Having spent more than six years in a POW camp, a Vietnam War veteran finds adjusting to life back home challenging in this dramatic thriller co-written by Paul Schrader and starring William Devane. The film gets off to a strong start with Devane remaining cold and near emotionless to the very worst of news, having learnt to bottle up his emotions as a way of surviving the POW camp. In a memorable scene, he even tries to get someone to torture him like the Viet Cong tortured him, confessing that he has come to love the pain and rely on it. There is also a touching angle with Devane feeling a stranger around his preteen son who does not even remember him. This dramatic crux soon takes a backseat though as thugs break into his house, intending to rob him. While this leads to an extremely intense scene in which Devane does not even cave into the worst possible torture since he has learnt not to, the subsequent movie is never quite as interesting as it focuses on Devane's attempts to track down the thugs after they kill his family and then leave him for dead. The Vietnam War parable that results is fairly decent, with the thugs representing the whole Viet Cong who likewise caused him great pain over the years, however, his war veteran history is soon forgotten with the film too often feeling a 'Death Wish' variant. The final shoot-out is also arguably too brief (lasting less than five minutes) to truly feel cathartic, and yet Devane is mesmerising enough that the film is enticing from start to finish. It is hard to think of a more substantial film role that he has had.
Review of Rolling Thunder
