Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

A hit-and-miss, if still probably good, 1974 film. <em>'Thunderbolt and Lightfoot'</em> fails as a comedy but actually does work as a road trip/heist movie, even with a surprisingly sombre ending. To further the mixed bag feeling, I found the acting talent to be just that. I'd say this is one of Clint Eastwood's weakest performances, though Jeff Bridges has a lot of fun and is the standout in his role. George Kennedy is closely behind him and ahead of Eastwood, in my opinion. The film attempts a lot, I'm not convinced it all works, but I'd recommend it - the pacing is on point, so it doesn't drag.

"Thunderbolt" (Clint Eastwood) makes a living posing as a priest in backwater chapels when he is rumbled by a man who knows who he really is. By pure chance, he makes good his escape by climbing into the car of a passing motorist, whom he quickly nicknames "Lightfoot" (Jeff Bridges). This younger man is captivated by the excitement of his new best pal, and with the two of them actually getting on quite well they are soon treading a fine line between the legal and the not so! Meantime, hot on their trail is the menacing "Leary" (George Kennedy) and his goofy pal "Eddie" (Geoffrey Lewis). Why are they so persistent? Well it turns out that "Thunderbolt" had been part of an armed robbery that had netted half a million dollars. The cops had claimed the cash had been recovered, but a few folks know that isn't quite true and assumptions are being made about who betrayed whom! There's only one solution, and that's to reunite the original team and try to recover the cash - but even that comes with significant risk, especially for the young "Lightfoot" whose smart mouth has managed to irritate "Leary". It's violent, yes, but tempered with some really quite poignant moments as the men begin to form quite a robust relationship that sees the older start to care more for his enthusiastic and naive protégé, and there's also some fun to be had as they don some tights over their heads and add quite a bit of spice to a young pair's sex life. It does fall apart a little at the end, but even that is still quite touching as we watch certainly of one Eastwood's more characterful hard man roles, and one of Bridges and Kennedy's best too.