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Matt Hough

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matt-hough has published a new article.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Encore Edition) Blu-ray Review

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In his debut as a feature film director, writer Michael Cimino fashioned a film that was part road movie, part heist film, and all character study with...
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benbess

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This one seems to be sold out now, but I just watched Thunderbolt and Lightfoot for the first time last night. I was 9 years old back in 1974, and so too young to see this in theaters, but it's very much of film of that era—in a good way for the most part. Here's a paragraph from Matt H's perceptive review....

"....The characters are truly unforgettable with the title characters especially unique among the buddy pairs of the period. Though affable and agreeable and filled with comedy especially in the early going, there’s such an undercurrent of sadness present in the film that the characters’ ultimate fates become truly haunting images one carries with him long after the end credits begin to roll (as with so many films of this era, endings for characters are usually not very jolly and in some cases are downright horrific). Cimino goes out of his way to film things interestingly, whether using a plethora of camera angles or starting a focus on a character in a car side mirror before picking him up for real as he passes by. The landscapes that the characters traverse are astoundingly beautiful, and while Cimino doesn’t dwell on them, he does make it possible that we get good, long enough looks at them at select intervals. All kinds of quirky characters have been built into the story: most get only a scene to establish their eccentricities, and yet it’s part of the film’s uniqueness that they don’t seem tacked on or added just for the sake of their oddities but form a vital part of the fabric of the film...."

Anyway, this movie was for me a trip down memory lane to the US of the early 1970s that I remember as a child. As always with TT releases, the essay by Kirgo is a highlight. I haven't listened to the audio commentary yet, but I plan to at some point. It's now poignant to hear Nick Redman's wonderful voice on these tracks, and it's great to have his enjoyment of and insights into the movies in the TT catalogue preserved....

PS I like both of the seemingly original artworks commissioned by Twilight Time for this encore release. Does anybody know anything about the artist(s)?
 
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JoeStemme

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It holds up quite well as a buddy heist picture with Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges meeting up on the road and traveling around the hinterlands. Eventually, they meet up with a couple of Clint's old buddies in crime, George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis, to pull off one last robbery.
The theft is important, but, less so here than the relationship between Clint and Jeff. Bridges, coming off his Oscar nomination for LAST PICTURE SHOW got one here as well playing a callow happy go lucky drifter who becomes fast friends with an older, wiser man. Michael Cimino's screenplay is full of quirky characters and situations and keeps thing rolling along, and as a Director he has a good eye for the Montana locations. Its in these smaller details that Cimino's observations for Americana circa the mid-70s really come to the fore. Nice supporting cast, too, including Vic Tayback, Gary Busey, Catherine Bach, Gregory Walcott and Dub Taylor.
 

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