Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Pretty Good

Memorable, crazy movie

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

If everyone would just follow Eastwood's Thunderbolt in this film, then they would all be alive and rich. But, that can't happen, of course. Eastwood made a few films where older reluctant criminal teams up with a young sidekick with fresh ideas and this formula always seems to work. The story in this film is predictable. The protagonists' team comes together for a heist, the good guys in the group prevail, while the bad elements get what they deserve. Once you think that Thunderbolt and Lightfoot have gotten away and can enjoy their hard-earned loot, the story shifts. Lightfoot has received what turns out to be fatal internal injuries during the heist, and Thunderbolt must witness the true cost of a life lived on the wrong side of the law. The Thunderbolt must end up alone. He does not deserve a life well lived. What does he do with the money after he drives down the highway and his car disappears over the hill? One can imagine he buries it in an unmarked grave with Lightfoot. The money made the younger man feel like a hero, For the Thunderbolt, it brought nothing but grief. The story is predictable, but well told and satisfying. I recommend!

While I had owned the DVD for several years, it wasn't until the deaths of George Kennedy and writer/director Michael Cimino this year that I finally decided to finally watch this, the director's feature debut, made years after he previously helmed commercials. As for Kennedy, he's both funny and quite intense as someone after Clint Eastwood's hide from something that happened a long time ago. Eastwood is the first name in the title and Jeff Bridges is the second. This pairing of different generations is quite quick but their chemistry makes it work. Also on hand is Geoffrey Lewis forming a gang with the other three I just mentioned. While the plot does meander, that's part of the charm. I also liked spotting some future stars-like Catherine Bach before becoming Daisy Duke on "The Dukes of Hazzard" or Gary Busey before playing Buddy Holly-in the movie. Anyway, on that note, I highly recommend Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and dedicate this review in memory of Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Cimino.

Here is the IMDb summary for Thunderbolt and Lightning - "With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist". Sounds like it's the sort of film that would be exciting and lots of fun doesn't it? Yeah well I'm sorry, but this really didn't do a lot for me I'm afraid.For a start the actual plot doesn't really get any focus at all until we're close to the hour mark which isn't necessarily a problem in itself if the first half of the film does anything of interest, but unfortunately that isn't the case here.Even if we overlook the rather contrived set-up to the story it's a really hard film to become involved with. The first hour consists of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot picking up prostitutes, stealing a car and being pursued by Leary (George Kennedy) who has a score to settle with Thunderbolt (Clint Eastwood) as he believes that Thunderbolt set him up on a previous job. I haven't got a problem with silliness in films but it has to feel as though there is some sort of point to any of it. The first half is a rather dumb and random sequences of events serving no real purpose and the second half involves the planning and execution of the heist. For me, the two aspects don't mesh very well together and made the film feel uneven.I also found it a little bit convenient that Leary would suddenly drop everything and decide to join Thunderbolt for one last job - given how angry he was with him previously. If I'm honest I just found many elements of the story to be a little hokey.Another problem in this film is that it suffers from notably weak chemistry amongst its characters. Eastwood and Bridges are OK individually, but share few sparks when they're on screen together. Although to be fair to Bridges he did at least try and inject some fun into the film and managed to be both annoying and funny in equal measure. Kennedy and Lewis fared worse and seemed to add very little to the film.Things improve slightly in the second half of the film when we're actually seeing the 'heist' itself. I thought that the planning and thought that went into the heist was clever, but again it wasn't exciting and once the heist is executed it was rather workmanlike and run of the mill and again just didn't do a lot for me.Simply put, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is a mixture of bad and mediocre and a film that doesn't deliver upon its rather exciting sounding premise.

Interesting in that it stars Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges, and is probably the only movie to include both of them. Eastwood was already an established star while this movie came early in Bridges' movie career. Interesting too in that it is the directing debut of Michael Cimino. His next movie was one of the greatest movies of all time, The Deer Hunter.This said, despite the acting, directing and writing (Cimino also wrote the script) talent involved, the movie is nothing special. It mostly plays as a farcical comedy. Gratuitous car chases, scenes that have no point, sometimes-random plot. Throw in an implausible bank heist and it doesn't feel at all original.Then we have a very dramatic and moving ending, just to confuse your emotions and sense of what type of movie it is.Performances are good, however. Jeff Bridges is great as Lightfoot and Clint Eastwood is solid, and very Eastwoodesque, as Thunderbolt. Good support from George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis. Gary Busey has a very minor role.