A great mix of superb story and character development.
The film has the great way of starting in that you feel like you've come in half-way through a storyline (The Indiana Jones Trilogy employs a similar technique). It's a great way to immediatley capture your attention from the word go.
The characters relationships develop whilst the story unfolds. It's just great from beginning to end.
I don't think that there are writers like this in Hollywood anymore.
Superb.
Clint and Bridges at their best. Clint already the older guy looking after the kid.......1974!! Great story line and great fun acting. Bit of everything. Dirty Harry on the other side..............
Starts off like a dusty road movie and ends in a downbeat heist flick, with an unexpected detour through buddy. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot is a tonal cocktail that somehow goes down smoothly—thanks mostly to the effortless charisma of Eastwood and a scene-stealing Jeff Bridges.
There’s a coded intimacy running beneath the wisecracks and car thefts: long gazes, shared motel beds, playful teasing that never quite reads as just banter. Bridges floats through it with a kind of golden retriever energy, all charm and chaos, while Eastwood, plays Eastwood, cool and weary, like a man allergic to fuss. Their chemistry does the heavy lifting, even when the plot stalls or the pacing dips into second-gear.
Michael Cimino’s direction has flair, especially for a debut, though the film’s hear lies in it’s quiet moments—ice cream, wide-open highways, the odd glance that says more than the script. There’s something warmer humming under the bonnet.