Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Michael Cimino's screenplay and debut as a director is a back-road road movie and heist caper underpinned by a light-hearted relationship of bonding and joshing between two men. Eastwood and Bridges have a good onscreen chemistry and the film in the first act is light of foot as they evade two other criminals giving chase. The tone turns darker through the plot when an eleborate bank robbery plan is hatched which brings a brutal George Kennedy into the fray. Although the build up is dynamic it is arguably too long. The dialogue is amusingly vulgar at times. Bridges' fun-loving grifter pitched against the more world-wise criminality of Eastwood and an unforgiving Kennedy makes for good contrast, but it is tragic in the end.

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!

It's 2017 and I had never seen Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. I was too young to see a R-rated film I believe was the likely reason I didn't see it when it came out. Why I waited so long was probably because it seem to never be on TV or whatever. I decided now because I saw a recent interview with Jeff Bridges where he was asked to name his seven nominations for a Oscar. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot came up and the catchy name combined with Clint Eastwood and Bridges beckoned.This is a good character building movie. The story isn't anything nearly as special as the characters of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Even early on in Eastwood's movie career he had a good feel for what kind of characters he'd be able to breathe life into. New comber Jeff Bridges was an inspired second banana as Lightfoot. Within minutes of meeting both Thunderbolt and Lightfoot the viewer is "in". Director/writer Michael Cimino creates a perfectly sparse background of a time not yet past a vital bit of that wild west Americana. Combined with the two central characters the script suddenly begins to take hold. These are men thrown together with a helping of that wildness and a bit of desperation. The desperation is courtesy of Lightfoot's loose canon devil may care attitude and Thunderbolt's old criminal buddy's ire. It's a nice setup for a road movie with two memorable characters.There may have been better heist flicks, but the pairing of Eastwood and Bridges is pure cinematic gold. Their tenuous attachment grows a stronger bond between the two and they're off to attempt to evade the George Kennedy character and recover Thunderbolt's big score which was never located by the law. As they can't beat 'em, regarding Kennedy's Leary bad guy with sidekick criminal crony Goody played by Eastwood regular Geoffrey Lewis, they end up joining 'em for a repeat big score performance. Yeah it's a stretched long shot but by this time you can't stop watching the two central figures who make an uneasy truce for one final big job. The writing gets better as the "big job" unfolds and as a hooked viewer you seriously root for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot to get that rainbow they're chasing. The plan goes well save for the alibi to which a small detail proves to be crucial. As criminals will do the heat brings out the worst and when it seems the dream is all but lost something providential occurs. The rainbow reappears right up until the dark cloud ending wraps it all up in a kind of moving finale. It raises this modest movie which fits the two great characters it birthed. A fine film that doesn't over- reach.. I'm glad I corrected my omission of almost missing this. If, like me, you have yet to see this film I give it my full recommendation. If you have seen it and it's been a while revisit how a simple story with fantastically realized characters can rise above it's humbleness. I see why Bridges was nominated for the Oscar for supporting actor. It presages a career, along with Eastwood's, that kept bringing us cinematic gold. Rainbow found!

I can remember the first time I saw this movie, back when it was first released and ended up playing at the local drive in. That drive in was the only place to see movies in town so when word reached it was coming I knew I'd be there. I wasn't disappointed. The owner of the drive in would hold posters for me and the half sheet on this one remains in my collection, a perfect piece of movie poster art that captured the movie well. But while the poster displayed star Clint Eastwood with his foot resting on a big gun it was about more than that.The movie kicks off with a panoramic shot of a wheat field, a small country church on a Sunday morning off to the side. A car drives up and we cut back and forth from outside of the church and a man about to enter to a preacher (Clint Eastwood) delivering a sermon. The man enters, pulls out a gun and begins shooting. This prompts Eastwood to run out the back and across that field.At the same time this is happening a young man (Jeff Bridges) walks from train tracks to a used car lot. Talking to the salesman he's invited to sit in and listen to a sporty new car to see how powerful it is. It is indeed and even more so when he speeds off the lot, stealing the car.These two stories intertwine when Eastwood runs out of the field into the road and is nearly hit by Bridges and attempts to jump into the car. As Bridges tries to lose him he careens off into the field, hitting the man chasing Eastwood. The pair drive off and a friendship is begun.As things progress Bridges tells Eastwood his name is Lightfoot and the two travel down the road together, stealing along the way and swapping cars when needed. He lets Eastwood know he could see there was something different about him and he wants to learn from him. When he discovers the men chasing them were involved in a major bank heist years ago he remembers the name of the man who operated a cannon to rob the bank, the Thunderbolt.The pursuing ex-gang members eventually catch the pair with plans to kill them. When they learn that the loot from the old robbery is gone they back down. It's then that Lightfoot suggest that they pull off the same heist all over again. Who would ever suspect a group of thieves doing the same heist using the same plan? It isn't just the story that makes this movie work although there is more story going on here than in many movies being made today. It isn't just a heist movie. It's a movie that talks about friendship, about loyalty, about greed, about achieving a dream and it's done in such a way as to make what should be considered bad guys out to be a combination of killers and anti-heroes. Many movies released at the time had that ambiguous lawbreaker as the central character in their films. Burt Reynolds made a career out of it.At the core of this film is the relationship between Eastwood and Bridges. You get the feeling that in Bridges Eastwood's character sees himself when he was younger. Brash, mouthy and ready to take on the world Bridge's character is constantly joking with the others earning him the rancor of gang member Red Leary (George Kennedy). A butting of heads is inevitable between these two and you're just not sure where that will lead. The interaction between all four crooks, including Geoffrey Lewis as Eddie Goody, makes you wonder at times if they can pull of the heist at all.All of the performances seen here are great. Eastwood's cool demeanor, Bridges' cocky youngster, Lewis' bumbling sidekick to Red and Kennedy's anger driven criminal meld together to make the story work. While you would never think of these four different people coming together to achieve anything the fact that they did once and got away with it seems amazing. That they could possibly do it again is even more questionable.The movie was another landmark as well. It was the first film directed by Michael Cimino. Having written the screenplays for both SILENT RUNNING and MAGNUM FORCE this was his first film in that position. Four years later his next film was released to stunning success. It was called THE DEER HUNTER. While that movie raised his level in Hollywood his next film brought it crashing down, the often discussed financial disaster HEAVEN'S GATE. To date he's only directed 8 movies which is a shame when you watch those that he's made. Hollywood isn't a forgiving town though.Twilight Time is releasing this movie in a limited edition series. As with all Twilight Times films this means there are only a limited number being made so if you want one make sure you get it now. The transfer is amazing with a widescreen presentation that uses the full frame to tell the story. The extras are small in number but it is the movie itself presented this clear that makes this worth picking up. This one is a definite add to the collection for all movie fans and Eastwood fans in particular.