Directed by John Flynn
Written by Paul Schrader & Heywood Gould
Recommendation by
Justin Hugh Dickinson
One of the all time great revenge flicks, right up there with Coffy, Point Blank, and Get Carter (the original), Rolling Thunder stars William Devane as returning Vietnam Vet, Charles Rane who has spent 1,000 days in a Vietcong prison camp. We meet him as he and his friend Johnny (Tommy Lee Jones) are flying back into their small hometown. Rane is greeted with a parade then takes the stage, gives a speech, and is presented with a box of 1,000 rare gold coins, representing each day he was in the camp. The festivities end and Rane and Johnny promise to stay in touch as they go back to what was what their lives.
Rane’s home-life has certainly changed; not only does his son barely remember him but his wife, Janet (Lisa Richards), has a new guy living with her. Rane takes this all in stride though and fixes up the shed as a place to sleep.
Naturally still holding onto demons from being tortured in ‘Nam, Rane (in great scene) shows Janet’s new beau one of the horrors he endured by having the boyfriend bind Rane’s arms behind him and pull up as hard as he can. This understandably freaks the boyfriend out a bit and shows that, while he has not totally gone off the deep end, Rane has issues.
Then things get bad.
A group of scum bags led by James Best (best known for playing Ernest P. Coltrane on “The Dukes of Hazard”, but also from Samuel Fuller’s Shock Corridor and The Killer Shrews) invade Rane’s house looking for those gold coins. Rane won’t tell them though. Even after they massacre his wife and son and stick his hand down the garbage disposal. They beat him within an inch of his life and take off after tearing through house and finding the box of coins.
As Rane is recovering in the hospital, he is fitted with a shiny steel, workable two-prong hook in lieu of his missing hand. He won’t identify the killers to anyone because he wants to take them down himself with the help of Johnny.
Rane begins getting ready for retribution. He sharpens the prongs of his claw to deadly points, saws off the barrel of a shotgun, target practices, and figures out how to load a .38 and shotgun with his hook hand. All the while looking emotionless, unsympathetic--a stone visage behind mirrored sunglasses.
He gets behind the wheel of a huge, red convertible, and drives down his road to bloody reprisal. Along the way he meets Linda (Linda Haynes), a cute, blonde waitress, and she joins him on the spur of the moment.
Rane discovers the killers are in Mexico and that’s when he calls up Johnny who is more than willing to join his old buddy since it seems he cannot completely cope with his relatives and the “normality” of being back home.
When they meet up the carnage ensues.
Except for cult film fans or those that saw it when it was originally released, Rolling Thunder seems to have almost been forgotten, which is a shame. It should rightfully be recognized as one of the hardest-hitting, action revenge classics of the 1970s.
William Devane has never been better and Tommy Lee Jones gives a great understated performance.
This is one of Paul Schrader’s best scripts--lean and mean. It could be argued that this makes an interesting companion piece to Taxi Driver, in that they both deal with intense protagonists who are mentally unbalanced (though Travis Bickle could be said to be a complete sociopath) Vietnam Vets drawn into worlds of brutal violence upon coming back “home”.
John Flynn can be a very underrated director. Definitely seek out Rolling Thunder . Some of his other films that are worth seeing are Best Seller (starring James Woods and Brian Dennehy and written by Larry Cohen) and The Outfit (with Robert Duvall,Joe Don Baker,Sheree North, Robert Ryan, Timothy Farrell, Elisha Cook, Jr., and Marie Windsor). The Outfit is a great crime thriller that is finally available on Warner Bros. Archive DVDs. This shows that Flynn knows how to direct, action suspense, and also write (in this instance adapting a Donald Westlake book).
The main theme song for this film was later used in the opening credits for William Peter Blatty’s The Ninth Configuration.
Currently, Rolling Thunder is officially available as a Made On Demand DVD in widescreen from Warner Archive
I really need to catch up with this sucker!
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