Rip Torn, in one of his best roles, plays a country singer that only an audience can like. Written by Don Carpenter and directed by Daryl Dukes, this is a woefully forgotten film that deserves to be remembered. 1972-73 produced so many great films it gets lost in the crowd. A little like TENDER MERCIES and CRAZY HEART. Something tells me that male country singers are a pretty dissolute bunch.
8 comments:
Definitely not wholesome like that nice Mr. Sinatra, no...
The good and the almost good from that era is a pretty tall stack, indeed. If it had been better, I would've written up THE RAIN PEOPLE already, having finally seen it a few weeks back. (First version deleted for not quite being in English. It's early.)
Patti - I'd heard of this one but not seen it. You always think of the most interesting films for this series!
Haven't seen THE RAIN PEOPLE in years. James Caan right?
James Caan, Robert Duvall.
I think I missed PAYDAY. But I did see another in this category, SONGWRITER with Willie Nelson (semi-autobiographical) and Kris Kirstofferson, plus of course Rip Torn, of whom Pauline Kael said, "Rip Torn is the picture's insurance against gentility. Everything he says sounds mean and dirty, and even when you can't understand his snarled out words he makes you laugh."
I remember a scene discussing him having sex with a sheep.
Jeff M.
He was my favorite character on LARRY SANDERS. Rip Torn as the voice of sanity.
Never seen this one - sounds great Patti, thanks for that. I really like Duke's films (even his episodes of COLUMBO) so I'll really try to track this one down.
I tried to comment with Firefox at home this morning but it kept eating the comments...Shirley Knight was the star of THE RAIN PEOPLE, which suffered from the naivete of Coppola and company in trying to portray a complex, dissatisfied woman character, in a complex, nuanced situation--an enthusiastic swing and a(n incompletely realized) Miss, rather as with his daughter's films...Duvall gives the film's best performance, but that isn't too surprising.
A while back, I did an Overlooked film review of Rip Torn's tour de force no-budget art film COMING APART.
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