RollingThunder

Rolling Thunder (1977)

After 7 years in a Vietnam prison two service men are returning home. Major Charles Rane returns to find his wife in love with another man, a son that doesn’t remember him, and a barmaid that is his biggest fan. After a group of thugs show up at his home to steal the silver dollars that were given to him (one for each day in captivity) things get really bad. Even after they get the coins the criminals still kill his family and think they have killed him. But the Major survives and after tracking them down looks up the other man that came home with him, Cpl. Johnny Vohden, who jumps at the chance to help the Major. Together they head off to get some payback for Rane’s family and maybe to take out some frustration on the world.

The 70s were a great time for these sort of revenge movies. In them there is always a man that has been done wrong by a group of hoods or criminals. He tracks them down and gets his revenge. Now I know that Rolling Thunder has a great reputation and it is a decent movie. But I did find the story to be somewhat slow. The movie takes a long time establishing the Rane character and the difficult time he has adjusting to civilian life. The movie spends a lot of time with his wife and her new boyfriend only to kill of the characters. The movie then takes it’s sweet time finally getting back to the gang and the final showdown. The performances are pretty good, especially William Devane as Major Rane and Tommy Lee Jones as Cpl. Vohden. Jones doesn’t get as much screen time as Devane, but makes the most of it. He is really convincing as the maladjusted soldier, which makes his eagerness in joining Rane during the final fight very believable. Devane carries much of the movie and exudes just the right amount of anger at how life has treated him. His actions, though cold, to everyone around him seem quite justifiable. The only interesting villain is James Best’s character of the Texan. What confuses me is after watching the movie twice I’m still not sure they ever catch up to him. If they do get him in the big fight at the end it isn’t obvious.

The technical bits of the movie are pretty well done. The camera work is solid and the lighting as well. I was surprised when I read that this was made for 20th Century Fox, but was sold off to AIP because of the violence. Maybe I’m just really desensitized but this movie didn’t really seem that violent to me, even compared to some of the other films from the 70s. Other than a couple of shootouts nothing much really happens and none of what does happen does so on screen.

If you can either rent this movie or get it on the cheap I would recommend doing so. It isn’t that great, but is worth checking out at least once. But having seen it once I’m not sure that I have any desire to watch it again and I consider myself a big fan of the action and exploitation genres.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer