The Rainmaker (1997 film)

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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
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 also a 1995 novel by John Grisham that was made into a 1997 motion picture starring Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes and Jon Voight.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Matt Damon plays Rudy Baylor, a law graduate from the University of Memphis 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.

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 whose son is dying of leukemia, but could have been saved with a bone marrow transplant.

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). It is a daunting task, but he has several supporters and a sympathetic newly-appointed judge to sustain his 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 beating has put her in hospital. Eventually, he persuades Kelly to file for divorce, but this leads to further trouble, as Rudy kills her husband 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.

Before the trial commences, the young man dies. But 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.

Francis Ford Coppola v • d • e
The Godfather series	The Godfather (1972) \| The Godfather Part II (1974) \| The Godfather Part III (1990)
1960s	Battle Beyond the Sun (with Aleksandr Kozyr and M. Karzhukov) \| The Bellboy and the Playgirls (with Fritz Umgelter and Jack Hill) \| Tonight for Sure \| Dementia 13 \| You're a Big Boy Now \| Finian's Rainbow \| The Rain People
1970s	The Conversation \| Apocalypse Now
1980s	One from the Heart \| The Outsiders \| Rumble Fish \| The Cotton Club \| Peggy Sue Got Married \| Gardens of Stone \| Tucker: The Man and His Dream \| New York Stories (with Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese)
1990s	Bram Stoker's Dracula \| Jack \| The Rainmaker
2000s	Youth Without Youth
Productions	The Junky's Christmas (1993) \| Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994) \| Don Juan DeMarco (1995) \| Lani Loa (1998) \| The Florentine (1999) \| The Virgin Suicides (1999)