The last action film you watched

Rolling Thunder (1977) by John Flynn

"You learn to love the rope. That's how you beat 'em. That's how you beat people who torture you. You learn to love 'em. Then they don't know you're beatin' 'em."

Having survived the horrors of war. Major Charles Rane (William Devane) finally returns home, after 7 long years, and where several of those, were spent as a prisoner of war, at the hands of the enemy. While being greeted back as a war hero, Rane soon learns that his time away from home, has caused quite some serious changes, and where things will soon turn into yet another nightmare, when his family is brutally gunned down, by a small gang of criminals.

Finally got around to see this late 70s revenge cult-thriller, which I recently picked up through a swedish Studio S DVD release. I really wanted to love this one, but sometimes, that is not enough. Not saying I had a "bad" or "disappointing" time, last night. But it felt like one, which just missed out, on that extra bit, to make it go a little higher on the rating/entertainment scale.

I guess, what I had in mind, was seeing these two tortured souls, having survived hell and back, returning home together, only to realize that they just will never fit in again in modern society, any longer. But after a while, Tommy Lee Jones character "disappears" for a long while, and in the mean time the film is surely a bit of a slow moving one, not a big problem really, but the whole set up, with the much younger female "groupie" sidekick, just took up too much time, and I guess back in the 70s, with films like Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and Mr. Majestyk (both 1974), were just a few which seemed to follow this well used "formula", of teaming up an older and rugged man, with a beautiful younger woman, who is often determined and tough as well, but in this case, I would have loved to see Devane and Lee Jones tearing it up, much sooner. However, when they finally re-group, towards the end, I love the scene where you could clearly seen that Jones character, has absolutely nothing in common with his relatives, and the moment his old war buddy arrives, and says something about where the murderers of his family is hiding, Jones then does without much of a thought, says: "I go get my gear" and I loved seeing them take out the scum, such a satisfying and hard hitting finish to the film.

I will surely keep a hold of it, for now. But I doubt it might climb much higher than how I rated it, last night.
Not a great one, but still a well acted and written movie, which lands on a rating of:

7/10