Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Clint Eastwood was going to direct this. After reading the script he changed his mind and handed the job to the man who wrote it, Michael Cimino. He knew Cimino because of the screenplay for Magnum Force, the Dirty Harry film from the year before. This is Cimino's directing debut; his next film, The Deer Hunter, won five Oscars. A former thief now preaching under a false identity meets a young drifter called Lightfoot. His old crew are after him because the money from the last robbery has gone missing. Eventually all of them decide to rob the same place a second time: an armoured depository in Montana. What works here is not the heist but the relationship. Jeff Bridges's Lightfoot gives the older man back his energy and his humour, and the film gradually turns into a story about friendship. Bridges was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, the film's only nomination. Who it is for: viewers who like the loose, road-bound American films of the 1970s and two actors playing well together. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a tight heist structure. The film wanders for long stretches and closes on a hard turn.