June 27, 2021

Feeling a bit better today. Family is in town, but I haven't seen them yet. 

Mlog Time! 

I'm skipping Female Trouble and Jodorowsky's Dune for now, but I'll come back to those.  

ROLLING THUNDER 

1977

Directed by: John Flynn

Written by: Paul Schrader, Heywood Gould

Watched: 6/26/21

Major Charles Rane and Sergeant Johnny Vohden arrive home in Texas after being a prisoner of war in Vietnam for seven years. Charles home town of San Antonio celebrate him by giving him a silver dollar for each day he was imprisoned. Charles’s son who, when Charles left for war was only a baby, is now a boy. And Charles’s wife wants a divorce, as she’s fallen in love with another man. Charles is fine with this, unemotional and robotic. He just wants to be a part of his son’s life. A group of men robs Charles, knowing about his silver dollars. They torture him, trying to get him to say where he’s hidden it. He doesn’t say anything, even when they put his hand down the garbage disposal.  His wife and son come home, the son tells them where the money is, and then the men shoot them all. Charles lives, his wife and son do not. 

Charles bonds – sort of – with the young woman who wore is bracelet while he was gone and is now in love with him. He takes her to Mexico, and starts trying to track down the men who killed his son. As he gets closer to the men, he ditches the girl – leaving her plenty of money – and visits the Sergeant. In the middle of a family dinner, he tells Johnny that he knows where the men are. Johnny, deadpan: I’ll get my kit. The two men go to the brothel where the men are enjoying themselves and shoot a bunch of people. They get shot themselves, but leaning on one another, they’re able to get out of there alive. 

I really enjoyed the pacing and tension in this movie. It’s slow moving but there’s plenty of drama. The character of the major is fantastic. He’s described as being “macho as hell,” but it’s because he can take pain, he can survive it, rather than because of his ability to inflict pain. It’s his resilience that makes him amazing. His ability to lose a hand without blinking an eye. Of course the roots of that are tragic, he’s traumatized from his time as a POW. He feels like he’s already dead. A solid, beautiful, surprising film. 

Rating: ★★★★