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Here’s my review of the film, Rolling Thunder.
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Short filmTranscript
00:12hello everyone how's it going it's me beau here on the film scene investigation channel thank you
00:19for checking out this review in today's video i'm going to be taking a look at the 1977 drama
00:29rolling thunder now just before we get into this review guys if you haven't already please do
00:38consider subscribing to the channel all the support is greatly appreciated so rolling thunder from
00:47october 1977 was a movie that was directed by the filmmaker john flynn and was based on the 1973
00:57script by writer paul schrader produced on a budget of around about two million dollars the movie
01:08failed to really become a big box office success and well subsequently kind of fell into obscurity
01:17as the years went on as for the narrative set in 1973 the story focused on major charles rain a
01:30prisoner of war who was finally returning back to his hometown of san antonio texas he and his fellow
01:39comrade sergeant voden had been prisoners of war they'd been brutalized and yeah i mean basically
01:48left for dead but somehow some way they were able to survive the onslaught so upon their return they
01:57were celebrated by the locals of san antonio crowds gathered waving flags cheering and yeah i mean they
02:07welcomed them back with open arms with major rain he kind of seemed to take it all in his stride
02:15but when it came to voden he just seemed to be completely spaced out it was like he um he
02:26didn't
02:26know you know how to handle it it was kind of overwhelming for him and of course that makes sense
02:31because you know just days earlier he was a prisoner of war thinking that he would likely die
02:38in vietnam and suddenly he's back being celebrated you know the press everyone clapping yeah i can
02:46imagine it'd be pretty um pretty daunting in the following days we saw major rain acclimatize to his
02:55new surroundings he made the conscious effort to reconnect with his son after missing out on
03:03basically him growing up in other words he wanted to make up for lost time but things soon turned ugly
03:13when the major's apartment was ransacked by a group of criminals these thieves showed up and they meant
03:22business they wanted money they knew that the major had it but for major rain he wasn't someone that you
03:33could just roll over you know they kept asking him where's the cash we know it's here and the major
03:40just remained silent he didn't want to give these guys any details whatsoever of course that just made
03:48the guys you know pissed off it made him angry and so they began to torture the major it was
03:56pretty
03:56ugly scene to say the least especially at that moment when they had the major's hand and they basically
04:03sliced it you know off it was uh yeah pretty gruesome but this whole time the major you know the
04:11strong
04:12silent type he wasn't giving any details away in the midst of all of this chaos happening the major's
04:20wife and son ended up getting brutally shot at point blank range killing them instantly the major
04:28too was also shot and left for dead but managed to survive the story then picked up several days later
04:36where we saw the major in hospital recovering from his injuries he had lost the use of his hand
04:45and was now given an artificial limb with a hook attached in the months that followed the police
04:54investigation were unable to track down anyone responsible for the killing of the wife and child
05:01the authorities you know they did their best but ultimately these crooks had completely vanished
05:08and yeah there was no way of jailing them of course they asked the major you know any information any
05:17details they could you know give that would help them for their investigation but the major
05:23he just pretended like he didn't know anything the cops wanted names descriptions
05:30and yeah the major was like ah i've got amnesia i have no idea
05:37but in actuality the major remembered the names and the faces of everyone involved major rain
05:48was a prisoner of war he was a decorated soldier and there was no way that this guy was just
05:57going to
05:57sit back and let the authorities you know try and deal with the situation there was no way that was
06:04going to happen
06:05no way and so the major kept silent his wounds healed and eventually he was healthy again and so
06:15at that point he decided to dish out some of his own street justice and find those criminals responsible
06:24so in terms of the themes in rolling thunder it was clear that the film definitely had a pro-american
06:33vibe which i actually liked this was evident from the opening sequence when the major and sergeant
06:41voden returned we saw all the crowds gathered flags waving banners i mean they were happy to see the soldiers
06:51return
06:51they were welcome back into the community and rightly so they were celebrated and that's what i found
06:58refreshing because a lot of films especially back then post vietnam tended to focus on the alienation
07:08that the war veterans felt upon returning to their hometowns movies like taxi driver from 1976 or in
07:19country from 1989 showed the hostility that these soldiers suffered you know upon returning to their
07:29homeland now i assumed that we were going to get the same treatment as those types of films but to
07:35my
07:35surprise major rain returned and was treated like a war hero in reality i understand that yes many war veterans
07:46did return home from vietnam and were basically failed by the state and the general public which you know that
