Ultimately I chose Thunderbolt & Lightfoot as the first movie to write about for one reason. It is the last movie that we both watched and it was over the Memorial Day weekend. So it is fresh in my mind. In my first post I mentioned the criteria that would land a particular movie on my list. In the case of Thunderbolt & Lightfoot, it made the cut by virtue of the Best Supporting Actor nomination of Jeff Bridges as Lightfoot.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was released by United Artists in 1974 and starred Jeff Bridges as the aforementioned Lightfoot and Clint Eastwood as Thunderbolt. Geoffrey Lewis as Eddie Goody. Lewis has been in a few movies with Eastwood, the two that immediately came to mind for me were Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can. Probably not the finest examples but that was my first thought when I first saw him in the movie. I couldn't help myself from saying, "Right turn Clyde" more than a couple of times. The main cast is rounded out by George Kennedy as Red Leary.
Two others that deserve mention would be Gary Busey as Curly. These days I think many aren't sure if Gary Busey is all there. Watch a few re runs of Celebrity Apprentice if you don't believe me. Of course he was the sole reason I actually watched Celebrity Apprentice this year. From an entertainment and ratings standpoint, he was pure gold for Donald Trump. Hell, I stopped watching the minute he was fired. This role was pre-motorcycle accident so he didn't seem as weird.
Finally, there is Catherine Bach as Melody. This is my second post so it is likely nobody is reading this, but if you are and you are in your mid twenties, you may be saying, "who the hell is Catherine Bach?!"
Why she is Daisy Duke of course and if you grew up when I did, not too mention hit puberty around the time I did, you knew who Catherine Bach was. You knew she drove a Jeep on Dukes of Hazard and wore incredibly sexy short shorts. Which will forever be known as Daisy Dukes now. I actually wrote a letter to her when I was in elementary school I think. Our assignment was to write a letter to someone famous. I am not sure how our teacher had a list of famous peoples addresses, but she was one of the ones we could choose from. If memory serves it was most likely addressed to CBS c/o Dukes or Hazard, or perhaps her agency that represented her, not her home address.
I still remember my teacher saying in many cases they will send you autographed posters or pictures in response. Now I will not go as far as saying that a signed Catherine Bach poster, as Daisy Duke would have been the Holy Grail, but it would have been close. I am pretty sure the Farah Fawcett poster or Bo Derek were probably the Holy Grail at that time. Sadly, I never received the coveted autographed poster or photo. Hell, I didn't even get a response.
Finally, this movie was direct by Michael Cimino. This was his directorial debut. The buzz is that originally Eastwood planned on directing the movie but stepped aside to let Cimino direct it. Incidentally he also has a writing credit. Apparently Cimino had impressed Eastwood with some of the rewrites of one of the Dirty Harry movies. Which one escapes me at the moment, but I guess you will have to take my word for it. Cimino is probably better known for directing The Deer Hunter and then more infamously for the debacle known as Heaven's Gate that many point to as the demise of United Artists.
Thunderbolt & Lightfoot has been classified as a travelling movie. The success of Easy Rider kind of started a trend towards travelling movies. Apparently Clint Eastwood was keen on making one. I have yet to see Easy Rider, so I can't make a fair comparison, but from what I know of Easy Rider, I'm not really sure I see the connection.
The movie is about an old bank robbing gang, of which Eastwood, Kennedy, and Lewis were all members. They pulled off a heist and hid the money in an old school house in a small town in Montana. Eastwood is posing as a preacher biding his time until he can pick up the money. A member of the old gang tries to kill him as he is preaching and he flees from him. Mind you the guy trying to kill him is a terrible shot, it is beyond unbelievable that he could miss that many times from that range, but hey its the movies.
Bridges who has stolen a car earlier happens upon Eastwood and he jumps in the car. This is how Thunderbolt and Lightfoot hook up. They have a couple of other adventures and somehow Lightfoot figures out that his new pal is a bank robber. I watched the movie, but I am really unclear as to how he figures this out. I realize that Thunderbolt eventually tells him the story of his big heist, but prior to this it seems to me that Lightfoot just seems to know. It is as if Lightfoot has a sixth sense that tells him that this preacher you just picked up is really a bank robber. It really isn't explored in the movie in my opinion, but maybe I am missing something. That was the one sticking point for me through out the whole movie.
Eventually the guys trying to kill Thunderbolt catch up with the two of them. Lightfoot proposes that they perpetrate the exact same robbery. It is during the lead up to the heist that Bridges shines. He is a real smart ass to Red who really dislikes him. This animosity is carried through the entire movie and eventually manifests itself when Red double crosses them after the robbery. He beats Lightfoot who is still dressed in drag from the robbery.
I did my best not to give away the whole story and have purposely left out the ending. As mentioned before, Bridges was brilliant in this movie. The nomination was certainly well deserved. He is quirky and free wheeling. His youthful optimism is a stark contrast to the older, wiser and more reserved Thunderbolt. He has this almost wide eyed awe of Thunderbolt and obviously looks up to him. His interaction with women in the movie are also fantastic. He is the guy that most of us want to be, confident and cocky around women and having no trouble with rejection. Uultimately he did not win the Oscar but it does not take away from the movie. The movie was not as good as the movie that ultimately produced the supporting actor winner, but it was very good. Certainly not a movie that would lull anyone to sleep. The scenery is stunning. The movie was filmed entirely in Montana and it was used to its advantage.
As I mentioned before I can't say that Bridges didn't deserve the nomination. It is interesting to note that Eastwood was a bit unhappy with how the movie was received. It was not a flop, but Eastwood felt it could have performed better and that the studio did not promote it as well as they could have. It is also important to mention that he felt upstaged by Bridges in the movie. I think he was right to feel this way, because Bridges certainly was the star in this movie. That being said, Eastwood was fantastic as well, Bridges was just better.
Bridges did not win the Oscar as I mentioned earlier and to be fair I think the Academy got it right in this case. I don't always feel this way. The other nominees were
- Fred Astaire as Harlee Claiborne in The Towering Inferno
- Robert DeNiro as Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II
- Michael Gazzo as Frank Pentageli in The Godfather Part II
- Lee Straberg as Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II
In conclusion, I recommend this movie you won't be disappointed. I may be beating a dead horse, but Bridges was excellent in his role and deserved the acclaim. So if you get the chance give Thunderbolt and Lightfoot a view. It is available on DVD but I had it on DVR.
Turner Classis Movies had shown it and I had saved it to my DVR. I mention this because TCM is great for anyone who is searching out a specific "old movie". They have a search function and will even show you if it is scheduled to be shown on the channel in the future. I believe they only provide the schedule two months out, but they give you the opportunity to put in an email address and have a reminder sent a week prior to the showing and then 24 hours before the showing. I have utilized this feature numerous times and my dvr is overrun with movies from TCM.
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