Great performances by Nolte, Weld, Mazur and Sharkey should have earned this suspenseful film a higher viewer rating, but the plot is weak. Warning: Spoilers! Vietnam is the starting point, but the theme of this film is the drug trade's cruelty and damage: Marge loses her child, father, and home; Antheil shows us the corruption of law enforcement; Converse goes against all he believes. Unlike the big-scale "Scarface", which associated drugs with glamor, fancy homes, big money (and violence), "Rain" focuses on a few days of brutal competition for just 2 kilos of heroin.
But I kept stumbling over holes in the plot. Even at 126 minutes (and maybe because of that length), the film didn't tell us: why Hicks smuggled the heroin against his better judgment; how Hicks (the marijuana smuggler) knew so much about the thugs who followed him to Marge's house for the heroin; why Hicks sacrificed himself for the Converses at the end; why the thug in the powder blue suit was about to kill Antheil at the end. This is one time I would like to see the director's cut, to view what was left on the editing room floor.
But I kept stumbling over holes in the plot. Even at 126 minutes (and maybe because of that length), the film didn't tell us: why Hicks smuggled the heroin against his better judgment; how Hicks (the marijuana smuggler) knew so much about the thugs who followed him to Marge's house for the heroin; why Hicks sacrificed himself for the Converses at the end; why the thug in the powder blue suit was about to kill Antheil at the end. This is one time I would like to see the director's cut, to view what was left on the editing room floor.