07:57should never have happened it's wrong especially given what these soldiers had sacrificed so yes they
08:04they should have been celebrated and that was wrong but with that being said when it comes to this movie
08:10i did appreciate the positive outlook you know the pro-american stance that the film took which
08:20actually subverted my expectations the filmmakers clearly wanted to focus more on the vigilante aspects of
08:32the story rather than the personal trauma these veterans suffered when it comes to the vigilante is
08:41i did find it interesting how the major approached avenging his family like it was you know military duty or
08:51something like that no matter what the authorities did only he would be the one to dish out the revenge
09:00on
09:01those responsible it was like in his head only major rain could avenge his family and he was going to
09:10do that
09:10regardless whether it got him in trouble whatever the ramifications he didn't care you know it's also
09:16worth bringing up the ending here because we saw major rain and sergeant voden dressed in full military
09:25uniform before ambushing a brothel house now these guys i mean they could have easily worn street clothes
09:35but it was like they both had this sense of pride they weren't hiding who they were they were proud
09:43of
09:43what they what they represented and they were going to go in and dish out some street justice regardless of
09:52the repercussions
09:53they both believed that they were restoring some sort of order to a very chaotic and dangerous situation and that
10:06was
10:06intriguing to see play out on screen now rolling thunder had a really good pace it clocked in at around
10:15about a hundred minutes and i want to give credit to the editor frank keller who was able to kind
10:22of
10:22keep the flow going throughout the whole entire movie and uh yeah i i never lost interest i also liked
10:29how
10:29keller presented major rain as a prisoner of war now rather than having these long flashback sequences
10:39instead keller inserted these very brief black and white clips into the story so we could see exactly
10:49what he had to endure as like it was like a quick flash of a memory you know we'd be
10:55following the story
10:57and then the major would have some sort of you know flashback and we would you know have this snippet
11:03inserted in
11:04with i don't know some sort of torture sequence or the major in his cell yeah i just thought it
11:11was
11:11a very clever way to show the audiences what the major had gone through but you know keeping the
11:21pace going and not having you know long drawn out you know sequences of him as a prisoner of war
11:28it was creative and overall there was no time wasting so yeah props to keller for his work
11:36when it comes to the performances actor william devane was perfectly cast as the war hero major
11:45charles rain a man who was clearly psychologically disturbed yet refrain from ever showing his true
11:56emotions the major had you know this stoic strong silent type persona which you know you would expect
12:06from someone of you know a high-ranking commander like he was but all of that really just um
12:15i felt it was a way for him to mask his inner turmoil you know to be honest i actually
12:22felt a lot of
12:23sympathy for this character especially when he returned and then found out that his wife had been
12:32having an affair with another man and planned to marry him you know the wife sitting down explaining
12:40all of her actions to her husband and yeah i mean this left the major very angry very confused and
12:53rightfully so you know to survive captivity and then to come back to the news that your wife doesn't
13:01even want to be with you anymore and that she's with another guy man that would just be crushing for
13:08anyone and i actually think that the sympathy that i felt for the character it came down to the performance
13:16the divane gave while of course no one can condone murder i think it needs to be said here that
13:26major charles rain was a victim himself he was a prisoner of war who had been left mentally and
13:35physically scarred from his experiences he had been hardened so much that pain and violence that's all he
13:47that's all he knew honestly it was a great performance and you know we live in an imperfect world but
13:56in a perfect world divane should have at least received an oscar nomination as for his co-star tomalee jones
14:04he played sergeant voden and delivered a very impressive and understated performance his character seemed
14:15totally disillusioned with everything his whole life upon his return to america it was like everything was
14:25just so overwhelming i mean he just had this constant spaced out look similar to his comrade
14:33voden absolutely 100 was suffering from some sort of mental disorder obviously undiagnosed when we saw the guy
14:45he just seemed so despondent like he wasn't really even there it was actually quite sad to see
14:54that his mental state had been affected so much
14:59it stunted his social behavior you know he couldn't be social he couldn't acclimatize back to his
15:07surroundings now i've been aware of actor tomalee jones for many years ever since i was actually a kid
15:15because um back in the 90s growing up i remember seeing two major blockbusters one was batman forever
15:25and the other was men in black both of course franchises that starred tomalee jones that was my introduction to
15:35him
15:36and i've never thought he was a bad actor but yeah i've never really rated him but since starting this
