Rolling Thunder (1977 film)
Encyclopedia
Rolling Thunder is a 1977 film starring William Devane
and Tommy Lee Jones
. The film was directed by John Flynn
. The screenplay was by Paul Schrader
and Heywood Gould
.
town with his friend, Sergeant First Class Johnny Vohden (Jones), after spending seven years as a POW in Hanoi
. However, he finds a home very different from the one he left. His wife Janet (Lisa Blake Richards), his son Mark (Jordan Gerler), and local policeman Cliff (Lawrason Driscoll) are waiting to drive him home. On his first night home, Rane's son Mark asks him: "Do you remember what I looked like as a baby?" To which Rane replies: "Sure I do, every last detail." However, Rane soon realizes that his son doesn't remember him. Additionally, Cliff seems pretty familiar with Rane's wife and child. His wife admits that she has become engaged to Cliff and has no plans to break it off, despite still having feelings for Rane. Rane stoically accepts this, but privately reacts by self-imposing the same institutionalized
daily regime he had in captivity.
The town is intent on giving Rane a hero's homecoming and at a grand celebration, he is presented with a red Cadillac
and 2555 silver dollars, one for every day he was a captive plus one for luck, by the 'Texas belle' Linda Forchet (Linda Haynes
), who has worn his ID bracelet
since he left. Shortly after, Cliff attempts to make peace with Rane, whose wife he is taking. Losing his wife seems something Rane is resigned to; however, he is determined not to lose his son and makes efforts to build a relationship.
While filling up his new Cadillac at a gas station, Forchet spots Rane and invites him to have a drink at the bar where she works. She makes advances towards the ex-POW, but they don't amount to anything at the time; Rane is emotionally distant and perhaps even unable to connect with anyone.
When Rane next returns home, four border outlaws are waiting for him: The Texan (James Best), Automatic Slim (Luke Askew) and a couple of Mexican
heavies, T Bird (Charles Escamilla) and Melio (Pete Ortega). They demand the silver dollars and torture Rane to find them. Rane is totally unresponsive, having flashbacks
to his torture in Hanoi as they beat him. The gang resorts to drastic measures and shoves Rane’s hand down the garbage disposal
, mangling it. It is at this point that his wife and son return, immediately being taken hostage. Rane lies with a mangled arm on the kitchen floor while his son finds and hands over the silver dollars. The gang shoots all three of them, leaving them for dead. Rane survives but his family does not.
Several weeks later, Rane is convalescing in a hospital. Johnny Vohden and Linda Forchet are visitors at different times. Vohden has signed on for another ten years in the Airborne Division, due to his uncertainty as to what else to do with his life. Though he gives no details to the police, Rane has some ideas as to the identities of his attackers and prepares to take vengeance. His first move upon discharge from hospital is to saw down a double-barreled shotgun
, sharpen the prosthetic hook which has replaced his right hand, and set off in his Cadillac.
Before leaving for Mexico
he visits the bar where Linda Forchet works. She heads off with Rane, having no idea she is accompanying him on a vendetta
. Rane sends Linda to look for "Fat Ed" in a seedy Mexican bar. She is taken into a backroom where a sleazy lowlife named Lopez (James Victor) immediately begins to harass her and Rane comes to her rescue, while also extracting some information. Linda now realizes Rane’s intention and though she is alarmed, she continues to help. Linda is sent in to a seedy bar in a nearby town, as before. Rane locates Automatic Slim and a vicious barfight emerges; Rane only escapes by grabbing Automatic Slim by the crotch with his hook hand and holding him hostage until he escapes.
Conducting his own investigation, Cliff finds the rest of the barrel sawn-off from his shotgun and figures out Rane's plan. Using his police contacts, Cliff finds his way to the Mexican border-town in which Rane encountered Lopez. Cliff is led to Lopez and Cliff scuffle and a gunfight ensues. After being led on a foot-chase through a stock yard into an abandoned house, Cliff shoots and kills Lopez and several other attackers before Automatic Slim gets the jump on him and mercilessly shoots him.
Linda and Rane begin to connect further while on the road, with Linda talking about her tomboy past and Rane talking about things he liked before the war. In a motel room in El Paso
, she tries to talk Rane out of it one last time. Despite the experiences of Hanoi and of losing his son and wife, Rane is perhaps not as emotionally dead as he seems. Rane leaves a sleeping Linda behind in the motel (with a sizeable sum of money) and despite her earlier insistence that she would call the police, she cannot bring herself to do so, hanging up as the police answer her call.
