Francisco, then LA, then the Mexican border. But they are chased down and cornered by the bad guys who have kidnapped (and brought along) Moriarty when he gets back from Vietnam. The film was released as 'Who'll stop the rain' in the US, as the studio wanted to disassociate it from the book (Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone) on which it was based. 'Who'll stop the rain' is one of the many Creedence Clearwater Revival tracks in the movie (for no apparent reason - but, ah, yes, there was one redeeming factor: CCR!!) The stand-off near the end is good, and it could have been a tense, edge of your seat, little thriller, involving characters you cared about, but it's not. It's dull.
I say:
I found it hard to find any redeeming features in this film. A marine, turned war photographer (Moriarty), is deeply affected by his experiences in Vietnam, so decides to smuggle 2kg of heroin back to the US (why? why?). However, he gets his old Marine chum to do the smuggling (why? why?), and leave the heroin with his wife (Weld). But of course because they are amateurs, the narcotics agents, turned dealers, are on to them, so Nolte and Weld take off (why? why?) to San Francisco, then LA, then the Mexican border. But they are chased down and cornered by the bad guys who have kidnapped (and brought along) Moriarty when he gets back from Vietnam. The film was released as 'Who'll stop the rain' in the US, as the studio wanted to disassociate it from the book (Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone) on which it was based. 'Who'll stop the rain' is one of the many Creedence Clearwater Revival tracks in the movie (for no apparent reason - but, ah, yes, there was one redeeming factor: CCR!!) The stand-off near the end is good, and it could have been a tense, edge of your seat, little thriller, involving characters you cared about, but it's not. It's dull.
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