The Rain People (1969)

Two months pregnant and feeling trapped, a young wife (Shirley Knight) leaves her sleeping husband a note and drives away from her Long Island home and hits the road hoping to find herself. Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola (THE GODFATHER). Several years before early feminist films like A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE and AN UNMARRIED WOMAN were acclaimed, Coppola turned his camera's eye toward examining a contemporary woman's dilemma: unhappy in the traditional "wife" role thrust on her by a patriarchal society, unsure if she even wants to be a mother, going from her father's identity as his daughter to her husband's identity as his wife, who is she?  As she stumbles awkwardly on her road trip, Coppola doesn't give us any answers. When Knight picks up a mentally challenged child like hitchhiker (James Caan), she's attracted to him yet she also realizes she doesn't want the responsibility of taking care of him which mirrors her own fear of impending motherhood. The film ends without closure. Will Knight return to her husband? Has she "found" herself? Is she any better off than when she began her journey? With Robert Duvall and Tom Aldredge.