The Rainmaker (1997 film)

The Rainmaker
original film poster
Directed by	Francis Ford Coppola
Produced by	Michael Douglas Fred Fuchs Steven Reuther
Written by	John Grisham (novel) Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay)
Starring	Matt Damon Danny DeVito Claire Danes Jon Voight Teresa Wright Virginia Madsen Mickey Rourke Danny Glover Mary Kay Place Red West
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	November 21 1997[1]
Running time	135 min
Language	English
Budget	$40,000,000
IMDb profile

For the novel this film is based on, see The Rainmaker (John Grisham).

The Rainmaker is a 1997 motion picture starring Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place and Red West. It is based on the 1995 novel of the same name by John Grisham.

Plot

Matt Damon plays Rudy Baylor, a law graduate from the Memphis State University Law School. Unlike most of his fellow graduates, he has no well-paying job lined up and is forced to apply for part-time and poorly-paid law positions. Desperate for a job, he reluctantly allows "Prince" Thomas, the crooked owner of a sleazy bar where he's been working part-time, to introduce him to J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone (Mickey Rourke), a ruthless but successful ambulance-chasing lawyer, who makes him an associate. But to earn his fee, Rudy is required to hunt for potential clients at the local hospital where he must pick up injury cases and sign them up. He is introduced to Deck Shifflet (Danny DeVito), a less-than-ethical former insurance assessor and now paralegal, who has failed the Bar exam six times. However, Deck is resourceful in gathering information and a driven worker, practically an expert on insurance lawsuits. Rudy already has one case, a case of insurance bad faith, which he passionately believes in. It could be worth several million dollars in damages, but his personal life is falling to pieces about him and he is about to declare himself bankrupt. When his employer is raided by the police and the FBI, he and Deck set up in practice themselves and file suit on behalf of a middle-aged couple (Mary Kay Place and Red West) whose 22-year-old son Donny Ray is dying of leukemia, but could have been saved with a bone marrow transplant, denied by Great Benefit the insurance carrier. Rudy has only just passed the Bar examination and has never argued a case before a judge and jury — but he now finds himself up against a group of experienced and ruthless lawyers from a large firm, headed by Leo F Drummond (Jon Voight), a showman attorney who uses unscrupulous tactics to win his cases. It is a daunting task, and the original judge assigned the case is set to dismiss it because he sees it as one of many so-called "lottery" cases that slow down the judicial process for more important ones. Nevertheless, he has several supporters and a sympathetic newly-appointed judge (Danny Glover), who takes over the case after the original judge suffers a fatal heart attack in his swimming pool. The new judge, a former civil rights attorney, denies the insurance company's petition for dismissal. That sustains Rudy's commitment. While preparing the case and also waiting about in the local hospital, he meets and later falls in love with Kelly Riker (Claire Danes), a battered wife whose husband's routine beatings have put her in hospital. Eventually, he persuades Kelly to file for divorce, but this leads to further trouble, as Rudy kills her husband while defending himself and Kelly. To keep Rudy from being prosecuted for killing a man in his home, Kelly tells the police she was alone and killed her husband herself. The district attorney declines to prosecute an obvious case of self-defense based on the Rikers' stormy history, and the charges are dropped the next day. Before the trial commences, Donny Ray dies, but not before giving a video deposition given in the front yard of his home. The case comes to court, and thanks to Rudy's single-minded determination, the jury find for the plaintiff. The insurance company quickly declares itself bankrupt, thus allowing it to avoid paying the fifty million dollars in punitive damages and one hundred fifty thousand dollars in actual damages. There is no payout for the grieving parents and no fee for Rudy. Totally disillusioned with the law process and how it can be manipulated by big companies, Rudy decides to abandon his new practice and find other uses for his legal prowess — teaching, perhaps. So, in the end, he and Kelly (whose case was dismissed as an act of self-defense) drive off into the sunset. The film follows the book in most details, but does leave out an important piece of information from the book that was a central point of Rudy's case: the fact that the leukemia victim had an identical twin, which would have made a transplant virtually certain to work as it would have been a perfect genetic match.

Awards

Nominated

• Blockbuster Entertainment Awards:
  1. Favorite Actor — Drama (Matt Damon)
  2. Favorite Supporting Actor — Drama (Danny DeVito)
  3. Favorite Supporting Actress — Drama (Claire Danes)
• Golden Globe Awards:
  1. Best Supporting Actor (Jon Voight)
• Image Awards:
  1. Best Supporting Actor — Motion Picture (Danny Glover)
• Satellite Awards:
  1. Best Supporting Actor — Motion Picture Drama (Danny DeVito)
• USC Scripter Award:
  1. USC Scripter Award [John Grisham (author) & Francis Ford Coppola (screenwriter)]

References

• Review by Roger Ebert <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19971121/REVIEWS/711210304/1023>

1. ^ Release date per Box Office Mojo weekend box office data.

External links

• The Rainmaker (1997 film) at the Internet Movie Database