Rane, dressed in full uniform, goes to Vohden’s house to find him. Vohden, emotionally distanced from his family, asks no questions and is dressed in his Army uniform with bloused paratrooper boots in an instant. Rane plans to attack the remaining members of the gang in a whorehouse. Vohden goes in first and picks up a prostitute named Candy (Cassie Yates). Once they are upstairs, Rane takes out a guard in the rear yard and goes in the back entrance. Rane signals to Vohden and kicks off a bloody, violent shootout. After surprising The Texan with a hooker, Rane declares "It’s your time, boy" before blowing him away. T-Bird, Melio and several other men are similarly taken care of before the final standoff between Rane and Automatic Slim. Rane coldly shoots him several times, killing him. Bloodied and wounded but vaguely satisfied, Rane and Vohden, supporting each other, walk out of the brothel under the final credits roll.
This is one of Quentin Tarantino
's favourite films. Rolling Thunder Pictures
, a company founded by Tarantino that briefly distributed reissues of cult film
s, was named after this film.
An excerpt from this film is used in the track "Blood Embrace" from the album Superwolf
by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney
. The excerpt is Janet telling Rane that she has had an affair with Cliff. It starts with Janet saying, "Charlie, I've...been with another man," and ends with Rane stating, "I'm just gonna sit here."
. In his Adventures in the Screen Trade
, William Goldman
defined one of the first screening of the movie as "the most violent sneak reaction of recent years... the audience actually got up and tried to physically abuse the studio personnel present among them." .
For reasons still not convincingly stated, the film was released in Spain in 1982 as El expreso de Corea (sometimes spelled in the media with a hyphen, ex-preso), which translates as "The former prisoner [literally, convict] from Korea
". A Korean War
setting was included as well in the Spanish dubbing instead of the original Vietnam War
scenario. A possible reason could be the title's slight similarity with the hugely successful El expreso de medianoche (Midnight Express
), which was released earlier in Spain. However, the replacement of Vietnam by Korea is still left unexplained—even more so considering the fact that the time span of the Korean War, 1950–1953, conflicts with the alleged 7-year stay as POWs in the camp and the actual 1973 setting of the film.
The film has yet to receive an American DVD or Blu-ray release, the only available copy being an import of the film on DVD from Spain, or occasional VHS copies. A 'Manufactured On Demand' DVD by MGM was released in January 2011.
William Devane
William Joseph Devane is an American film, television and theater actor.-Life and career:Devane was born in Albany, New York in 1937 or 1939 , the son of Joseph Devane, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's chauffeur when he was Governor of New York...
and Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
. The film was directed by John Flynn
John Flynn (director)
John Flynn was an American film director and screenwriter known for making efficient, no-nonsense crime-thrillers The Outfit and Rolling Thunder....
. The screenplay was by Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
and Heywood Gould
Heywood Gould
Heywood Gould is an American screenwriter, journalist, novelist and film director. He has penned screenplays for such films as Rolling Thunder, The Boys from Brazil, Fort Apache the Bronx, Streets of Gold, Cocktail and directed such films as One Good Cop, Trial by Jury, Mistrial and Double...
.
Plot
In 1973, Major Charles Rane (Devane) returning home to a small TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
town with his friend, Sergeant First Class Johnny Vohden (Jones), after spending seven years as a POW in Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
. However, he finds a home very different from the one he left. His wife Janet (Lisa Blake Richards), his son Mark (Jordan Gerler), and local policeman Cliff (Lawrason Driscoll) are waiting to drive him home. On his first night home, Rane's son Mark asks him: "Do you remember what I looked like as a baby?" To which Rane replies: "Sure I do, every last detail." However, Rane soon realizes that his son doesn't remember him. Additionally, Cliff seems pretty familiar with Rane's wife and child. His wife admits that she has become engaged to Cliff and has no plans to break it off, despite still having feelings for Rane. Rane stoically accepts this, but privately reacts by self-imposing the same institutionalized
Institutionalized
Institutionalized may refer to:* The act of being placed in a psychiatric hospital* "Institutionalized" , a song on Suicidal Tendencies 1983 titular album* Institutionalized , a 2005 rap album by American rapper Ras Kass...
daily regime he had in captivity.
The town is intent on giving Rane a hero's homecoming and at a grand celebration, he is presented with a red Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
and 2555 silver dollars, one for every day he was a captive plus one for luck, by the 'Texas belle' Linda Forchet (Linda Haynes
Linda Haynes
Linda Haynes was a pretty and spunky blonde-haired American actress who appeared in several films in the 1970s and early 1980s before retiring from the business and becoming a legal secretary...
