DISTANT THUNDER

US, 1988, 114 minutes, Colour.
John Lithgow, Ralph Macchio, Reb Brown, Janet Margolin, Jamey Sheridan, Tom Bower.
Directed by Rick Rosenthal.

Distant Thunder is another film about Vietnam veterans. It was produced during the period of Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, Hanoi Hilton, Casualties of War, Born on the Fourth of July. Its opening sequences are in Vietnam, powerful sequences of war and death. However, the action takes place 20 years later (as with Norman Jewison's In Country) and shows veterans not adapting to the American way of life. It also shows the next generation and the desire for some reconciliation with absent parents.

The film was made in British Colombia in attractive Rocky Mountain scenery. John Lithgow is effective as the unsettled veteran. Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid) is his son.

The film has a melodramatic style and is emotional - but also shows us a glimpse of a real problem for so many of the veterans who experienced shock when young, the experience of combat, deaths with a sense of responsibility for death, and their not adapting to ordinary life. Direction is by Rick Rosenthal, director of Bad Boys.

1. The Vietnam War and its aftermath? 20 years later? American conscience about Vietnam and the veterans in the '80s? A piece of Americana, drama, melodrama?

2. The Rocky Mountains locations, the isolation in the forests, the waterfalls? The towns of Washington State? The contrast with life in Illinois? Musical score, songs of the period - '60s and '80s?

3. The title, the experience of the war, the aftermath - for 20 years?

4. The prologue in Vietnam, audience familiarity with the dramatising of combat, the Americans caught, the explosions, deaths? Mark Lambert and his mission, saving his comrade, the wounded man whimpering and shouting, Mark responsible for his death?

5. The late '80s, in the forests? The group of veterans - considered weird? Mark and his experience, the gathering of ferns, making his living, living with the veterans in a small commune? Their isolation, grief and pain, memories? The veteran and his walking along the railway line and killing himself? Larry and his sense and madness? Harvey and his hostility? Mark's decision to go into the town, leaving the forest, looking for work, befriended by Char, her suspicious boyfriend? His jobs and work? Friendship with Char and affirmation? The letter to his son, having rung him but hung up? The reply? Getting ready for his visit? The fight with Char's boyfriend? His retreating into the mountains again? Unwilling to see his son? The encounter, awkwardness and shyness, his son's attacking him, the fight, clenching his fists? The inability to communicate? His conscience about his son, his wife? His decision to let him go? Seen as a failure? The crisis, the violence, the reconciliation with his son in the tension, action and being wounded? A future together? Some rehabilitation? That it had taken so long?

6. Jack, the 18-year-old, top of the class, praised by his coach, the graduation, friends, the valedictory speech and his optimism? His relationship with his mother? His absent father, the photos, the letter, communicating it to his mother, writing back, the decision to go? Not finding him? Meeting Char, their decision to go into the mountains, the sign for trespassers to be executed, the decision to go on, being caught by Harvey, tied up? Larry and his taking over, his bizarre friendship? Teaching Jack to shoot? Helping him to find his father? Meeting his father by accident with the water, talking, lack of communication, hurt and resentment, his attacking his father, his father's fist? The break between the two? The decision to go back? The crisis with Char's boyfriend arriving, Harvey's shooting, the death of Larry, the need for getting the wounded man down the mountain, father defending son and the group, Jack with the reconciliation? In hospital? The possibility of a future? The sketch of the mother and her love for her husband, the absence of years?

7. Char, sympathy for Mark, helping him, the memories of deaths in Vietnam? The jealous boyfriend? Helping Mark, with the letter, advice, getting him ready? Accompanying Jack up the mountain, playing draughts with Larry? Her interventions, the crisis, getting the boyfriend down again? A good woman and her help?

8. Her boyfriend, his jealousy, attacks on Mark, the fight in the bar? Going up the mountain, the encounter with Harvey, the fight and his being stabbed? The attempts to get him down the mountainside?

9. Larry, his place among the veterans, urging Mark to tell the story of the combat, Mark's response, Jack's eagerness? Mark dramatising the story, holding on to Jack and his experiencing what his father had felt? Larry's sense, madness? Helping the group, confronting Harvey, being shot?

10. Harvey, madness, isolation, tying up the trespassers? The attack on the boyfriend and stabbing him? Going down the mountain - his future?

11. A grim picture of the aftermath of the Vietnam War? Effect on the men of a generation? On their children? On the American psyche?