Rolling Thunder
Rolling Thunder is a 1977 film from the USA, directed by John Flynn, running 95 minutes. reelscum files it under vigilante.
- Year
- 1977 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 95 min
- Director
- John Flynn
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- known (29/100)
Defined in the glossary: Vigilante
Paul Schrader script, and the last twenty minutes are perfect.
A returning Vietnam POW comes home to indifference and then to violence, loses his family, and sets out for revenge with a hook where his hand used to be. Paul Schrader wrote it, and his fixation on damaged men and redemptive violence runs all through it.
For most of its length it is a study of a hollowed-out man who cannot feel anything, and then the last twenty minutes deliver one of the most cathartic and brutal finales in 70s cinema. William Devane and a young Tommy Lee Jones are excellent.
A genuine sleeper, and one of the sharpest films the vigilante cycle produced.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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Filed alongside
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Revenge as a chew toy. Nobody in Korean cinema has been crueller for longer.
Vigilante
Lustig doing it straight. Robert Forster deserves better and knows it.
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Street Law
Castellari's Death Wish. An ordinary engineer, brutalised and ignored, arms himself.