), who has worn his ID bracelet
Bracelet
A bracelet is an article of jewelry which is worn around the wrist. Bracelets can be manufactured from metal, leather, cloth, plastic or other materials and sometimes contain jewels, rocks, wood, and/or shells...
since he left. Shortly after, Cliff attempts to make peace with Rane, whose wife he is taking. Losing his wife seems something Rane is resigned to; however, he is determined not to lose his son and makes efforts to build a relationship.
While filling up his new Cadillac at a gas station, Forchet spots Rane and invites him to have a drink at the bar where she works. She makes advances towards the ex-POW, but they don't amount to anything at the time; Rane is emotionally distant and perhaps even unable to connect with anyone.
When Rane next returns home, four border outlaws are waiting for him: The Texan (James Best), Automatic Slim (Luke Askew) and a couple of Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
heavies, T Bird (Charles Escamilla) and Melio (Pete Ortega). They demand the silver dollars and torture Rane to find them. Rane is totally unresponsive, having flashbacks
Flashback (psychological phenomenon)
A flashback, or involuntary recurrent memory, is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience or elements of a past experience. These experiences can be happy, sad, exciting, or any other emotion one can consider...
to his torture in Hanoi as they beat him. The gang resorts to drastic measures and shoves Rane’s hand down the garbage disposal
Garbage disposal
A garbage disposal unit or waste disposal unit is a device, usually electrically powered, installed under a kitchen sink between the sink's drain and the trap which shreds food waste into pieces small enough—generally less than —to pass through plumbing.Garbage disposal units are widely used in...
, mangling it. It is at this point that his wife and son return, immediately being taken hostage. Rane lies with a mangled arm on the kitchen floor while his son finds and hands over the silver dollars. The gang shoots all three of them, leaving them for dead. Rane survives but his family does not.
Several weeks later, Rane is convalescing in a hospital. Johnny Vohden and Linda Forchet are visitors at different times. Vohden has signed on for another ten years in the Airborne Division, due to his uncertainty as to what else to do with his life. Though he gives no details to the police, Rane has some ideas as to the identities of his attackers and prepares to take vengeance. His first move upon discharge from hospital is to saw down a double-barreled shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
, sharpen the prosthetic hook which has replaced his right hand, and set off in his Cadillac.
Before leaving for Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
he visits the bar where Linda Forchet works. She heads off with Rane, having no idea she is accompanying him on a vendetta
Feud
A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...
. Rane sends Linda to look for "Fat Ed" in a seedy Mexican bar. She is taken into a backroom where a sleazy lowlife named Lopez (James Victor) immediately begins to harass her and Rane comes to her rescue, while also extracting some information. Linda now realizes Rane’s intention and though she is alarmed, she continues to help. Linda is sent in to a seedy bar in a nearby town, as before. Rane locates Automatic Slim and a vicious barfight emerges; Rane only escapes by grabbing Automatic Slim by the crotch with his hook hand and holding him hostage until he escapes.
Conducting his own investigation, Cliff finds the rest of the barrel sawn-off from his shotgun and figures out Rane's plan. Using his police contacts, Cliff finds his way to the Mexican border-town in which Rane encountered Lopez. Cliff is led to Lopez and Cliff scuffle and a gunfight ensues. After being led on a foot-chase through a stock yard into an abandoned house, Cliff shoots and kills Lopez and several other attackers before Automatic Slim gets the jump on him and mercilessly shoots him.
Linda and Rane begin to connect further while on the road, with Linda talking about her tomboy past and Rane talking about things he liked before the war. In a motel room in El Paso
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
, she tries to talk Rane out of it one last time. Despite the experiences of Hanoi and of losing his son and wife, Rane is perhaps not as emotionally dead as he seems. Rane leaves a sleeping Linda behind in the motel (with a sizeable sum of money) and despite her earlier insistence that she would call the police, she cannot bring herself to do so, hanging up as the police answer her call.
Rane, dressed in full uniform, goes to Vohden’s house to find him. Vohden, emotionally distanced from his family, asks no questions and is dressed in his Army uniform with bloused paratrooper boots in an instant. Rane plans to attack the remaining members of the gang in a whorehouse. Vohden goes in first and picks up a prostitute named Candy (Cassie Yates). Once they are upstairs, Rane takes out a guard in the rear yard and goes in the back entrance. Rane signals to Vohden and kicks off a bloody, violent shootout. After surprising The Texan with a hooker, Rane declares "It’s your time, boy" before blowing him away. T-Bird, Melio and several other men are similarly taken care of before the final standoff between Rane and Automatic Slim. Rane coldly shoots him several times, killing him. Bloodied and wounded but vaguely satisfied, Rane and Vohden, supporting each other, walk out of the brothel under the final credits roll.
