With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist.With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist.With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organize a daring new heist.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 1 nomination total
Gary Busey
- Curly
- (as Garey Busey)
Eugene Elman
- Tourist
- (as Gene Elman)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen writer and director Michael Cimino was discussing this movie with Jeff Bridges, he told Bridges it was his job to make Clint Eastwood laugh both on and off-camera, and he did.
- GoofsAfter the crazy guy rolls the black Plymouth, there is clearly damage to the drivers side roof and the rear wheel on the driver side is bent at an extreme angle and the passenger side rear wheel completely flies off the axle. However, moments later when Thunderbolt and Lightfoot are going down the road, there are no signs of damage.
- Quotes
Young Boy: [Goody, with Red along, are in a tiny ice-cream vendor's truck] You're early. You're supposed to go down the next street first, then come up here.
Eddie Goody: Well, listen. While we're here, can I sell you anything?
Young Boy: No, I'm waiting for Judy Ann. They have a better flavor of pistachio.
Red Leary: Look, kid, go fuck a duck.
- Alternate versionsIn the Blu-ray, digital and TV prints, the opening and closing 2008 MGM logo are shown in addition to plastering the United Artists logo with the 2001 variant and removing the film rating.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Biography: Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso (1994)
Featured review
In The Same Stylish Manner
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot casts Clint Eastwood as a former bank robber now turned preacher who is trying to escape from his former gang who think he sold them out. While escaping one of them he gets an unexpected assist by drifter Jeff Bridges and the film is their bittersweet odyssey.
Eastwood turns out to be the legendary Thunderbolt, a man who was part of a gang that robbed an Idaho bank by using an army mortar to break into the vault. The money was hidden and then disappeared and was never recovered or found by any of the gang. But the rest of the gang remaining which is now George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis think Eastwood took it.
After a couple of escapes Kennedy and Lewis do catch up with Eastwood and Bridges and Clint finally convinces the other two he didn't keep the loot for himself. What to do, but rob the place again and do it in the same stylish manner.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot garnered one Academy Award nomination, for Jeff Bridges for Best Supporting Actor. Bridges was up against some stiff competition that year. Fred Astaire was the sentimental favorite for The Towering Inferno and the other three nominees all came from The Godfather: Part II, Lee Strasberg, Michael V. Gazzo, and Robert DeNiro. It was DeNiro who beat all odds with two other nominees from his film in the same field and won.
Bridges was probably rounding out the field here, but that's not to take away from his performance. He's an amiable, cynical young drifter who has a very tender side to him that Eastwood brings out. The audience likes him even though he's up to no good.
There are more than gay undertones in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot which any number of critics have commented. In fact the only reason that the scene with Catherine Bach and her friend who Bridges picks up for himself and Eastwood is in the film at all is to mainstream it for Middle America. Otherwise Eastwood and Kennedy act like a pair of middle aged gay men fighting over a young hustler. And Bridges with those black leather pants he wears in half the film certainly gives that impression. Bridges also gets to do drag as part of the robbery plan and I've seen a lot worse. Eastwood himself says to Bridges that he came along about ten years too late in his life.
Michael Cimino was acclaimed for his first film as both director and writer. Four years later Cimino won all kinds of awards and praise including the Oscar for Best Picture for his second film, The Deer Hunter. After that though came the elephantine disaster Heaven's Gate and what the god's gave they took back with a vengeance.
The only criticism I have of the film is we never do learn how our gang got a hold of a mortar for the job. For that matter how did Eastwood get one the first time? This really is carrying the right to bear arms way too far. Cimino's script doesn't explain and I don't think it's on the cutting room floor because the film as a whole is well and tightly edited.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is one of Clint Eastwood's best films, certainly one of my favorites. And the ending is an interesting one to say the least.
Eastwood turns out to be the legendary Thunderbolt, a man who was part of a gang that robbed an Idaho bank by using an army mortar to break into the vault. The money was hidden and then disappeared and was never recovered or found by any of the gang. But the rest of the gang remaining which is now George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis think Eastwood took it.
After a couple of escapes Kennedy and Lewis do catch up with Eastwood and Bridges and Clint finally convinces the other two he didn't keep the loot for himself. What to do, but rob the place again and do it in the same stylish manner.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot garnered one Academy Award nomination, for Jeff Bridges for Best Supporting Actor. Bridges was up against some stiff competition that year. Fred Astaire was the sentimental favorite for The Towering Inferno and the other three nominees all came from The Godfather: Part II, Lee Strasberg, Michael V. Gazzo, and Robert DeNiro. It was DeNiro who beat all odds with two other nominees from his film in the same field and won.
Bridges was probably rounding out the field here, but that's not to take away from his performance. He's an amiable, cynical young drifter who has a very tender side to him that Eastwood brings out. The audience likes him even though he's up to no good.
There are more than gay undertones in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot which any number of critics have commented. In fact the only reason that the scene with Catherine Bach and her friend who Bridges picks up for himself and Eastwood is in the film at all is to mainstream it for Middle America. Otherwise Eastwood and Kennedy act like a pair of middle aged gay men fighting over a young hustler. And Bridges with those black leather pants he wears in half the film certainly gives that impression. Bridges also gets to do drag as part of the robbery plan and I've seen a lot worse. Eastwood himself says to Bridges that he came along about ten years too late in his life.
Michael Cimino was acclaimed for his first film as both director and writer. Four years later Cimino won all kinds of awards and praise including the Oscar for Best Picture for his second film, The Deer Hunter. After that though came the elephantine disaster Heaven's Gate and what the god's gave they took back with a vengeance.
The only criticism I have of the film is we never do learn how our gang got a hold of a mortar for the job. For that matter how did Eastwood get one the first time? This really is carrying the right to bear arms way too far. Cimino's script doesn't explain and I don't think it's on the cutting room floor because the film as a whole is well and tightly edited.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is one of Clint Eastwood's best films, certainly one of my favorites. And the ending is an interesting one to say the least.
- bkoganbing
- Mar 25, 2008
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origen
- Language
- Also known as
- Die Letzten beißen die Hunde
- Filming locations
- Diversion Lake, Lewis and Clark National Forest, Montana, USA(lake scene, Clint Eastwood fixes his shoulder)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $2,200,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $21,700,000
- Gross worldwide
- $21,700,000
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Top Gap
By what name was Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) officially released in India in Hindi?
Answer