'Distant Thunder', for the most part is about a father and son who need to come together. That would have been fine with me but it turns out to be a movie too afraid to be about real human emotion and has to end with a violent action confrontation.
In the Pacific Northwest lives a hermit, a Vietnam Vet named Mark Lambert (John Lithgow) who has retreated from the world since returning from Vietnam a broken man. He lives in a run down old shack among other vets who are occasionally driven to alcoholism, violent rages and/or suicide. The story is sparked when Lambert fails to save a friend from walking head on into a speeding freight train.
Lambert has a son Jack in Illinois and thinks that it may be time to get to know the kid whom he hasn't seen since infancy. A local woman named Char encourages him to go and see Jack and try to have some sort of reconciliation. He writes to Jack (Ralph Macchio) and after much anger and blame the son relents and drives out to see his father.
This is where the movie should have been a play on how a father and son come together and heal the wounds put upon them by the Vietnam War. But after a scene or two of this the movie goes into action clichés and into a third act that I found distressing.
Char's boyfriend Nitz (Red Brown), another vet, goes crazy and kidnaps Jack and Char and takes them back into the woods with him. This leads to one of those stupid fight to the finish scenes with Mark that we can calculate from the moment it starts.
This whole subplot is unnecessary and a distraction from what we wanted to see which was the building of the relationship between Mark and his son. John Lithgow and Ralph Macchio do some good work here playing well-developed characters with genuine feelings, especially Lithgow whom I've never seen play a character like this.
I was reminded of the brilliant 'Paris Texas' another story of a man coming back to civilization to find and reunite with this family. That movie had a quiet, hushed tone and just allowed it's characters to talk and didn't need interference of action to tell us how to feel. 'Distant Thunder' is two acts of a great story ruined by the director's fear that we won't sit still and watch two character get to know one another.
In the Pacific Northwest lives a hermit, a Vietnam Vet named Mark Lambert (John Lithgow) who has retreated from the world since returning from Vietnam a broken man. He lives in a run down old shack among other vets who are occasionally driven to alcoholism, violent rages and/or suicide. The story is sparked when Lambert fails to save a friend from walking head on into a speeding freight train.
Lambert has a son Jack in Illinois and thinks that it may be time to get to know the kid whom he hasn't seen since infancy. A local woman named Char encourages him to go and see Jack and try to have some sort of reconciliation. He writes to Jack (Ralph Macchio) and after much anger and blame the son relents and drives out to see his father.
This is where the movie should have been a play on how a father and son come together and heal the wounds put upon them by the Vietnam War. But after a scene or two of this the movie goes into action clichés and into a third act that I found distressing.
Char's boyfriend Nitz (Red Brown), another vet, goes crazy and kidnaps Jack and Char and takes them back into the woods with him. This leads to one of those stupid fight to the finish scenes with Mark that we can calculate from the moment it starts.
This whole subplot is unnecessary and a distraction from what we wanted to see which was the building of the relationship between Mark and his son. John Lithgow and Ralph Macchio do some good work here playing well-developed characters with genuine feelings, especially Lithgow whom I've never seen play a character like this.
I was reminded of the brilliant 'Paris Texas' another story of a man coming back to civilization to find and reunite with this family. That movie had a quiet, hushed tone and just allowed it's characters to talk and didn't need interference of action to tell us how to feel. 'Distant Thunder' is two acts of a great story ruined by the director's fear that we won't sit still and watch two character get to know one another.