There’s been a trend on the interwebs of sites passing off information that’s been hidden for years – usually stowed away in antique technology like ‘books’ or ‘magazines’ – as news. Who am I to buck the trend? Instead of pretending that this stuff is news I’ll present it to you as interesting bits of info that you may have never learned otherwise. It’s not news, but it’s probably news to you.
There are a number of movies missing from DVD/Blu-Ray, but few as egregiously as Rolling Thunder. With a script by Paul Schrader and a classic lead performance by William Devane (as well as a stunningly badass supporting turn by a very young Tommy Lee Jones), this film is the sort of gritty 70s movie you think only exists in your head.
Devane is a Vietnam POW who returns home after years of imprisonment only to find the world has changed around him. His son is no longer a baby and his wife is no longer faithful. He struggles to keep it all together, but when a gang of thugs break into his home, kill his wife and child and shove his hand into a garbage disposal – all in an attempt to get a bunch of silver dollars given to him by a local department store – Devane enters into silent and calm revenge mode.
Schrader’s original script was apparently changed immensely, and possibly for the better. But one of the most interesting things left out of the finished film is Schrader’s vision of a brief crossover between Devane’s Charles Rane and Travis Bickle from his previous film, Taxi Driver. In this script a very different version of Rane goes to a drive in to watch Deep Throat (you can see the young Schrader really reusing themes here):
Anyway, this never came to pass. But what was Schrader’s bigger plan? Did he have a reason for Travis Bickle suddenly showing up in a drive-in in Texas? Was this just a young screenwriter heady with his own success looking to draw attention to how well he had done before? I like to imagine what the cinema world would be like if Paul Schrader had created his own Schraderverse. I’d like to see what Travis Bickle could have brought to Cat People.
Thanks to CHUD Message Board MVP Phil for bringing this to my attention.
15 comments
This pisses me off… It makes me long for another version of Rolling Thunder that is a sequel to Taxi Driver. With the climax being a Bickle/Raine team-up. Oh well.
Why would Deep Throat even be allowed to play at a drive-in? In Texas of all places?
Unknown User, Texas drive-ins played pornos when I was a kid. I remember being told repeatedly by my parents to turn around when I would try and get a peek of what was going on over on the other screens.
Yeah, this was mind-blowing to read today. Glad it made the front page!!
i've always said that rolling thunder was the b-movie version of taxi driver. similar script (thematically at least), different direction.
This is really fascinating, but I don't know how to take it. Schrader could have been going after something bigger, but I have a feeling that he just wanted to make sure people knew that he wrote Taxi Driver. In a recent article about Raging Bull, Scorsese mentions that Schrader was upset that the movie became a "Scorsese" or "De Niro" picture and not a "Schrader" one. So this might have been a way to reclaim some of the glory of it. Either way, really interesting stuff.
I actually just watched Rolling Thunder a few weeksa ago for the first time -good movie. It's actually available on demand from Comcast right now.
Universe man, Light Sleeper is another facsimile of Taxi Driver, perhaps even closer than Rolling Thunder. Check it out, if only to make a myriad of comparisons.
That one sequence in the script is more interesting and entertaining than anything in the entire running time of the finished rolling thunder. Except possibly the fact the hero does jump rope in his shed.
Almost as cool as the movie poster in Oliver Stone's original CONAN script that suggested it took place in a post-apocalyptic future.
Now this is some cool stuff. Good work, Devs.
According to Schrader it goes Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Light Sleeper for the trilogy of thematically connected works.
Saw it on one of the hi-def channels…looks like it's ready for blu-ray.
Been playing on Encore quite a bit lately.
I'd seen similarities before. Withot trying to be too spoilery, in the climax of the film the haunted vietnam vet does perform (though I guess it's appropriate here) one particular act of slow-mo violence in both, with both ending in similar "eastblishments."
I doubt anybody who hasn't seen this would read comments under it, but if you haven't, it is on Encore a lot. People's love of this as a sleazy revenger overshadows that it really is a pretty good film.
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