Rolling Thunder

Charles Rane is like John Rambo, but none of that sissy whining and crying, a real reason to go apeshit, and doesn't sound like he has marbles stuffed in his mouth. It's worth a watch, and good to see a young Tommy Lee Jones kicking some ass, but it didn't quite pay off the way it could have.

The plot summary on this page makes it sound like the WUSSIEST movie.

Post-Nam drama/revenge film that delivers in both subgenres. Easy to see why Tarantino likes this as much as he does - it's a powerful and conscious effort that never goes too dramatic or too cheesy. Pretty much perfect flick.

Some films show PTSD directly, this one takes a different approach, wrapping into a compelling revenge flick. It's a slow and steady type film, but the payoff is worth it.

It's 90 minutes of build-up for 5 minutes of two stoic MFers blasting their way through a whorehouse with shotguns, and it absolutely delivers. Full video review: https://youtu.be/rxVSDBTcsIg

Pretty goddamn good. It can drag here and there and the lower budget shows, but it's a pretty satisfying revenge movie on the whole and Rane is a really interesting character - he reminds me of a more placid version of Lee Marvin's character in Point Blank, driven by nothing but his thirst for revenge and not letting anything get in his way. There's also a sadomasochistic bent to his rampage.

A hard film that has its violence in quick gruesome bursts. Tommy Lee Jones has the line we all remember, but it is William Devane that gives the performance of the film with his pain and suffering just hanging behind his glassy-eyed looks. As one of the first coming-home-from-Vietnam flicks, Paul Schrader takes a genre approach mixed with a very heart-breaking look at emotional and physical breaking points.

Different than other revenge movies, in a good way.

Good mix of exploitation and character study, with a great ending. It drags a little in the middle but the opening 30-45 minutes and the end are great. Fine performance from Devane, also features a quietly intense, young Tommy Lee Jones.

"I'm gonna kill a bunch of people" is a fantastic line, delivered perfectly. The shootout finale is satisfying enough to succeed in a genre where the shootout finale HAS to be satisfying (kind of the whole point). But this is also quite slow. A slow build can be good but this didn't really do much to build the characters to a point that it greatly impacted the conclusion. We cheer for the guy because his kid got killed (which is a fine reason), not because he's a well-written character.

Interesting to watch this a day after Rambo 5. Rolling Thunder predates First Blood and has similar themes about PTSD and the inability of Vietnam vets to adapt to civilian life, while Rambo 5 also shares its stereotypical sleazy and 'bad' Mexican villains. It's more thoughtful than your average white-man's-revenge film though, mostly due to Devane's sympathetic portrayal, and its slow build narrative allows it to avoid accusations of cheap exploitation. The final shootout also hits hard.

While it tends to drag some intense action scenes more than make up for it. The low budget tends to show, mostly in the lighting department. Some scenes benefited from the shoddy lights, but others were really harmed by it.

Solid bleak, revenge film. Yes, it has exploitation as a base but it has a genuine narrative that most contemporaries from that era lack. There's a toned down realism in the first third that lays in the shadows. From there, the film has a strong launch point to fall into sweltering Mexican violence.

Low budget crazed Vietnam vet revenge flick that's pretty notorious for its violent cynical view of life. It's good because of the morbid left turns it makes when you least expect it which is refreshing when compared with the formulaic nonsense we see today. However, there are many loose ends to the characters and plot. We understand the motivations only from a superficial level but you get the impression the whole film's violent conclusion just doesn't go further than its exploitation roots.

Let's go clean em' up.

"What the fuck are you doing?" "I'm gonna kill a bunch of people." Rolling Thunder isn't afraid to show its low budget exploitation roots, in fact that is where half of the charm of the movie comes from.

I was pleasantly surprised by this. At some point, it turns into a revenge/vigilante film incorporating some of the cliches, but even then it's much better written than most, and doesn't offer too much closure or cheap satisfaction. Its theme of military "programming" carrying on into the civilian life of a war veteran anticipates First Blood.

I'm not sure what the point of this was except make sure not to fuck with war veterans, which should be pretty clear already. But otherwise it's a really tough brutal action movie that outdoes many of its contemporaries by maintaining a very intense atmosphere that never slips into unintentional comedy or 70's cheese.

Vengeance ala hook.

The whorehouse massacre climax could have been better.

70.

It's a small budget thriller/action movie and I saw a lot of good reviews of it. It just didn't really grap me, though I liked the premise of it, especiallyt the hook for a hand. The main character remains emotionally distant for obvious reasons, but the way the plot progressed wasn't enough to keep me insanely invested in watching it.

"Rolling Thunder" could have been more. The build-up is long, Tommy Lee Jones appears a lot less than expected and the final shoot-out takes place in the last ten minutes - ten sweet, sweet minutes. Moments of elementary tense brilliance abound - that's what happens if your hero has a fuckin' hook for a hand - and, to the makers' credit, the film doesn't settle for easy, "and-now-everything's-just-fine" type of solutions, but does things its own way. It does roll but is just not that thunderous.

The ending is good and Devane and Jones do a good job. Otherwise it was quite underwhelming. Slow with bad action sequences.

much better than Taxi driver and by the same writer. Best revenge movie ever.

Though this was recommended to me as one of the great revenge movies, it didn't quite live up to those standards, for me. Still, interesting enough, and it did have one heck of an ending.

bland de bästa action jag sett, vad gäller pangpang och slagmål. jakten på kofarmen var makalös

Slow paced at times, then features stark violence and some moving character development. Jones and Devane seek revenge when all they had to do was go to the police, cause they're men! Men you see!

"What the fuck are you doing?" "I'm gonna kill a bunch of people."

77.000

Com Flynn e Schrader não há como errar.

Passes the time.

85.125

Not that the Major's quiet and determination transcends the revenge flick template, but it fits right into its 70s climate, where matter-of-fact world weariness and grime was the order of the day and still had a poetry about it.

Writing: C William Devane: B- Tommy Lee Jones: A All other actors get a D.

Taxi Driver has ruined every 70s drama/thriller. The first act was solid, then the exploitation aspect kicked in and left me cold. The lead performance left the movie stilted and unfeeling, but there was sympathy for him, and that was the point. This may be an above average 70s thriller, which may not be saying much, but there was a missed opportunity to intelligently dive into PTSD and alienation, but that can't be expected from an exploitation movie, even one that's a cut above.