Thunderbolt and Lightfoot: Cimino Begins to Think Big
Michael Cimino, in a career spanning thirty-three years, made just seven feature films and one short. I've seen only two of his movies, The Deer Hunter (1978) and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). I saw the former in a Seattle theater in the Summer of 1978. My nephew and I sat apart from my parents, who took us to the movie. I was probably too young to watch POWs forced to play Russian Roulette by vicious guards gambling on their immediate futures.
Still, I liked the film's sweep, the location backgrounds. It was the first time I saw Christopher Walken. In those years he hadn't yet acquired the Walken persona, the famous and odd way of using cadence, the placid eyes, the comedic touches he later has shown a great deal as the Walken persona.
The movie I'm going to write about doesn't star Christopher Walken.
Strong personalities rule the plot of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Clint Eastwood, a long time back with George Kennedy, robbed a bank in Montana, stowed the cash in a schoolhouse. Years later, the schoolhouse has been replaced by a much bigger building.
Eastwood, running from Kennedy and his partner, Geoffrey Lewis, flags down a white Trans Am just recently stolen off a used car lot by Jeff Bridges as Lightfoot. The two hit it off, stay at a motel, get laid, Lightfoot with Catherine Bach (the memorable Daisy Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard TV series).
Lightfoot wants to rob a bank. Thunderbolt, Eastwood, wants to rob an armored car depot. Eventually catching up to Eastwood, Kennedy and Lewis have it out, but the tables turn and after some hitting and threats, the four end up washing up in a nearby river and making an initial plan to take money from a building somewhere.
The cranky George Kennedy, red-haired in this film and called Red, is very funny--the jokes are all on him. He's a big boob with a tendency towards a violent temper. Geoffrey Lewis, familiar from some Eastwood movies and also from the TV show Matt Houston, is great as the amiable go-along-to-get-along crook. Lightfoot isn't too enthusiastic about doing such a big job, involving knocking people out, tying people up, and, for his part, dressing as a woman with a blonde wig.
The Eastwood persona still existing is evident in this 1974 production. He's good in the film. He hangs back, allows the ensemble to perform, giving much space to the florid bumbler, Red, and his wide-eyed sometimes dopey partner.
The relationship between the two title characters reminded me of Joe Buck and Ratso in Midnight Cowboy (1968), except that Lightfoot isn't anywhere near as damaged as Dustin Hoffman's Ratso.
The film was shot in northern Montana in widescreen. The vistas of Big Sky Country are spectacular; the landscapes, hills, mountains, long roads winding over the horizon, the towns, the realness of how everything looks and sounds--the twangy country music on car radios, all the "vintage" cars.
The film sits well with me. It's one of numerous movies with Eastwood giving his usual solid acting performance, which is basically a person who looks like and behaves like Clint Eastwood.
Vic Neptune
Michael Cimino, in a career spanning thirty-three years, made just seven feature films and one short. I've seen only two of his movies, The Deer Hunter (1978) and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). I saw the former in a Seattle theater in the Summer of 1978. My nephew and I sat apart from my parents, who took us to the movie. I was probably too young to watch POWs forced to play Russian Roulette by vicious guards gambling on their immediate futures.
Still, I liked the film's sweep, the location backgrounds. It was the first time I saw Christopher Walken. In those years he hadn't yet acquired the Walken persona, the famous and odd way of using cadence, the placid eyes, the comedic touches he later has shown a great deal as the Walken persona.
The movie I'm going to write about doesn't star Christopher Walken.
Strong personalities rule the plot of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Clint Eastwood, a long time back with George Kennedy, robbed a bank in Montana, stowed the cash in a schoolhouse. Years later, the schoolhouse has been replaced by a much bigger building.
Eastwood, running from Kennedy and his partner, Geoffrey Lewis, flags down a white Trans Am just recently stolen off a used car lot by Jeff Bridges as Lightfoot. The two hit it off, stay at a motel, get laid, Lightfoot with Catherine Bach (the memorable Daisy Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard TV series).
Lightfoot wants to rob a bank. Thunderbolt, Eastwood, wants to rob an armored car depot. Eventually catching up to Eastwood, Kennedy and Lewis have it out, but the tables turn and after some hitting and threats, the four end up washing up in a nearby river and making an initial plan to take money from a building somewhere.
The cranky George Kennedy, red-haired in this film and called Red, is very funny--the jokes are all on him. He's a big boob with a tendency towards a violent temper. Geoffrey Lewis, familiar from some Eastwood movies and also from the TV show Matt Houston, is great as the amiable go-along-to-get-along crook. Lightfoot isn't too enthusiastic about doing such a big job, involving knocking people out, tying people up, and, for his part, dressing as a woman with a blonde wig.
The Eastwood persona still existing is evident in this 1974 production. He's good in the film. He hangs back, allows the ensemble to perform, giving much space to the florid bumbler, Red, and his wide-eyed sometimes dopey partner.
The relationship between the two title characters reminded me of Joe Buck and Ratso in Midnight Cowboy (1968), except that Lightfoot isn't anywhere near as damaged as Dustin Hoffman's Ratso.
The film was shot in northern Montana in widescreen. The vistas of Big Sky Country are spectacular; the landscapes, hills, mountains, long roads winding over the horizon, the towns, the realness of how everything looks and sounds--the twangy country music on car radios, all the "vintage" cars.
The film sits well with me. It's one of numerous movies with Eastwood giving his usual solid acting performance, which is basically a person who looks like and behaves like Clint Eastwood.
Vic Neptune
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