{"id":17010,"date":"2024-05-28T23:18:56","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T22:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=17010"},"modified":"2024-05-29T09:05:15","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T08:05:15","slug":"media-movies-rolling-thunder-1977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=17010","title":{"rendered":"MEDiA\/MOViES: Rolling Thunder, 1977"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I\u2019ve read online that this is a movie Tarantino digs. Well, it is<\/em> in parts very<\/em> violent. And it\u2019s a bit grindhouse, I suppose. But it\u2019s also quite slow moving in parts, and fairly basic in execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also part of what is now a massive part of the mainstream, what I\u2019m going to call vigilante \u2018revenge porn\u2019. And that\u2019s nothing new. A lot of Westerns are revenge based. At least the premise – two \u2018Nam vets, both POWs, finally return home, and can\u2019t assimilate – is reasonably well handled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact that\u2019s the best part of the film; exploring the fall-out from a soldier returning home to a dysfunctional, disintegrating and disappointing civilian life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Layer on there\u2019s a hillbilly-gangster home-invasion scene, which is pretty rough. And that\u2019s kind of what sets up the film\u2019s raison d\u2019etre. It\u2019s perhaps a bit far-fetched? But the brutality is delivered in such a basic way it does still shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And from there on in it gets stuck into the anger and violence, only very mildly leavened by a bit of family banality, with a young Tommy Lee Jones\u2019 family, and Linda (played by Linda Haynes), Major Zane\u2019s post family-massacre squeeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like William Devane, as Maj. Rane, despite the rather clich\u00e9d taciturn tough guy vibe. He has sufficient grit and charisma to carry the part. TLJ, young and square jawed, is a much less developed character, almost robotically blank, in a way suggestive of prior sociopathic tendencies, in addition to post \u2018Nam PTSD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rane and Linda, practise shooting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a character called Cliff – he shacks up with Rane\u2019s wife in the latter\u2019s absence, and (inexplicably and with absolutely no tact) calls Rane\u2019s son \u2018runt\u2019! I wrongly assumed he was being set up to be Rane\u2019s first kill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personally I think the movie makers missed a trick or two in how they handled both Linda\u2019s and Cliff\u2019s roles in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there\u2019s the Mexican whorehouse denouement. This whole type scene has in itself now become something of a clich\u00e9. Maybe back in \u201877 it was a fresher idea? But there are a lot of aspects of this ending that feel half-arsed or somewhat disappointing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the very ending is pretty abrupt and unsatisfactory. And yet, it was an ok watch. Hardly classic. But compelling enough to want to finish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a postscript, it feels to me like a fairly poor riff on Scorsese\u2019s far bleaker and far superior Taxi Driver<\/em>, of 1976. So much so, I think I\u2019ll watch the latter again, to refresh my memory. In fact it turns out that the two films share Paul Schrader, as screenwriter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve read online that this is a movie Tarantino digs. Well, it is in parts very violent. And it\u2019s a bit grindhouse, I suppose. But it\u2019s also quite slow moving in parts, and fairly basic in execution. It\u2019s also part of what is now a massive part of the mainstream, what I\u2019m going to call … <\/p>\n

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