Rolling Thunder (1977)

Review by Mari Lynne Rupp



Major charles Rayne (William Devayne) returns home after being in a Viet Nam prison camp for seven years. He returns home to a strange world that is no longer his, a son that doesn't rememeber him and an estranged wife. This is hard enough but when thugs break into his home and torture and rob from him killing his wife and son in the process, Major Charles Rayne goes back into POW mode and hunts down the men responsible for destroying his family.
This isn't grindhouse in the classic sense, but it still bears recognizing, as there's plenty of sticky situations, nudity and gore to satisfy the little grindhound in all of us. It's also a powerful statement of what the Vietnam vets came home to....shell-shocked, worn out, and out of place. They spent years running on pure adrenalin and came home to families and jobs that no longer needed them. They languished and almost wasted away, looking for a place to fit in, or feel alive. This is most evident near the climax, when Maj. Rayne enlists his old POW buddy to help hunt down the bad guys. The former soldier leaves his family in the middle of dinner in order to feel that spark of life once more, hunting and surviving the hunt.
At times a bit slow, and definitely dated, there's probably a lot in this movie that would be completely irrelevant, but some parts that would be totally understood by some returning from battle over seas.
Also, look for a very young Tommy Lee Jones, very worth a look.
6/10