Who'll Stop the Rain?

Agree with kenan. Caught the second half of this film by accident on an Arizona oldies TV station, and was immediately mesmerized. It remains as powerful to me today as when I saw it in the theatre in 1978. The interiors are evocative of the French and Fassbinder, while the high desert landscape is drenched in a noirish neorealism. In addition to the leads, Zerbe is fabulous in his role as a contemporary Ahab. Back in the 70s, he got a little overexposed, and became a caricature, but, seeing his performance decades later in 2011, it is obvious that he was one of the great villains in TV and film history.

This movie just gets better each time I see it. Nolte and Tuesday Weld are outstanding in the roles handed to them. The feel of 1978 is all over this film, and it is the real deal for anyone who was there-SF or LA. The Bay Area, Topanga, the serious drop out hippie culture of Kesey and doctor Leary, with its hard edge on the fringes( a la Manson, ) its all there. I liked the Neal Cassady railroad track demise of Hicks. The difference is that he was trying to walk into mexico, and Cassady was trying to walk out, but they met the same fate. Great soundtrack, great mood, great acting, and a lot of moral and ethical questions flying around each development in the plot. 5 out of 5.

i`ve seen the movie when it came out and i like to see it again every so often. i suppose it might just be something personal, but there is a lot of movies that made the big bucks office which i have no desire to see twice. the picture has this raw objectivity and is very indicative of an era or a milieu within the era and the individual within this milieu. i think it falls into category of works such as 'boxcar bertha', ' mean streets ', 'dogday afternoon' - where individuals are firmly difined and people die not always for billions, king and country or high moral grounds but for seven dollars and some esoteric, elusive moral reasons that amount to spiteness maybe due to the fact that they do not even get the chance to show themselves at any 'higher' ground - yet how much physical and emotinal pain they are capable of enduring.