From the Vaults: Blogorium Review - Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

editor's note: the review was initially coupled with a brief anecdote about Criss Cross and Steven Soderbergh's remake The Underneath. While that has been excised, the original text from the Thunderbolt and Lightfoot remains untouched.

On the other hand, I kind of enjoyed Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. It's not by any means a classic, but there's enough charm sprinkled throughout the far too long running time (it's almost two hours when it should have been 90 minutes tops). It falls somewhere between the Michael Cimino who made The Deer Hunter and the Michael Cimino that made Heaven's Gate. It's basically a buddy heist movie that gets a lot of mileage out of co-stars Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges.

Eastwood is the grizzled ex-thief and a young Bridges is the carefree drifter who talks him into one last score. So you'd think you knew where this was going, but it turns out that Cimino isn't looking for a double cross twist. Instead, George Kennedy floats in and out of the first half as Eastwood's old partner, and even though he tries to kill Eastwood (twice), they somehow iron their differences out.

This is the problem for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot in the end; it can't really decide if it wants to be funny or serious, and it doesn't really work as both. After spending the first half of the movie trying to kill the main characters, Kennedy suddenly becomes a cantankerous pal who makes jokes and is along for the ride.

I suppose the ending is supposed to be bittersweet or say something about young people fighting old men's wars, but instead it's a little hollow. I get what Thundberbolt and Lightfoot was trying to do, but I don't believe it. It doesn't work. Of course, I did say it wasn't a classic by any means. It also takes a long time to figure out exactly where it's headed, so the middle is episodic and sort of pointless.

Where and when it does work comes largely from Bridges, who plays the kind of character you don't expect to see in a heist film. He keeps things interesting during the episodic parts of the film, and he plays well with Eastwood. It's a renter at best, but if you're a fan of either actor or want to see a really young Gary Busey then it's worth checking out.


2010 Thoughts: If you've read my review of Crazy Heart, then you know the Cap'n has softened a little bit on the "renter" quality of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Of the two, I'd certainly recommend the latter over the former, although nothing is particularly wrong with either one. It may be that the presence of Eastwood helps balance out Thunderbolt, but my strong fondness for Jeff Bridges certainly factors in recommending both in varying degrees.

Also, I'm slightly amazed at how many posters for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot intentionally play on the Eastwood association to Dirty Harry. Considering that the film is in no way like a Dirty Harry picture, it's a little surprising that they'd think people wouldn't walk out after realizing they'd been duped. Of course, the movie has an easygoing charm early on...