Rolling Thunder (1977 film)
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| Rolling Thunder | |
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| Directed by | John Flynn |
| Produced by | Lawrence Gordon |
| Written by | Paul Schrader Heywood Gould |
| Starring | William Devane Tommy Lee Jones Linda Haynes James Best Dabney Coleman Luke Askew |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1977 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Rolling Thunder is a 1977 film starring William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones. The film was directed by John Flynn. The screenplay was by Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
The film opens with Major Charles Rane (Devane) returning home to a small Texas town with Corporal Johnny Vohden (Jones) after spending seven years as a POW in Hanoi. The town is intent on giving Rane a hero's homecoming and at a grand celebration, he is presented with a Cadillac and 2555 silver dollars, one for every day he was a captive plus one for luck, by the Texas Belle Linda Forchet (Linda Haynes), who has worn his bracelet throughout. Soon after delivering his speech to the waiting crowd it becomes clear that the world he has returned to is very different from the one he left.
His wife Janet, son Mark and local cop Cliff are waiting to drive him home. Cliff seems very familiar with his wife and child. The theme of memory is one which is returned to throughout the film. On his first night home, Rane's son Mark asks him "Do you remember what I looked like as a baby?", to which Rane replies "Sure I do, every last detail". However Rane realizes that his son doesn't remember him. His wife admits that she has become engaged to Cliff. His wife however has no immediate plans to break-off her engagement with Cliff, despite still having feelings for Rane. Despite his impassive exterior, Rane is clearly displeased with the turn events have taken. Rane is clearly institutionalized—exercising and sitting in silence as he had in prison.
While filling up his new Cadillac at a gas station, Rane is spotted by Linda Forchet from a bar across the road. She runs over to see him and asks him for a drink. Rane seems flattered by her attention and joins her in the bar. It becomes clear that Forchet is somewhat of a "good-time girl". She also has a perception of who the Major is, or at least who she wants him to be and is not shy about offering herself
In an uncomfortable confrontation with Cliff in the outhouse, he revisits the rope torture which the Vietnamese inflicted daily upon him and reveals how he survived. This provides insight into why Rane stays so calm while Cliff is set to take his wife away from him. Losing his wife seems something Rane is reconciled to however he is determined not to lose his son and makes efforts to build a relationship. They play ball in the yard and it is upon returning home after watching his son’s game from a distance that any remaining plans Rane had are destroyed. Waiting for him are Maxwell, Automatic Slim and a couple of Mexican heavies, T Bird and Lopez and they want the silver dollars.
Despite being punched repeatedly in the stomach and face and having a lighter held to his hand, Rane shows no signs of talking. Rane’s response is to revert to his Hanoi-mode, he is taciturn and totally unresponsive to their threats. He is having flashbacks to his torture in Hanoi and nothing the gang can extract the information from him. When Rane stays stoic, Automatic Slim discloses that he is also a Vietnam veteran. The gang escalate the violence and put Rane’s hand down the garbage disposal – it is at this point that his wife and son return. Rane lies with a mangled arm on the kitchen floor while his son locates the silver dollars.
The gang’s next move is to shoot dead Rane’s wife and son and leave him for dead. We cut to Rane, several weeks later, convalescing in a hospital. His Vietnam buddy Johnny Vohden is by his bedside while Texas Belle Linda Forchet is never far away. It is not just Rane who is having trouble adjusting life back in the real world. Vohden has signed on for another ten years in the Air Force due to uncertainty as to what else to do rather than enthusiasm. Cliff meanwhile seems intent on proving himself. Meanwhile Rane keeps cool and reveals nothing about the gang.
It is clear, however that Rane does have some idea as to the identities of the gang. His first move upon discharge from hospital is to saw-off a shotgun, sharpen the prosthetic hook which has replaced his hand and set off in his Cadillac. Before leaving for Mexico he visits the bar where Linda Forchet works. Forchet has no idea she has accompanied Rane on a vendetta crusade. She goes into her first mission unawares as to the dangers as she asks for a Fat Ed in a seedy Mexican bar. She is taken into a backroom where a sleazy lowlife immediately begins to harass her. Rane rescues her by putting his hook through the lowlife’s hand. Forchet has now realised Rane’s intention. It becomes clear that despite Forchet’s "party girl" past, she is looking for something more solid, something that she sees in Rane who despite lack of small talk, seems keen to encourage.
The mission continues in another seedy bar in another Mexican town with Forchet sent in ahead, as before. This particular encounter results in a vicious fight with Rane again using his hook to devastating effect – this time in the crotch of Automatic Slim. Unbeknownst to Rane, Cliff has found the sawn-off from his shotgun, figured out what he’s up to and using his police contacts, set off along the same trail. The trail ends for Cliff in the Mexican border-town in which Rane had sought Fat Ed. After being led through a cattle-lot into an abandoned house Cliff kills two gang members, including Lopez, in a shootout before Automatic Slim surprises and kills him. There are echoes of Cliff’s earlier statement about not knowing how you would handle a situation until it confronts you. When the situation arises Cliff shows himself to be equal in courage to Rane, though lacking his guile.
After driving by and seeing Automatic Slim and Maxwell outside a whorehouse, Rane now knows where they are. Rane and Forchet continue to develop what seemed an initially unlikely relationship. They are listening to a song on the radio when Rane tells her "I remember that song from when I was alive". He explains that "alive" is "what we used to call it, the time before we were captured". Forchet shows herself to be a dab-hand with a gun and a self-confessed tomboy to boot. Despite Forchet’s apprehensions that Rane will be the latest in a long-list of bad choices in men and Rane’s aggressive approach to her questioning of his mission (he runs the car off the road at high speed), the two are drawing closer to one another. In a motel room in El Paso, Forchet tries to talk Rane out of it one last time.
With Forchet we get the sense that despite the experiences of Hanoi and of losing his son and wife, Rane is perhaps not as emotionally dead as he makes out to be. A theme of Rolling Thunder is people either not being quite what they make themselves out to be – or of just not knowing quite what they are. So despite her shooting skills, Rane leaves Forchet behind in the motel (having left her a sizeable sum of money) and despite her earlier insistence that she would call the police, Forchet cannot bring herself to.
Rane, dressed in full uniform, goes to Vohden’s house to find him living in a somewhat stagnant environment. Meanwhile Vohden’s father sits by insisting that he will not touch anything Japanese as he can remember fighting them in the war. Vohden seems unable or unwilling to get involved such minutiae of everyday life. When Rane reveals that he has come on a mission, Vohden asks no questions and is dressed in his Air Force uniform in an instant. The men set off, intent, focused and galvanized. The allusions to the old days are clear – life may have been hard then but they had a purpose, something they have struggled to find in society.
Rane has his plan for the whorehouse all set and Vohden listens without question to the instructions. He goes in first and picks up a prostitute. Once they are upstairs, Rane makes his entrance from the back, taking out a guard on the way. On hearing his sign, Vohden immediately gets himself battle ready. What proceeds is a bloody, violent shootout. Surprising T Bird with a hooker, Rane declares "It’s your time boy" before blasting him away. Maxwell is similarly taken care of before the final standoff between Rane and Automatic Slim. Rane kills Slim and, bloodied and wounded but happy, they walk out the whorehouse.
[edit] Trivia
This is one of Quentin Tarantino's favourite films. Rolling Thunder Pictures, a company founded by Tarantino that briefly distributed reissues of cult films, was named after this film.
