Post by mikef6 on Jan 26, 2021 16:43:33 GMT
Thunderbolt And Lightfoot / Michael Cimino (1974). The Malpaso Company. Cinematography by Frank Stanley. A small rural church is surrounded by wheat fields. Singing can be heard from inside. A car pulls up and a man in a rumpled suit gets out. He enters the church. When the minister sees the man, he turns and runs out the back as the stranger opens fire. The (fake) preacher is bank robber John Doherty, nicknamed Thunderbolt (Clint Eastwood). He is rescued by a happy-go-lucky youth who has just stolen a Trans Am off a used car lot. This is Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges). There are two other men on Doherty’s tail: Red Leary (George Kennedy) and Eddie Goody (Geoffrey Lewis). Two years earlier, the three had robbed an unrobbable vault by using a 20mm military cannon on it. Only Doherty and the robbery mastermind (now deceased) know where the money was hidden and now all believe it to have been discovered or lost in a demolition. Then Lightfoot has an idea. Why not rob the same place the same way? Bridges steals the show with his naïve and reckless Lightfoot. George Kennedy, in mean, snarling mode, comes next. This is the first movie directed by Cimino whose name is now more infamous than famous in Moviedom. Yet, in his early going he revealed a large talent. He also scripted the movie.
