Where to find it: Available to stream for free (with ads) on Tubi and PlutoTV, or for rent/library-loan/etc. wherever you normally find your movies!
What is it, in summary?: A buddy crime caper/road trip flick/absurdist dark comedy/romantic tragedy starring Clint Eastwood and a very young Jeff Bridges in the title roles. Thunderbolt is a quiet, literary retired-ish bank robber living a peaceful life in hiding as a country preacher. Lightfoot is a happy-go-lucky runaway youth living his best life as a drifter, con artist/thief, and cheerful nexus of chaos. They run into each other (literally!) when Thunderbolt's past catches up to him in the form of his former bank-robbing partners looking for revenge, form an instant bond, and end up going back to the scene of Thunderbolt's last robbery to recreate the crime and get away with the money this time.
What do you love about it?: THE ROMANCE. These guys are as blatantly in love as it was possible to be in a mainstream movie in 1974. There are token nods to heterosexuality here and there, but they barely register next to the levels of mutual admiration, trust, and loyalty between Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. There's Thunderbolt noticing the color of Lightfoot's eyes at their first meeting and making a point of complimenting them, a repeated biblical reference to the "leopard lying down with the kid" that really drives home the innuendo, crossdressing as part of the heist that's not as played for laughs as one might expect from this era and leads to a great moment of them pretending to be a couple, Thunderbolt's loner solemnity melting under the sunshine of Lightfoot's smile, the line "We're good together" is said very early on, they drive off into the sunset toward a beautiful mountain vista together at one point like newlyweds going on honeymoon... it's just an astonishingly sweet love story for the type of movie it's in and I am head over heels for the whole thing.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: THE ROMANCE. I would love a fixit for the ending (semi-spoiled below a cut at the bottom of this comment) where the pair of them can somehow have a happy future together, or something set during the movie that turns the subtext into text, or a coda to the canonical ending that explores the question posed by the movie's theme song, "Where do I go from here?". I just need more Thunderbolt/Lightfoot or Thunderbolt&Lightfoot in my life and I would be delighted with anything.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: No, it's just the one movie!
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Lots of violence, injury with blood, animals in peril, era-typical sexism and homophobia, character death spoilerson-screen but non-graphic Major Character Death, with three of the four major characters dying by the end including one half of Thunderbolt/Lightfoot :'(. Please comment if you need further details on any of this to decide whether it's for you, I'm happy to give more specific warnings and spoilers!
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)
Media: Movie
Approx length: 2 hours
Where to find it: Available to stream for free (with ads) on Tubi and PlutoTV, or for rent/library-loan/etc. wherever you normally find your movies!
What is it, in summary?: A buddy crime caper/road trip flick/absurdist dark comedy/romantic tragedy starring Clint Eastwood and a very young Jeff Bridges in the title roles. Thunderbolt is a quiet, literary retired-ish bank robber living a peaceful life in hiding as a country preacher. Lightfoot is a happy-go-lucky runaway youth living his best life as a drifter, con artist/thief, and cheerful nexus of chaos. They run into each other (literally!) when Thunderbolt's past catches up to him in the form of his former bank-robbing partners looking for revenge, form an instant bond, and end up going back to the scene of Thunderbolt's last robbery to recreate the crime and get away with the money this time.
What do you love about it?: THE ROMANCE. These guys are as blatantly in love as it was possible to be in a mainstream movie in 1974. There are token nods to heterosexuality here and there, but they barely register next to the levels of mutual admiration, trust, and loyalty between Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. There's Thunderbolt noticing the color of Lightfoot's eyes at their first meeting and making a point of complimenting them, a repeated biblical reference to the "leopard lying down with the kid" that really drives home the innuendo, crossdressing as part of the heist that's not as played for laughs as one might expect from this era and leads to a great moment of them pretending to be a couple, Thunderbolt's loner solemnity melting under the sunshine of Lightfoot's smile, the line "We're good together" is said very early on, they drive off into the sunset toward a beautiful mountain vista together at one point like newlyweds going on honeymoon... it's just an astonishingly sweet love story for the type of movie it's in and I am head over heels for the whole thing.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: THE ROMANCE. I would love a fixit for the ending (semi-spoiled below a cut at the bottom of this comment) where the pair of them can somehow have a happy future together, or something set during the movie that turns the subtext into text, or a coda to the canonical ending that explores the question posed by the movie's theme song, "Where do I go from here?". I just need more Thunderbolt/Lightfoot or Thunderbolt&Lightfoot in my life and I would be delighted with anything.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: No, it's just the one movie!
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Lots of violence, injury with blood, animals in peril, era-typical sexism and homophobia,
character death spoilers
on-screen but non-graphic Major Character Death, with three of the four major characters dying by the end including one half of Thunderbolt/Lightfoot :'(