Cast
- William DevaneWilliam DevaneWilliam Joseph Devane is an American film, television and theater actor.-Life and career:Devane was born in Albany, New York in 1937 or 1939 , the son of Joseph Devane, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's chauffeur when he was Governor of New York...
as Major Charles Rane - Tommy Lee JonesTommy Lee JonesTommy Lee Jones is an American actor and film director. He has received three Academy Award nominations, winning one as Best Supporting Actor for the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive....
as Johnny Vohden - Linda HaynesLinda HaynesLinda Haynes was a pretty and spunky blonde-haired American actress who appeared in several films in the 1970s and early 1980s before retiring from the business and becoming a legal secretary...
as Linda Forchet - James BestJames BestJames Best is an American actor best known for his role as bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the CBS television series The Dukes of Hazzard. He has also worked as an acting coach, artist, and musician.-Early years:...
as Texan - Dabney ColemanDabney ColemanDabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...
as Maxwell - Lisa Blake Richards as Janet
- Luke AskewLuke AskewLuke Askew is an American actor best known for his role in the 1969 film Easy Rider.Askew was born in Macon, Georgia. He made his film debut in Otto Preminger's Hurry Sundown , but was first noticed as an actor for his role in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke...
as Automatic Slim - Lawrason Driscoll as Cliff
- James Victor as Lopez
- Cassie YatesCassie YatesCassie Yates , born in Macon, Georgia, United States, is an American actress best known for her performances on television.Her most high-profile role was probably in Dynasty as Sarah Curtis...
as Candy - Jordan Gerler as Mark
Legacy
Gene Siskel listed Rolling Thunder on his ten best list for 1977. It was the tenth film on the list.This is one of Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
's favourite films. Rolling Thunder Pictures
Rolling Thunder Pictures
Rolling Thunder Pictures was a short-lived film distribution company, set up under Miramax Films by Quentin Tarantino, that was headed by Jerry Martinez and Tarantino. It specialized on releasing independent, cult, or foreign films to theaters....
, a company founded by Tarantino that briefly distributed reissues of cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
s, was named after this film.
An excerpt from this film is used in the track "Blood Embrace" from the album Superwolf
Superwolf
Superwolf is the name of an album by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney. It was released in 2005 on Drag City. Peter Townsend plays drums...
by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney
Matt Sweeney
Matt Sweeney is a guitarist, vocalist, and producer who has worked with various musicians and groups.-Biography:Sweeney's high school band Skunk released two albums on Twin/Tone records...
. The excerpt is Janet telling Rane that she has had an affair with Cliff. It starts with Janet saying, "Charlie, I've...been with another man," and ends with Rane stating, "I'm just gonna sit here."
Release
The film was originally produced and scheduled for release by Twentieth Century-Fox. However, the level of violence in the finished version of the film discouraged top executives from Fox, who decided to sell it to American International PicturesAmerican International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
. In his Adventures in the Screen Trade
Adventures in the Screen Trade
Adventures in the Screen Trade is a book about Hollywood written in 1983 by American novelist and screenwriter William Goldman. The title is a parody of Dylan Thomas's Adventures in the Skin Trade.-Overview:The book is divided into three parts....
, William Goldman
William Goldman
William Goldman is an American novelist, playwright, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.-Early life and education:...
defined one of the first screening of the movie as "the most violent sneak reaction of recent years... the audience actually got up and tried to physically abuse the studio personnel present among them." .
For reasons still not convincingly stated, the film was released in Spain in 1982 as El expreso de Corea (sometimes spelled in the media with a hyphen, ex-preso), which translates as "The former prisoner [literally, convict] from Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
". A Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
setting was included as well in the Spanish dubbing instead of the original Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
scenario. A possible reason could be the title's slight similarity with the hugely successful El expreso de medianoche (Midnight Express
Midnight Express (film)
Released on October 6, 1978, the soundtrack to Midnight Express was composed by Italian synth-pioneer Giorgio Moroder. The score won the Academy Award for Best Original Score of 1978.Side A:#Chase – Giorgio Moroder...
), which was released earlier in Spain. However, the replacement of Vietnam by Korea is still left unexplained—even more so considering the fact that the time span of the Korean War, 1950–1953, conflicts with the alleged 7-year stay as POWs in the camp and the actual 1973 setting of the film.
Home release
The film is scheduled to be released on Blu-ray and DVD in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2012.The film has yet to receive an American DVD or Blu-ray release, the only available copy being an import of the film on DVD from Spain, or occasional VHS copies. A 'Manufactured On Demand' DVD by MGM was released in January 2011.