15:45channel and actually having the opportunity to go back into the actor's filmography and look at some
15:52of his early material like this rolling thunder yeah it definitely gives me a different outlook on the
16:01guy and uh absolutely he is a real real talented actor i really like the performance um to me it
16:09felt
16:10very genuine and the crazy thing is that when you break it down the character voden he only had
16:20you know a handful of scenes he wasn't really in it that much and so to kind of leave a
16:27lasting
16:28impression hey you know credit to tomalee jones he did a fantastic job and i would say he should have
16:35also been nominated for best supporting actor but unfortunately it didn't happen before we get to
16:42dislikes i also wanted to quickly mention the actor paul partain who had a small role in this film
16:50now partain is an actor who is most remembered for his appearance in the 1974 toby hooper horror film
16:59the texas chainsaw massacre in this movie he played one of sergeant voden's family members
17:08and i must say seeing him it completely caught me off guard it was the first time that i'd ever
17:14seen
17:15paul partain in another movie you know i knew he was an actor and he'd been in other projects but
17:20um
17:21yeah i just never never seen him before so uh yeah i was like is that franklin from the texas
17:28chase him oh it is so uh yeah yeah just uh yeah cool to see him and so dislikes for
17:36rolling thunder
17:37from 1977 my biggest dislike for the film would have to be the character linda the groupie who was
17:46completely devoted to major rain now the character who was played by actress linda haynes was brought
17:54along and taken to texas by the major and used as a pawn to try and track down the men
18:01responsible
18:03she helped the major with his mission and once she had lived out all her usefulness he abandoned her
18:12in a hotel room now first and foremost haynes did a really good job with the material that she was
18:18given
18:19to play the love interest for what it's worth i think she did you know an okay job she the
18:25character
18:25wasn't annoying or anything like that but for me personally i just don't think you even needed
18:32to insert that character into this type of story you know the major was more than capable of looking hard
18:40for himself so to me yeah having linda you know tag along just you know wasn't necessary you know
18:50personally i would have loved the major to just go on his revenge mission alone that to me would have
18:57made more sense but i think if the filmmakers you know insisted on having some sort of side character
19:05with the major then i would have you know used sergeant voden because to me you know he was also
19:13capable of looking after himself compared to this woman a bartender who was literally just a groupie for
19:21the major yeah you know it just didn't work for me and you know besides the actual mission itself
19:28i don't think the movie needed some you know romance some love interest because to me it was a personal
19:37story a character study of a psychologically disturbed man who was trying to get revenge on the people that
19:46had killed his family now to me that's more than enough to keep my interest it really is so um
19:56for this love interest i just was you know can we skip this you know can we just hurry this
20:04along
20:05and eventually when linda was abandoned uh we had like the last 15 minutes and yeah that was fantastic
20:14so i don't know i just just thought the character's involvement was just unnecessary
20:20and so ratings for rolling thunder from 1977 i'm going to be rating this movie a strong 6.5 out
20:31of 10
20:32rolling thunder was a very enjoyable 70s drama with both tommy lee jones and william devane
20:40delivering some very impressive performances now that i've actually seen the movie
20:47i can't help but think that in some ways rolling thunder was a bit of a missed opportunity now i
20:56say
20:57that because the film had all the ingredients there for it to be an absolute classic in the same vein
21:05of a
21:05taxi driver for example but as the story went on it kind of veered off course a little bit and
21:14um
21:15yeah it just didn't really uh live up to my expectations i do think that if the filmmakers had
21:24leaned into the psychological aspects of the major rather than inserting this robbery
21:32then yeah it would have been a more personal a more darker story but once you had that robbery
21:39break-in with the criminals and the murders of the wife and the child and the movie did kind of
21:46fall
21:46back into more of a you know a standard vigilante story which you know is fine but i just saw
21:54a lot
21:55of potential here this really could have been um a lot greater you know a lot more compelling than it
22:02ended up being if you've seen rolling thunder then please let me know your thoughts and memories
22:08in the comment section below for those out there who haven't seen this one yet this is a strong
22:14recommendation from me even though i think this movie could have been you know a 10 out of 10 it's
22:20still a hundred percent worth your time if you haven't seen this one yet if you're into movies like
22:25taxi driver then um you know kind of dark 70s movies then definitely check this out i don't
22:33think um you'll be disappointed and well that's all from me today guys i do hope you've enjoyed
22:39this review of rolling thunder from 1977 i'll be back next week with yet another cult movie review
22:49and so in the meantime do please consider subscribing if you haven't like and share and of course guys take
22:56care
23:18you
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