Rolling Thunder (1977)

William Devane puts in a career best performance as Major Charles Rane, a Vietnam veteran who returns to his small town after years in a POW camp (alongside fellow vet Tommy Lee Jones) and is treated like a hero, until thugs break into his home to steal silver coins he received for his service, and murder his wife and son before leaving him for dead.

After his survival, Rane becomes obsessed with getting revenge, and Devane's display of decline is nothing short of masterful; his calm domain and seeming lack of emotion after the death of his wife plays perfectly after we witness his own reintroduction into society and the cold nature of his reintegration into mundane day to day activities.

Linda Haynes does a good job of portraying what originally seems like a damsel in distress role but turns out to be whole lot more than that as she slowly uncovers Rane's future plans, as we unravel her own layers of a tricky past.

Directed by John Flynn, it's unsurprising to see Paul Schrader's name pop up under the screenwriting credits; Rolling Thunder shares many similarities with both Taxi Driver (1976) and Hardcore (1979), whilst perhaps not quite reaching the heights of those. 7.3/10