The film of the week this time is ROLLING THUNDER.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076637/

Rolling Thunder is one of the best revenge films ever. It is a gritty film that was written by Paul Schrader who also wrote Taxi Driver. He is a pretty inconsistant writer, but every now and then he hit strikes gold. This is probably his best film next to Taxi Driver. It stars William Devane as Charles Rane. He and his friend Johnny Vohden played by Tommy Lee Jones are returning to a small town in Texas. They recieve a hero's welcome by the locals, a car, and a suitcase full of silver dollars and Charles is taken home by his wife Janet, his son Mark, and a policeman Cliff. He later finds out that Linda is now engaged to Cliff and Mark no longer rememebers him. He accepts his wife's new relationship but later on we find out he goes back to the routines he established while he was a POW.

Later on he gets confronted by a group of thugs who want to steal the silver dollars. They beat him up and try to force him to tell them. Linda and Mark come home and try to find the suitcase. I won't spoil what happens next, but I will say it is a pretty brutal film. You don't get many films like this anymore. Sure there are revenge films, but they don't have the same level of grit and grime. Unlike some revenge films like the Death Wish sequels where it's just Charles Bronson killing everything. Here the violence is never glorified or over the top. The main characters are cold and emotionally distant, but they have more depth than most action film stars. If you like a good 70's thriller then I highly recommend this.