The Rainmaker (1997 film)

The Rainmaker is a 1997 film about an idealistic young lawyer and his cynical partner who take on a powerful law firm representing a corrupt insurance company.
 * Directed and written by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel by John Grisham.

They were totally unqualified to try the case of a lifetime... but every underdog has his day.

Rudy Baylor

 * My dad hated lawyers. You might think I became one just to piss him off, but you'd be wrong. Did piss him off so much though that when he heard he fell off a ladder and didn't know who to sue first.
 * Sworn in by a fool and vouched for by a scoundrel. I'm a lawyer at last.
 * I knew exactly what was going on here. Just like when Daddy was in the bedroom crying and Mommy was sitting in the kitchen, face all bloody, saying that Daddy was sorry.
 * What's the difference between a lawyer and a hooker? A hooker'll stop screwing you when you're dead.
 * How do you know when a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving.
 * There's gotta be a hundred years of law experience sitting at this very table. My staff has flunked the bar exam six times.
 * Every lawyer, at least once in every case, feels himself crossing a line that he doesn't really mean to cross... it just happens... And if you cross it enough times it disappears forever. And then you're nothin but another lawyer joke. Just another shark in the dirty water.

Deck Shifflet

 * You know what a Rainmaker is, kid? The bucks are gonna be falling from the sky.
 * There's nothing more thrilling than nailing an insurance company.

Dialogue

 * Judge Kipler: Are you in over your head, son?
 * Rudy Baylor: Absolutely!


 * Rudy Baylor: I'm curious.
 * Leo F. Drummond: About what?
 * Rudy Baylor: I'm just wonderin'... do you even remember when you first sold out?

Cast

 * Matt Damon - Rudy Baylor
 * Danny DeVito - Deck Shifflet
 * Jon Voight - Leo F. Drummond
 * Claire Danes - Kelly Riker
 * Mary Kay Place - Dot Black
 * Dean Stockwell - Judge Harvey Hale
 * Virginia Madsen - Jackie Lemancyzk
 * Mickey Rourke - J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone
 * Roy Scheider - Wilfred Keeley
 * Red West - Buddy Black
 * Johnny Whitworth - Donny Ray Black
 * Andrew Shue - Cliff Riker
 * Teresa Wright - "Miss Birdie" Birdsong (final film role)
 * Danny Glover - Judge Tyrone Kipler