Vietnam vet Lithgow withdrew from society after he was discharged from the Army in 1970, deserting his wife and son in Illinois. Now living in the woods of Washington state, along with other disaffected vets, Lithgow decides to rejoin civilization after one of his buddies kills himself by
walking in front of a train ("kissing a train," the vets call it). Encouraged by his friend Keane, Lithgow takes a job with a logging company and writes to his 18-year-old son, Macchio, saying he wants to get together. While Macchio travels cross-country to meet him, Lithgow gets into a fight with
Keane's jealous boy friend, Sheridan, which traumatizes him back into seclusion. Macchio and Keane, followed by Sheridan, head into the woods to find him, but Sheridan's intrusion on the small veterans community provokes a violent reaction from one of Lithgow's disturbed comrades and forces
Lithgow to face an especially painful memory. During the arduous journey down the mountains with the badly injured Sheridan, Lithgow and Macchio try to reconcile their differences. It isn't easy, and Lithgow almost kisses a train himself before it's over, but finally the two make peace.
Lithgow talked with Vietnam veterans who were receiving counseling for post-traumatic stress syndrome to prepare for his role here, and scriptwriter Robert Stitzel has also obviously done his homework on the subject. Yet DISTANT THUNDER trivializes the problems it wants to explore, for when the
chips are down and the movie really needs some action, it brings on a stereotypical psychotic Vietnam vet to go on a rampage of violence. The film is slow and predictable, and its father-son confrontations are stagy and cliched, despite Lithgow's typically solid work. Macchio is stuck with the
worst dialog and barely struggles through. The picture was filmed in British Columbia, standing in for Washington. leave a comment