Brilliant

As far as war movies go, this one has always stuck in my memory.

Sure, it was made in 1977, and it's quite dated.

This was before computers. This was before "special" effects. This was before cell phones. This was made a long time ago when most people reading this in IMDb cannot imagine how different things were as far as communications.

William DeVane could not Skype his family.

The President of the US had to call the Premier of Russia on the telephone to avert the dropping of bombs.

We all had to mail things in paper envelopes and wait several days for an answer to a letter.

This movie, as old as it is, shows many basic similarities to the high tech movies like "American Sniper" that are now available and address the problems of men that go into combat.

These men come back home and feel like they are on another planet. Assimilating back into "normal" life is extremely difficult after having seen the horrors of war. The men cannot relate to their women or the people back home who have no idea what people endure in order to maintain the freedom and rights people have in the US to get drunk on weekends and build huge houses and have supermarkets with row upon row of products and more food than anyone could ever possibly eat not to mention clean, running water and toilets and fast cars. As they say on "Behind the Music"...you think you know, but you don't know.

Paul Schrader was very famous for his script for "Taxi Driver" when this movie was made so there were high expectations for this project when it was released. However Paul wrote the "Rolling Thunder" script prior to "Taxi Driver". The studio was anxious to produce another Paul Schrader hit, but the original script was too complex and dark, so significant changes were made. Paul's original concept was how the roots of some men's motivation to go to war is not patriotism but racism. Fascinating concept -- but Schrader has always been a unique thinker who wrestled with many conflicts of religion & politics due to his own Calvinist roots. The studio would not produce such a complicated movie. The people of the US were steeped in moral & social conflict about the horrors of Viet Nam. That's why the finished script focused on the effects of war excluding the racism, and Schrader did not like the movie. It may not have been the original intention, but it's still an effective portrait of the effects of war, or a glimmer into such a complex subject as can be covered in 90 minutes.

This was the first time I saw Tommy Lee Jones, and he simply jumped off the screen. That he became a huge star, and is still acting today nearly 40 years later is not a surprise to me.

Favorite line:

"Why do I always get stuck with crazy men?

"Because that's the only kind that's left."