One of the more enjoyable and bankable genres are heist films. And, if you think about it, there have been some truly memorable and amazing films in the genre as well, such as "Rififi", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Grand Slam" and the original "Oceans Eleven". However, "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot" has some things going for it that make it different...in good ways as well as bad. As for the good, there's more story and it's not just about a robbery....so you see more character development. But on the bad, no one is anyone you can like or really care about...something you really NEED in order to make a great caper flick.

The biggest reason I wanted to see the film is because I'd only seen one tiny portion...the bunny scene. It's amazing...it's awful...and it's kinda funny...but in a sick way! See the movie...you'll see what I mean!

Also, according to IMDB Clint Eastwood felt he deserved an Oscar nomination since his co-star, Jeff Bridges, received one. I would beg to differ. Eastwood is fine but essentially plays his usual tight-lipped character and isn't much of a stretch. I am not saying he is not capable of great performances...this just isn't one of the better ones (like "Grand Torino").

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.

While Clint Eastwood was best known for his iconic westerns made during the 1970s, he also made more unusual contemporary thrillers, of which THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT is a good example. Eastwood plays the leader of a bunch of robbers who are desperate to pull off the ultimate heist with the aid of some unusual weaponry. This is a film which is heavy on the character work and the humour, with oddball but likeable performances from the likes of Jeff Bridges, Geoffrey Lewis, Gary Busey and George Kennedy. Eastwood takes a back seat here, willing to let the younger talent shine, and at times this feels all over the place, treading water and unwilling to hurry itself to get on with the story. However, things seriously pick up for the climax, which goes into unexpectedly dark and moving territory, building to one heck of an ending.