Rolling Thunder (1977)
October 26th, 2011 by chocko
Director: John Flynn
Starring: William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes
Genre: 70’s B-Movie
This violent tale of revenge is hard to find. I found myself a bootleg copy at a local horror convention. Rolling Thunder has only been released on VHS in the United States and hasn’t seen the light of day until it was released on DVD and Bluray a couple months ago in the U.K. The movie was directed by John Flynn who would later go on to direct the cult classic Brainscan, the Sylvester Stallone prison movie-Lock Up and the Steven Seagal action flick titled Out For Justice. The story is by Paul Schrader who also wrote the classic Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver. On a sidenote: Quentin Tarantino named his now defunct movie company, Rolling Thunder Pictures, after the film. They released movies such as Chungking Express, Switchblade Sisters and Sonatine theatrically at a time when those movies were rarely seen.
William Devane is Major Charles Rane, a Vietnam vet who returns home to his wife and son after doing time in a P.O.W. camp. After receiving a big San Antonio, Texas hometown welcome, Rane is rewarded nearly $2000 in silver coins. Things at home aren’t so peachy when he finds his wife wanting a divorce and his kid seeming more connected to the new guy his wife is sleeping with. Trouble really begins to brew when a gang of redneck thugs break into his home in search for the silver coins. The robbers run for the border with the silver after shoving Rane’s arm down a garbage disposal and killing his wife and son.
After recovering, Rane heads down to Mexico for some vengeance with his new hook for a hand, some guns and his new friend, a young war hero groupie portrayed by the actress, Linda Haynes. Her role is pretty much just whiny, eye candy. They search for the killers and then she gets ditched after Rane gets some help from his vet buddy while they set out to do the dirty work. Rane’s buddy is played by a surprisingly young and wrinkle free Tommy Lee Jones. The climactic ending finds the two vets in a Mexican whorehouse guns a’ blazing while naked women run amok. Rolling Thunder is a true gritty grindhouse classic!
trailer courtesy of The42ndStreetMutant
Tags: chocko, grindhouse, movie, quentin tarantino, review, tommy lee jones, william devane
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