Distant Thunder movie review & film summary (1988)

In the opening scenes of "Distant Thunder," we meet one of those men, Mark Lambert (John Lithgow). He is as depressed and alienated as the others, but more sane. After he fails to stop a friend from killing himself, he decides to abandon life in the forest, move into town, and try somehow to pick up the threads of his life. One of these threads is a wife and a son, Jack, back in Illinois. Lambert carries an old snapshot of Jack when he was a baby. The movie opens as Jack (Ralph Macchio) is graduating from high school.

The structure of "Distant Thunder" is straightforward, cutting back and forth between the father in Washington and the son in Illinois. The father is befriended by Char, a local woman (Kerrie Kean), who lost her father in Vietnam. She encourages Mark to write to his son. The son is filled with anger that his father has been absent for his entire life, but decides to drive out West to see his dad.

Meanwhile, Char's violent, jealous boyfriend attacks Mark in a saloon, and the Vietnam vet retreats once again to his hideout in the wilderness.

Much of what happens next is formula filmmaking, redeemed by the genuine feeling in the performances. Char and Jack walk into the mountains, but are taken prisoner by two other Vietnam veterans (a sign on the approach to their settlement reads, "Trespassers Will Be Executed"). When father and son finally meet, there is little to say, and too much pain on both sides. Then a gigantic, violent veteran named Nitz (Red Brown) goes out of control, and there is a fight to the finish that reconciles father and son.

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