Rolling Thunder (1977)

04Dec08

Rolling Thunder IMDB Link

Directed By: John Flynn

Written By: Paul Schrader

Starring: William Devane

Sight & Sound releases an issue every 10 years that’s absolutely amazing. It’s a top ten list separated by critics and directors. They compile the list by asking all the directors and critics their top 10 movies and then tally them up; the movie with the most votes gets top spot and so on.

I engrossed myself in the 2002 issue because some directors/critics wrote in their personal experiences with certain films but mostly because it was interesting to see specific directors top 10’s. A lot of the time it was an absolute shocker and other times it made sense. I’m a Tarantino fan even though there are a lot of haters out there and when I looked his up I noticed I saw all the movies on Tarantino’s top 10 with the exception of one: Rolling Thunder.

The only way to watch it was on VHS but thank god for Netflix. Get this, the DVD is still not out but for some reason you can watch it on Netflix’s “watch instantly” feature (which owns on 360). And it was awesome. It felt like Taxi Driver but made as a B-movie. Coincidentally, Taxi Driver is also on Tarantino’s top 10, both films were written by Paul Schrader and both films deal with Vietnam vets.

In Rolling Thunder,  Major Charles Rane comes home to the whole town lavishing him with praise except for his wife who cheated on him and wants to get a divorce. When thugs see Rane receiving a lot of money from a dealership to help him get started, they decide to ambush him at home. Rane won’t tell them where the money is hidden so they put his hand in a garbage disposal and then kill his wife and kid.

He gets revenge, oh he gets revenge. One of my favorite parts of the film was Tommy Lee Jones character. He is a subdued lost soldier, almost like a caged animal. His relatives are hounding him with shit and he’s clearly not happy. When Major Rane comes to his house and tells them he’s getting revenge, without even saying anything Tommy Lee Jones’s character dons his military uniform and grabs his gun like a kid being invited out to play.

I mentioned before how some people’s list didn’t make sense, how they didn’t relay their directing sensibilities. Well for some reason I feel like a Vietnam Vet with a hook hand shot-gunning people in revenge makes complete sense for Tarantino. I’m glad he mentioned this gem or else I probably never would have seen it.

Filed under: Action, Classic/Old, Drama   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: hook hand, movie review, paul schrader, revenge, Rolling Thunder, Tarantino, vietnam