Huh, I had no idea this was Michael Cimino's directorial debut. Interesting.
I'm always down for a breezy heist movie, and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is exactly that. It's got that road trip appeal (complete with some beautiful Western landscapes), a steady combination of action and comedy, and a fun mix of characters at the center of it. Eastwood and Bridges also have a lot of chemistry, and I'm glad we get to witness their entire relationship, from its formation to its bittersweet end.
Where everything really starts cruising for me, though, is when George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis get more involved. Once they become key players in the story, and all four of these guys start planning their heist, I'm all in. Lewis provides some comic relief, and while Kennedy does as well, this surely has to also rank among his most threatening performances.
It's an entertaining movie all around, but there's also something oddly tender about it. Despite the fact that these characters are assholes and outlaws, you really feel genuine affection for them (the two leads, at least; not so much in Kennedy's case), and it's all slightly glorified and mythologized in that Old West kinda way. I like that.
Grade: A
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