ROLLING THUNDER (1977) - Andy's 4K UHD Review

[AndyDursin]

ROLLING THUNDER
7.5/10

Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould’s script for John Flynn’s ROLLING THUNDER (95 mins., 1977, R) makes for a pungent slice of ‘70s cinema that Shout premieres on 4K UHD this month in a spectacular upgrade on its previous MGM HD master (and 2013 Blu-Ray release).

William Devane stars as a Vietnam vet who loses his hand and – after returning home from the war – his family. Distraught and eventually fueled by revenge, he takes aim on their killers with the help of old army buddy Tommy Lee Jones, climaxing in a memorable showdown.

With the feel of an exploitation film but graced with strong performances – especially from Devane, who’s dailed back in a searing performance – “Rolling Thunder” is a mean, tough picture that had originally been produced by 20th Century Fox. After seeing the completed film, Fox dumped the movie and handed it over to Samuel Z. Arkoff’s American-International Pictures who, predictably, played up the film’s brutal elements (and its connection with “Taxi Driver”) in its advertising. The end result is an efficient, striking thriller that ranks with Devane’s best work, written by Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould, with John Flynn having taken the directorial reins after Fox wouldn’t allow Schrader to direct the picture himself. That results in a movie that’s more entertaining and pungent in its action sequences than it may have been otherwise, minus the sort of pretentiousness that marked much of Schrader’s work.

Shout’s UHD edition of “Rolling Thunder” offers a dynamite new 4K Dolby Vision HDR scan (1.85, mono) from the original camera negative. The image is clear and superbly encoded, and one only needs to see clips from the old MGM master (in the disc’s bonus featurettes) to see how much of an upgrade this is.

Even better, Shout has included a number of new special features. These include two new commentaries: one from writer Heywood Gould and historian/screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner, plus another with filmmakers Jackson Stewart and Francis Gallupi. New interview segments include Barry DeVorzon, talking about his score and particularly the marvelous Denny Brooks song “San Antone” which bookends the movie (talk about a great title song, what a shame it never made any impact on the charts); and a longer talk with C. Courtney Joyner, discussing the early films of John Flynn. These are all included alongside a 2013 retrospective featurette that boasted comments from Devane, Jones, Schrader and Gould, along with TV/radio spots and the Percy Rodriguez-narrated original trailer.

Speaking of "San Antone," you can hear it in the original single here (Devorzon also used it at the start of THE NINTH CONFIGURATION):