MovieChat Forums > Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) Discussion > Caught this on TV last night

Caught this on TV last night

posted 4 years ago by bozo_500 (13114)
1 reply | jump to latest

.. Always been a big Clint fan just never got around to watching T&L when was in my full on Clint phase throughout the late 80s/90s where saw most of his films mostly on TV or vhs and was buying all the tie in novels in secondhand book shops (may have even bought T&L for completion sake). and then never bothered to check it out on dvd

Anyway caught about an hour on TV late before had to go bed .. From what I saw it struck me as if something deeper was going on under the surface of the road trip bankrobbing plot..the action set in grand epic locations like when they waiting for the boat and then small town America like it could be the old West but how it is today (or rather 74), Clint being the usual 'old west' Clint character encountering sort of the 'new America' in the form of the unpredictable wildcat Jeff Bridges who I guess is supposed to represent the crazy hippy young generation America all fcuked up but a good guy beneath it (or maybe hes supposed to be like a modern day Billy the Kid sort of under the mentorship of The Man With No Name), and George Kennedy and the Any Which Way guy were sort of a dangerous Laurel & Hardy, so representative of that 30s depression era of America .. and the women in the movie are there for total objectification.. So maybe a deliberate commentary on womens position at the time or something? idk (and as another thread says the men were mostly portrayed as sex obsessed buffoons)

So all in all abit like a present day (74) Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid - which had all that America metaphor/allegory/end of the old West stuff going on

And now I see it was the 1st film directed by Michael Cimino so that explains why there's alot of deeper/Americana stuff going on ..not just a standard bankrobbing action film like one might initially expect (and maybe i did back when i was in my full on Clint phase).. and like the way something like Blade Runner isn't a standard sci fi action movie like one might expect it to be (i did when 1st saw it on vhs expecting an action packed Han Solo vs Terminators type thing)

[–] Redsfan001 (6146) 4 years ago

It's a good movie, a bit deeper than your standard bank robbery film.

It a classic "guys" movie, similar to the Dirty Harry movies, I don't think they were trying to make a statement on the ERA movement,the producers just didn't have women's reaction in mind when they made it.

Hollywood doesn't do this anymore, exit polls in pre-screening ask opinions on every aspect of a film. Studios a loads of files and information on what the public likes and what turns them off. The result is mostly homogeneous crap that doesn't offend anyone.

The "objectification" of women in this movie is really just a clear look at the natural virility of most men.

Hollywood doesn't write for this aspect of human nature anymore, it upsets women (some, most?) in exit polls, so they phase it out.

Tony Stark (Iron Man) a playboy with some virility in the first films was completely domesticated in the end. No superhero now shows any sort of virility.

This is not a coincidence.