Rolling Thunder – Review

The slow country jam leading the opening credits does not really set the tone of the film despite its lyrical content, as the plot features Vietnam POWs returning home after years away and dealing with the horrors of societal reacclimating compounded by a horrendous home invasion.

As the plans lands, Air Force Major Charles Rane (Devane) and Army Master Sergeant Johnny Vohden (Jones) land along with a few others, and try to get ready to face the public. Children yell and crowds cheer as the soldiers exit and greet the welcoming people. Rane says it is good to be back and that the people were always behind them 100%. He is a better man, officer and American because of his experience in Hanoi.

His son and wife embrace him, while Vohden’s family does the same. It has been 7 years away, and the men are not yet used to being stateside. Rane has to get used to life again, and his wife wasn’t ever sure if he would make it home again. Life went on while he was away, and now here he is, back. Rane understands and processes changes fairly well, however his wife appears to be semi-engaged now to another man, himself a divorcee.

So, things for Rane could be better, and the trauma part of being a prisoner for the better part of a decade does not help. His mind has been conditioned to survive in a completely different environment, and has been rewired. Sleep does not come easy. He almost finds comfort in returning to torture like routines in his mind. Almost.

But hey, the public is honoring him and awarding him free shit like one silver dollar for every day he was in his prison hellhole, plus one for good luck. He tries to keep his head up, be there for his child and reconcile what he can with his wife. And then… more tragedy strikes as his good luck coin’s charm is burnt out almost instantly.

Criminals want those silver dollars and break into his home, devastating the family forever. The movie is a slower pace, but also tackles plenty of mature content and war related themes before diving into its tale of revenge. It’s hard to torture a man who’s just been through it daily for years on end.

The movie is serious, dark, violent and well-acted, but also deals with some serious PTSD and war torture issues. It hits some important ideas, themes and focal points of the period surrounding soldiers at home, and these were likely not present in tons of war-themed features which stop before the men head back to their families.