There's a lot more to "Rolling Thunder" than I would have thought. Ostensibly a simple revenge flick, the Paul Schrader penned script elevates the themes above "eye for an eye" and into something much more resonant.
The first half-hour sees Major Charles Rane (William Devane) return home from his seven year stint at a POW camp. His greeting is that of a hero instead of a baby-killer, with the town bestowing him with a new Cadillac and a few thousand silver dollars. Schrader had written a seriously disturbed Vietnam vet before (an unknown little picture called "Taxi Driver"), but this one was different; Rane's demeanor is polite and unshakably composed, a far cry from the unstable drunk though his voice and eyes lack that energy that normally denotes a human presence. When Rane later refers to the time that he was "alive" in the past tense, he's not joking. After discovering that his wife is leaving for another man, he shares a drink with loverboy and insists the guy replicate a rope torture he used to undergo on a daily basis. He beat those he hated by learning to love them he says in a stunningly appropriate moment. The only thing Rane seemingly cares about at all is his young son, who has no recollection of him, and perhaps shouldn't, because an entirely different person has returned.
Alas, the war ain't over. A group of rednecks show up to liberate those silver dollars, gunning down Rane's wife and son, but not before introducing his right hand to a garbage disposal. "They killed my son," he says when seeking revenge, no mention of his wife. Of course the film shifts into a more traditional gear culminating with a brutal climax, but we're frequently reminded that although we're watching a violent revenge pic, it's one that doesn't conveniently forget the virtual mind-wipe suffered by the hero. When Rane recruits a cellmate (Tommy Lee Jones) to help distribute buckshot all over a Mexican bordello, the friend's instant and wordless acquiescence to the bloody plan is striking, not so much for the bond between the two but the unspoken statement that the war's survivors can only truly count on one another. A subplot featuring a female admirer (and later conspirator) of Rane seems to be headed nowhere until he finally opens up to her. Good move on Schrader's part, because though Rane could have spoke candidly with his cellmate, they already know all there is to say about despair.
4 out of 5
Props to Steve Carlson for pointing out that this film is available on Netflix's instant watching system. As of now, there is no DVD release, though it is on VHS>
The trailer:
The film's climax (violence and nudity):
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