ViewGuide

Created Jun 15, 2019 09:12PM PST • Edited Jun 26, 2022 07:43PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Thunderbolt And Lightfoot still entertains nearly half a century after it premiered. The star power of Clint Eastwood and a young Jeff Bridges see to that, as does a cockamamy story about Montana bank robbers.

   Mostly it’s a first-rate buddy picture, not unlikely buddies but very likely buddies in Eastwood’s accomplished criminal and Bridges’ wet-behind-the-ears criminal. That said, Michael Cimino’s film indulges a sweet-tooth for absurdity, including many hocus-pocus coincidences, and a series of grotesque Americans, including a stereotypical used-car salesman and an insane Plymouth hotrod driver.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Clint Eastwood’s middle-aged criminal reluctantly takes Jeff Bridges’s aspiring criminal under his wing. That adds up to a double-helping of moviestar charisma.

   • George Kennedy fulminates ineffectively as an angry fellow criminal.
   • Catherine Bach has a bit part, this just prior to becoming noted sex symbol Daisy Duke.
   • Gary Busey also has a bit part, shortly before he became a star himself.
   • Claudia Lennear too has a bit part. About her: She is said to be the inspiration of the Stones’ song Brown Sugar. Her real life story gets touched on in the backup-singer doc 20 Feet from Stardom.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Good 3.0

11. Direction Good 3.0

12. Play Good 3.0

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Good 3.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.4

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Brutal 3.1

19. Rudeness Salty 2.5

21. Reality

    Glib 1.8

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.5

23. Biological Glib 1.5

24. Physical Glib 1.3