Plot: War veteran Charles Rane returns home after two (!) unpleasant decades on a North Korean prison. Far from trying to integrate into ciil and family life, he remains close refusing most human contact. When a group of criminals break into his house and murder his family in cold blood, he plans to eliminate them.
Comments: Either a late 70s revenge flick or an early 80s actioner, "Rolling Thunder" is certainly an above average film. It has its share of cliches, sure, both thematic (the war vet that doesn't fit into society and fights crime on his own terms, misoginy) and stylistic (synth score, frequent grainy night scenes, flashbacks), but you can tell that a film with a script by Paul Schrader it's not going to be neither simplistic nor confortable to watch.
As he did in "Taxi driver", Schrader prefers to focus in the main's character psycological flaws rather than in the violence, and Rane is certainly one of a kind. After years of inprisonement and torture, he is unable to empathyse with anyone. He remains sleepless at nights, he barely spokes, and some of the key scenes seem to suggest he has become a masochist, something that helped him to endure the torture, but makes him even less able to re-adapt to normal life.
Later in the film, when the criminals try to make him tell them where the money is, he doesn't speak a word, and endures several tortures without a wink. When he finally seeks revenge it is difficult to say if he is feeling guilty over the death of his family or if the hunt has become the ultimate thrill ride.
Not a particularly great film (it sort of loses steam after a strong first act), but worth seing for Schrader's script and William Devane's subtle performance.
I saw this years ago at the drive-in on a double feature with the original MAD MAX. I think the beginning and the ending are great, but I agree that the movie loses some steam in the middle. Still, an ambitious "B" revenge flick . . . and pretty violent.
Indeed. Director John Flynn actually suggests most of it, but it's still quite gruesome. Even before the bloody final shootout (one of Schrader's trademarks), we get several beatings, a dismembering, at least three murders and one of the most brutal barfights ever to grace a revenge film.
I've never seen this, but I do remember hearing about it. The one scene I remember hearing about, is the the scene where the villains shove William Devane's hand into the garbage disposal, then turn the garbage disposal on. I've always been careful about working around the garbage disposal since then.