High class mayhem and revenge
I've loved this film since first seeing it in 1977 when its ultraviolent ending made viewers and critics cringe with shock and horror. Violence plays a significant thematic and on-screen role in this flick about war, horror, remembrance and revenge.
Briefly submitted, William Devane and young Tommy Lee Jones (before he hit stardom) are returning Vietnam war prisoners of war. Devane, an officer in the Air Corps, had spent time in the famous Hanoi Hilton prison and has occasional flashbacks of his torture.
Returning war hero Devane -- whose wife took up with another guy during his lengthy absnece, adding real life drama and a soap operatic agenda to the movie -- receives a generous local gift during ceremonies in his Texas hometown. Later on, a bunch of good old boys come to rob him of the gift. They torture him and off his family in the process.
The remaining 70 or so minutes of the film detail Devane's search for the killers and his revenge. He takes...
If you are a fan of "Taxi Driver", you will love this one
Basic storyline is this. Major Charles Rane returns home, Texas, from seven years of torture in POW during Vietnam War. As a big welcome gift, he receives a Cadillac and a couple of thousands dollars from city. Charles soon finds out his wife fell in love with other man and his emotion starts to build up. Then people came after Charles' reward money kill his son and wife and Charles loses his hand. Charlie and his friend from the war, Johnny played by Tommy Lee Jones, get together for a revenge. I found out about this movie from the "King Pulp: The Wild World of Quentin Tarantino". The movie "Rolling Thunder" is written by Paul Schrader, writer from "Taxi Driver". Like "Taxi Driver", this movie is charged with gripping scripts and emotionally rich and powerful characters. Without showing any real battle scenes, the movie builds up very strong Vietnam war drama. Also, the sequence where Major Charles Rane (William Devane)...
Great Movie, Mediocre DVD
Warner Bros. does a good job with their on demand DVDs and I was hoping for the same level of quality from MGM. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the "Rolling Thunder" disc. MGM did a sloppy job when they prepared this movie for DVD. This is most apparent in the interior (low light) scenes when flickering horizontal lines follow the actors as they move. This is distracting and certainly not what you would expect from a home video released by a major studio. Also, the DVD cover art looks like it was Xeroxed at Kinko's. I hope that someday Criterion or Blue Underground will give this movie a proper DVD/Blu-ray release.
Bottom line: "Rolling Thunder" is a great movie, but this DVD is not worth $17.99.
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