Rabbit, Run (1970) | Full Movie | w/ James Caan, Carrie Snodgress, Anjanette Comer, Jack Albertson, Melodie Johnson

Drama | USA | English | Colour | 94min w/ James Caan, Carrie Snodgress, Anjanette Comer, Jack Albertson, Melodie Johnson Rabbit, Run is a fairly literal adaptation of the acclaimed 1960 novel by John Updike. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom (James Caan) comes home one day from his dead-end job to his cramped apartment to find his pregnant wife Janice (Carrie Snodgrass) asleep, splayed in front of the TV, highball glass in hand. After only a moment's contemplation, he decides to leave. Snatching up his coat and car keys, he's off and running, taking the viewer on a seemingly rambling, aimless journey. Harry is ruled by his impulses, and is troubled by how he seems to disappoint nearly everyone in his life: Ruth, the minister sent to lead him back to his family, his parents, his in-laws, his wife and son, even the minister's wife. So Rabbit keeps running. But actions have consequences, a fact lost on Harry even when his lead to tragedy. Set in the early 60's in a suburb of Brewer, Pa - a mid-sized, working class, weary-looking town (think Scranton), the film shows some glimpses of Updike's keen sense of place and time - the songs that play on the radio during Harry's all-night drive to Virginia, the hippie-like outfits and sexual rebelliousness of Harry's sister, the once solid row-houses and factories in Brewer hinting at the urban unrest and decay that is to come. This is Harry's hometown, where in high school he was a celebrated basketball star, but now, at 26, is bewildered that the folks in Brewer seem to have forgotten that. Because Harry can't shake the belief that he is still a star, special, meant for better things, and, because he is beset with a child-like narcissism, that everyone else must see that too.