Rolling Thunder

UK Release Date. 14 October 1977
Certification. X
Running Time. 1 hour 40 mins
Director. John Flynn
Cast. William Devane, Lawrason Driscoll, Linda Haynes, Tommy Lee Jones.
Rating. 66%

Review.

On paper, Rolling Thunder would appear to be a conventional, 1970's macho potboiler. But the film, directed by John Flynn and initially written by Paul Schrader (on the back of screenplays for The Yakuza, Taxi Driver and Obsession), rightly deserves to be held in the same high esteem as other lean, mean, no-nonsense revenge thrillers of the time, the likes of Dirty Harry, Straw Dogs, Coffy, Death Wish and Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia.

William Devane stars as the recently released prisoner of war, Major Charles Rane. The surprisingly dark plot sees Rane return to Texas after seven years of imprisonment in Vietnam, only for his wife and son to be brutally murdered by a group of low-life criminals.

You might expect Major Rane to pick up the gun straight away and embark on a vengeful killing spree, in the style of Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson, but the film is an exercise in subtlety. Devane's restrained performance and the quiet early pacing lulls the audience into a false sense of security as the film culminates in a glorious climactic shootout in a Mexican bordello.

If rumours were true, Quentin Tarantino's one-time tenth (and potentially final) film, The Movie Critic was intended to include some kind of homage to Rolling Thunder, such is the director's fondness for the film.