Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Dir: Michael Cimino

1974

****

Michael Cimino had a funny career. I think he should be considered one of the greatest writer/directors of all time thanks to The Deer Hunter alone, but he made some other good films. The stupid thing is that he is also often remembered for Heaven’s Gate, a film some have called ‘The worst film of all time’ which of course it isn’t. It lost money, but it is a great film. I find that most of the real worst films of all time are some of the highest earning films of all time, but I digress. Quite how you go from a film like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot to The Deer Hunter in just four years is anyone’s guess but everyone has to start somewhere and in my opinion Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is a pretty good directional debut. He’d written a couple of great scripts before this, so I’m not sure why he’d be given someone else’s work but Stan Kamen of the William Morris Agency came up with the initial idea for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and gave it to Cimino to write on speculation with Clint Eastwood in mind. Eastwood was available after turning down the lead role in Charley Varrick. Due to the great financial success of Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider, road pictures were a popular genre in Hollywood. Eastwood himself wanted to do a road movie so when agent Leonard Hirshan brought the script to Eastwood from fellow agent Kamen he liked it so much that he originally intended to direct it himself. However, on meeting Cimino, he decided to give him the directing job instead, giving Cimino his big break and feature-film directorial debut. Cimino later said that if it was not for Eastwood, he never would have had a career in film. It is essentially Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but set in the 1970s and with cars (I know Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was made in the 1960s, just five years previous but you know what I mean). There is an instant grittiness to the film, our protagonists are anti-heroes throughout and if they look good at any point its only because there is someone worse in the car next to them. The fact that they remain that way makes them likable, the fact that there is still honour among thieves makes them more so. The movie starts with a young ne'er-do-well called Lightfoot (Jeff Bridges) stealing a car from a showroom. While Lightfoot speeds down the dusty road, elsewhere an assassin attempts to shoot a preacher while he’s delivering a sermon at his pulpit. The preacher manages to escape on foot and runs towards the road. Lightfoot, who happens to be driving by, inadvertently rescues the preacher by running over his pursuer and giving him a lift. Cue a rather pointless stunt whereby the preacher hangs onto the car as Lightfoot does doughnuts in the dust. The stunt was performed by Eastwood because he wanted to do it. Lightfoot eventually learns that the "minister" is really a notorious bank robber known as "The Thunderbolt" (Eastwood) for his use of an Oerlikon 20 mm cannon to break into a safe. Hiding out in the guise of a clergyman following the robbery of a Montana bank, Thunderbolt is the only member of his old gang who knows where the loot is hidden. After escaping another attempt on his life by two other men, Thunderbolt tells Lightfoot that the ones trying to kill him are members of his gang who mistakenly thought Thunderbolt had double-crossed them. Instead of parting ways, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot journey to Montana to retrieve the money hidden in an old one-room schoolhouse. However, when they get there they discover  that the schoolhouse has been replaced by a brand-new school standing in its place. While wondering what to do next, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot are abducted by the men who were pursuing them - the vicious Red Leary (George Kennedy) and the gentle Eddie Goody (Geoffrey Lewis) - and driven to a remote location where Thunderbolt and Red fight each other, after which Thunderbolt explains how he never betrayed the gang. While the original gang member bicker, Lightfoot proposes another heist, robbing the same company as before as they wouldn’t expect it. In the city where the bank is located, the men find jobs to raise money for needed equipment while they plan the heist. The robbery begins as Thunderbolt and Red gain access to the building. Lightfoot, dressed as a woman, distracts the Western Union office's security guard, deactivates the ensuing alarm, and is picked up by Goody. Using an anti-tank cannon to breach the vault's wall, as they did in the first heist, the gang escapes with the loot. They flee in the car, with Red and Goody in the trunk, to a nearby drive-in movie in progress. Upon seeing a shirt tail protruding from the car's trunk lid (which is a strong indication one or more people are hiding in the trunk to avoid paying), the suspicious theater manager goes to investigate. Red becomes increasingly agitated and Thunderbolt leaves the drive-in, encountering police at the exit. Thunderbolt then drives erratically to escape from the police, attracting attention to themselves. A chase ensues. Goody is shot and Red throws him out of the trunk onto a dirt road, where he dies. Red then forces Thunderbolt and Lightfoot to stop the car. He pistol-whips them both, knocking them unconscious, and kicks Lightfoot violently in the head. Red takes off with the loot in the getaway car but is again pursued by police, who shoot Red several times, causing him to lose control of the car and crash through the window of a department store, where he is attacked and killed by the store's vicious watchdog. Escaping on foot, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot hitch a ride the next morning and are dropped off near Warsaw, Montana, where they stumble upon the one-room schoolhouse which is now a historical monument on the side of a highway, moved there from its original location in Warsaw after the first heist. As the two men retrieve the stolen money, Lightfoot's behavior becomes erratic as a result of the kick to the head. Thunderbolt buys a new Cadillac convertible with cash, something Lightfoot said he had always wanted to do, and picks up his waiting partner, who is gradually losing control of the left side of his body. As they drive away celebrating their success with cigars, Lightfoot, in obvious distress, tells Thunderbolt in a slurred voice how proud he is of their 'accomplishments', and slumps over dead. Thunderbolt snaps his cigar in half (as it is no longer a celebration), and with his dead partner beside him, he drives off down the highway into the distance. It’s a much lighter film than many road movies of the era but it also has an edge to it the others didn’t have. It is a neo-western in many respects, rather than a full road movie. It has been noted by several sources that Clint Eastwood perceived himself to be upstaged by Jeff Bridges, which of course he was. Bridges received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Again Eastwood made it clear to some that he believed his performance was also Oscar worthy. Ultimately Eastwood was disappointed with the film's initial disappointing nine million dollar receipts, and blamed United Artists for inadequately promoting the film. Despite his relationship with the studio on the spaghetti Westerns and a two-picture deal from the studio, he never made another film for them again. I’m not a huge Clint Eastwood fan, I don’t care for melodrama and any heist film where a character has to dress in drag has clearly run out of ideas… but I have always loved Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. I loved Jeff Bridges’ performance, how Eastwood allowed it and also the great turns from George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis – the film’s unsung heroes. Michael Cimino was a master film maker and his masterpieces are on another level, and while Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is no Deerhunter, it’s a solid gold 70s classic in its own right.