07-04-29 Thunder Road (1958)

Seen: April 25th, 2007
Format: DVD
Rating: 6

Another in the series of driving movies. Thunder Road is about running moonshine. Free enterprise, avoiding taxation, fast cars, pretty women, the little man standing up for himself.

Can you be any more all-American?

I mean that in a good way. While it contains a preamble statement which condemns moonshining, stating that Americans are being cheated because moonshiners don't pay their taxes, it doesn't really persecute them. If anything, it celebrates their tradition and rebel spirit. It paints a picture of danger for the transporters, but ends up glorifying them more than a little bit.

Even the feds aren't painted in a bad light. While their job is to put the moonshiners out of business, they're fairly polite about it in general. They're not so much after the little fish as the big ones.

If Thunder Road paints anyone in a bad light, it's organized crime. Perhaps deservedly so.

There's nothing outstanding about the writing or story really. The story's attributed to Robert Mitchum, and though passable, but he definitely needed to keep his day job. Casting is generally good, though Keely Smith bugged me more than a little, she's a singer, not an actress and it shows. Mitchum is a very good actor and delivers a solid part. The rest do their bit and it all hangs together well.

The film is visually overly dark at times. Night scenes especially. Editing seems a bit choppy and disconnected at times. There's a few scenes that screamed reshoot to me, with mis-matched backgrounds. None of this is terribly distracting, though.

While the movie focuses a lot on cars, the driving here is nothing really spectacular. The few real chase scenes aren't that interesting or complex. The last crash has a nice touch, though.

Overall, Thunder Road is solid, though not exceptional. See it if you're a Mitchum fan, or want to see real bootlegger cars from the 50s hauling white lightning.

P.S. Not to worry, White Lightning is on my list too :P

The Good: Moonshiners is people too

The Bad: Revenooers and organized crime

The Ugly: Leaving your car unattended