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.
Plot synopsis
The film opens with Major Charles Rane (Devane) returning home to a small Texas town with Sergeant First Class 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 red 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 (Lisa Blake Richards), his son Mark (Jordan Gerler) and local policeman Cliff (Lawrason Driscoll) are waiting to drive him home. Cliff seems pretty familiar with Rane's wife and child. 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. She has no immediate plans to break-off her engagement despite still having feelings for Rane. Contrary to his impassive exterior, Rane is clearly displeased with the turn events have taken. Rane internalizes his institutionalization by self-imposing the same daily regime of 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" and is not shy about offering herself.
During an uncomfortable confrontation with Cliff in the garage, Rane 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. But it is upon returning home after watching his son’s game that any remaining plans Rane had are destroyed. Waiting for him are four border outlaws -- The Texan (James Best), Automatic Slim (Luke Askew) and a couple of Mexican heavies, T Bird (Charles Escamilla) and Melio (Pete Ortega) -- and they want the silver dollars.
Despite being punched repeatedly in the stomach and face and having a lighter flame held to his hand, Rane shows no signs of breaking. 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 does can extract the information from him.
When Rane stays stoic, Automatic Slim discloses that he is also a Vietnam veteran. The gang escalates the violence and puts 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.
Several weeks later, Rane is convalescing in a hospital. His Vietnam buddy, Johnny Vohden, is by his bedside while Linda Forchet is never far away. It is not just Rane who is having trouble adjusting to life back in the real world. Vohden has signed on for another ten years in the United States Army (Airborne) due to his uncertainty as to what else to do with his life. Rane keeps cool and reveals nothing about the attackers.
It is clear 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. She has no idea she is accompaning Rane on a vendetta. Linda goes into her first mission unaware of its dangers as she asks for "Fat Ed" in a seedy Mexican bar. She is taken into a backroom where a sleazy lowlife named Lopez (James Victor) immediately begins to harass her. Rane rescues her by putting his hook through Lopez’s hand.
Linda now realizes Rane’s intention. It becomes clear that despite her "party girl" past, she is looking for something more solid, something that she sees in Rane who despite his lack of encouragement.
The mission continues in another seedy bar in another Mexican town with Linda 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.
Cliff finds the rest of the barrel sawn-off from his shotgun. He figures out what Rane is up to and, using his police contacts, sets 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 shoots and kills Lopez and several other attackers before Automatic Slim gets the jump on him and slaughters him.
After driving by and seeing Automatic Slim and The Texan outside a whorehouse across the border in Mexico, Rane now knows where they are. He and Linda 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 the time before we were captured."
Linda shows herself to be proficient with a gun. Despite her apprehensions, the two draw closer to one another. In a motel room in El Paso, she tries to talk Rane out of it one last time. Despite the experiences of Hanoi and of losing his son and wife, Rane is perhaps not as emotionally dead as he seems.
Despite her shooting skills, Rane leaves a sleeping Linda behind in the motel (with a sizeable sum of money) and despite her earlier insistence that she would call the police, she cannot bring herself to do so.
Rane, dressed in full uniform, goes to Vohden’s house to find him living in a somewhat stagnant environment with his wife, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and their father. Vohden seems unable or unwilling to get involved with such minutiae of everyday life. When Rane reveals that he has come on a mission, Vohden asks no questions and is dressed in his Army 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 named Candy (Cassie Yates). Once they are upstairs, Rane makes his entrance from the back, taking out a guard on the way.
On hearing Rane's gun-tapping signal, Vohden immediately gets himself battle ready. What proceeds is a bloody, violent shootout. After surprising The Texan with a hooker, Rane declares "It’s your time, boy" before blasting him away. T-Bird, Melio and several other men are similarly taken care of before the final standoff between Rane and Automatic Slim. Rane kills him. Bloodied and wounded but satisfied, he and Vohden walk out of the whorehouse.
Trivia
Gene Siskel listed Rolling Thunder on his ten best list for 1977. It was the tenth film on the list.
This is one of Quentin Tarantino's favourite films.[1] Rolling Thunder Pictures, a company founded by Tarantino that briefly distributed reissues of cult films, was named after this film.
An excerpt from this film is used in the track "Blood Embrace" from the album Superwolf by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney. The excerpt is Janet telling Rane that she has had an affair with Cliff. It starts with Janet saying, "Charlie, I've...been with another man," and ends with Rane stating, "I'm just gonna sit here."
Home Release
The film has yet to receive an American DVD or BluRay release, the only available copy being an import of the film on DVD from Spain, or occasional VHS copies.
See also
External links
References
