Director Micheal Cimino will always be most rememberd for 'Heaven's Gate', the notorious 1980 box office bomb that bankrupted United Artists. Before that however he had two big hits, the Oscar Best Picture winner 'The Deer Hunter' in 78, and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot in 74 ($25 million box office off a $4 million budget).
Comedy/drama starts out as a road picture and becomes a caper film. Clint Eastwood is nickname "Thunderbolt", a bank robber on the lamb who has been working rather successfully as a preacher, he is picked up by drifter/ small time hood "Lightfoot" (Jeff Bridges) while on the run from his former partners George Kennedy and Geoffery Lewis. The pursuers are angry that "Thunderbolt" has held out on the location where a now deceased 4th partner had hidden the loot from a bank robbery some years earlier. The money was said to be hidden behind the wall of a one room schoolhouse, but when they get there the buildings gone, replaced by a newer school.
The four place their differences aside and put together an elaborate plan to rob the same bank again. It's a fun and light hearted time until it's not, taking a darker turn towards the end with echos of an earlier best picture Oscar winner. Set and filmed in Montana, movie features a pre 'Dukes of Hazard' Catherine Bach and a new song ('Where Do I Go from Here') written and performed by the great Paul Williams. ***1/2
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