Nerdly » ‘Rolling Thunder’ Blu-ray Review

19th May2022

‘Rolling Thunder’ Blu-ray Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes | Written by Paul Schrader, Heywood Gould | Directed by John Flynn

This is a film that has a reputation. Regarded as somewhat of an exploitation classic, Rolling Thunder has – thanks to its unavailability – seemingly passed into legend amongst movie fans and after the last Blu-ray from a decade ago(!) went out of print, and now costs a fortune on the secondary market, next week’s [re]release has become one of the most anticipated of the year for some, myself included – for me mainly because I sold my Studio Canal Blu some time ago for mucho dinero and regretted it.

The plot goes something like this: after spending eight years in a Vietcong prison camp, Major Charles Rane (William Devane) returns home to a small town in Texas to be greeted as a hero with a Cadillac convertible and a couple of thousand dollars in silver coins, one for each day of his imprisonment. Struggling to go back to his former life, Rane faces another ordeal as a gang of thugs set their sights on his cash prize – taking his hand and killing his ex-wife and kid. Now living only for vengeance, he heads to Mexico to exact his own brand of justice on the fleeing crooks. Tommy Lee Jones (JFK, Batman Forever) co-stars as Rane’s best friend, Johnny Vohden, who unquestioningly agrees to help Rane in his mission of revenge.

Let me say this straight away, Rolling Thunder deserves its reputation – not merely as an exploitation movie, but also as a superb indictment of the Vietnam War and the treatment of the soldiers that fought there, and it’s no surprise that Paul Schrader, the man behind the script for Taxi Driver also had a hand in scripting this film – both have parallels in the way in which the lead character is someone who has been psychologically damaged. In Rolling Thunder it’s made perfectly clear that Rane has suffered mentally as a direct consequence of his partaking in the Vietnam war, in fact, the film spends a good majority of its first half exploring the stark reality of a man who has been to hell and back in Vietnam and now returns home and is expected to pick up where he left off, unable to reconnect with his family or friends and suffering what we now know as PTSD.

Then of course the film flips the switch after Rane is tortured at the hands of some unscrupulous folk after the cash the townsfolk have donated to him to help him get back on his feet – its a clearly marked turning point that sees the film kick into high gear and some gritty Death Wish-style revenge which, whilst not as graphically exploitative as the later-lensed The Executioner, it is very similar in tone.

Rolling Thunder is, thanks to John Flynn’s stark directorial choices, is as grimy, as gritty and as hard-hitting as 70′s movies get. Taxi Driver may get all the praise, but this film deserves all the kudos – this is filmmaking at its best.

For me, it’s hard to believe that a film can have so much of an impact some 45 years after it debuted, not just in terms of what we see on screen, but also in the big picture – the consequences of war, the neglect of our soldiers, mental health, etc., Rolling Thunder has something to say on all those subjects and more, which is why this latest Blu-ray is a truly unmissable purchase.