The Rainmaker on PAL Laserdisc

• 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!)

Oneof the better (possibly the best) adaptations of a John Grisham legal novel,this is also one of those movies which initially appears confident ifunremarkable but improves on subsequent viewings. Law student Rudy Baylor(Damon), lacking the rich family connections that assured his studentcontemporaries places in high flying, mega-paying law firms, finds himselfworking for distinctly dodgy Memphis law firm head “Bruiser” Stone (Rourke)- outside whose offices, immediately prior to first disc’s sidebreak, aregathered FBI, police and assorted officials to shut him down. As Stone himselfputs it, the “non-salaried” operation he runs is, “not a company exactly – moreeveryone for himself”.

Baylor, who brings two cases with him from a local law workshop, is promptlyassigned to Deck Schiffler (DeVito), who runs off to the hospitalcasualty department to sign up hot medical insurance clients by sneaking intotheir rooms when no staff are around, a practice derided by the idealisticnewcomer as “Ambulance Chasing”. Nevertheless, Stone pushes Baylor to chase apolice wife-beating report which sends the ingenue in the direction of theheavily battered Kelly Riker (Danes). Her case – and indeed her person -will have considerable impact on Rudy’s immediate life and career, as also willhis original two cases.

The first, involving drafting Miss Birdie’s (Teresa Wright, fromHitchcock’s Shadow Of A Doubt/1943) will, makes him a friend and lands him areasonably priced room to lay his head. The second, involving Dot Black (Place)and her dying son Donny Ray (Johnny Whitworth) will pit him againstmonolithic insurance corporation Great Benefit and its hardbitten legal teamheaded 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 hardto see what use that could have served on this particular movie) and in favourof minimum plot disruption with two breaks that make considerable dramatic sensebecause 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 thecourtroom drama genre – which in part categorises the film and throws in amongothers the ever watchable Virginia Madsen and an especially slimy RoyScheider as key witnesses on side three – writer-director Coppola has a fewadditional tricks up his sleeve.

He allows insurance case judge and tobacco lobby supporter Harvey Hale (DeanStockwell) to die offscreen of a coronary after his brief appearance early onin side two for replacement by former civil rights champion turned judge TyroneKipler (Danny Glover). As mentioned, “Bruiser” Stone (and Baylor and Schiffler’sinitial office premises) vanishes after side one. Throughout all the comingsand goings, Coppola takes great delight in juggling his main insurance scamcourt case plot with the beaten-wife Danes/Damon’s love interest on the one handand the case which turns into friendship with Damon’s landlady Wright on theother. Indeed, the sidebreak between sides two and three occurs after anoutburst by Voight in a courtroom and prior to Damon getting Danes to signa divorce form. Other highs include DeVito’s continued failure to pass the barexam 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 aspectratio) marking yet another great job by cinematographer John Toll(Legends Of the Fall, Wind) whose work always seems to transfer well tolaserdisc. While the sound may not exactly be awash with rear speaker activity,the Memphis-flavoured music – part indigenous electric piano doodling, partthriller drama atmospherics – is both beautifully reproduced and an originalsoundtrack to die for.

As for the movie itself, it may not measure up to Coppola’s greatest films (ahigh standard indeed), but proves satisfying enough as a routine, studiopicture. Which is certainly a lot more than can be said for the man’s otherrecent work, as Director For Hire on the truly appalling children’s movieJack. In short, then, Pioneer’s The Rainmaker is a decent littledisc.

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