Search - Thunderbolt and Lightfoot on DVD

Clint Eastwood makes a good crook, too.

C.H. | Beach Park, IL | 03/02/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Overlooked Eastwood gem has Clint as a thief on the run from former partners in crime (George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis), who mistakingly think he has the loot from their last heist ten years before. He hooks up with young drifter (Bridges) who's eager to join Eastwood in a life of crime. Clint finally convinces Kennedy and Lewis that the money was lost. Undaunted, the happy foursome decide to "re-pull" the same robbery. Great change of pace for Eastwood and Jeff Bridges all but steals the show. Great location shooting in Idaho and Montana and film hasn't lost any originality twenty seven years later. Even though they aren't cops, this is probably one of the first buddy films. Lots of action and laughs, and most definitely worth a look. Look for Gary Busey and Catherine Bach of "The Dukes of Hazzard". Eastwood and Kennedy returned the following year in "The Eiger Sanction.""

THAT'S not it!

C.H. | 12/20/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well, aside from being a total classic, this movie is all at once, touching, funny, exciting, moving, and riveting. It is the ultimate entertaining film. It has something for everyone. Car chases, guns, girls, beer, fistfights, guys in drag, and yes, a trunkfull of rabbits... who could ever ask for more? eastwood and particularly jeff bridges are excellent, especially at the end of the film. his nomination is well deserved. see this movie if you want to be entertained, but not insulted. good stuff."

Great Cast Sparks This Mid-70's Caper Film

J. Merritt | 02/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Four years before "The Deer Hunter" and six years before the disastrous "Heaven's Gate," Michael Cimino broke through as a writer/director with this somewhat rambling but engaging and quirky heist film starring Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, and George Kennedy. A bank robbery gone wrong has left Eastwood laying low, pretending to be a preacher in a small town. When an old partner hunts him down, he narrowly escapes with the help of a small-time thief named Lightfoot (Bridges). The two become partners, but are soon forced to join up with two more of Eastwood's old cronies (Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis). Together, the four set about executing the same bank robbery that failed several years earlier.

Bridges received an Oscar nomination for his offbeat portrayal of a free-spirited and charismatic young con artist, while Kennedy is an angry, ticking time bomb that you just know will eventually explode and screw things up. Much of the film is light and comical, with a veiled commentary about the aimlessness of America's post-Vietnam generation. The ending is surprisingly poignant, however, and the movie features an underrated Eastwood performance and a great recurring Paul Williams song on the soundtrack. Look for early roles by Gary Busey as Bridges' boss on a construction crew, and Catherine Bach (the one and only Daisy Duke) as a girl Lightfoot rather creatively picks up at a bar."

Cimino first triumphant debut...

Roberto Frangie | Leon, Gto. Mexico | 01/14/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The very first shot of "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" - a faultless composition, fifty per cent wispy Idaho sky, fifty per cent cornfield - establishes an elegant style which Cimino maintains throughout the film... The second scene - Clint Eastwood as we have never seen him before, wearing spectacles, his hair slicked back and dressed as a vicar delivering a sermon in a crowded country church - immediately makes one realize that the film may be quite different from any of Eastwood's previous ones... But the third scene, in which the vicar is chased across a seemingly endless cornfield by an irate gun-firing George Kennedy establishes that all is not as it seems to be...

Eastwood is rescued by Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges), who has just relieved a car salesman of $3000 dollars' worth of automobile, and a partnership is quickly created, with the veteran Thunderbolt asserting his experience and virility over the inexperienced Lightfoot... Casting off his vicar's clothes Thunderbolt then takes his belt and endures agonizing pain as he uses it to pull his dislocated shoulder into place...

Thunderbolt is being pursued by Red Leary (George Kennedy) and Eddie Goody (Geoffrey Lewis) who are former partners of his in crime and who believe he has the half million dollar takings from their last bank raid... They mean business... While Thunderbolt and Lightfoot enjoy themselves with two young ladies named Gloria and Melody, Leary and Goody wait outside. 'Are you sure that's their car?' wonders Goody. 'That's their hearse,' says Leary...

The film was a triumphant debut for Cimino... His script combined wit and the naive philosophy of the motorized cowboys... 'Leary, I had a dream about you last night." "About what?" "I dreamt you said hello to me.'

At the beginning of the film when Eastwood recites his sermon for the benefit of his felonious friend, 'and the lion shall lie down with the leopard' (Cimino used it purposely to indicate the liaison between Lightfoot the lion and Thunderbolt the leopard), the younger man asks 'What's that - a poem?' 'No,' replies Thunderbolt, 'a prayer'. At the end of the film the younger man is still seeking answers from his senior partner... 'Where you heading?' 'See what's over the next mountain! We won, didn't we?' 'I guess we did - for the time being.'

Cimino created the part for Eastwood and in doing so drew greatly on his actual personality... For those people who know the real Clint Eastwood, no film part better conveys the style, the warmth, and the dry delivery of the man himself...

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