Product Description

Transporting illegal alcohol over dark two-lane mountain highways, Lucas Doolin (Robert Mitchum) races wildly through the night, crashing road blocks and outrunning ambushes, defying anyone who triesto stop him. A man has a right to do anything, he says, including making whiskey, as long as he makes it on his own land. But when ruthless racketeers muscle in on Doolin's territoryand kill one of his men in the processthe Kentucky bootlegger declares war, fiercely determined to maintainhis hard-won business and independence...even if it costs him his life. Boasting breathtaking auto chase scenes (The Film Daily) and a superb performance from Robert Mitchum, Thunder Road is breathtaking excitementthe most exhilarating road thriller of them all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3921 in DVD
• Brand: MITCHUM,ROBERT
• Released on: 2000-04-25
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 92 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
The preeminent moonshine movie, the 1958 Thunder Road stars Robert Mitchum as a backwoods bootlegger in Tennessee, getting squeezed by both the federal government and organized crime. Mitchum had a big hand in creating this cult favorite (which reportedly played in drive-ins around America for years), writing the script, producing the movie, and even composing and singing the movie's theme song, which became a radio hit. Directed by longtime cinematographer Arthur Ripley, the film is strong on characters and action, the latter fulfilled by a memorable chase scene at the end. Mitchum was at an artistic peak at this point in his career, and this is really an indispensable movie for his fans. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Moonshine, moonshine, to quench the devil's thirst
IF you're a Robert Mitchum fan, it's almost impossible not to give THUNDER ROAD five stars. Heck, he even wrote and sang the title song.
Mitchum plays Lucas Doolin, a Korean War vet turned Kentucky moonshine runner, a man with "a machine gunner's outlook and death don't faze him much." Times are hard along Thunder Road, the revenuers from Alcohol and Tobacco are stepping up the pressure and a big city operator, Carl Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon), is trying to buy out all the local moonshiners. Luke Doolin is the best runner out there, and when the revenuers & Kogan push, he pushes back.
The revenuers, personified by Troy Barrett (Gene Barry), want to shut down things and especially want help in capturing the big fish Kogan. At one point he even (mistakenly) tries to intimate Luke into cooperating. "I reckon you can do all you say," the sleepy-eyed Luke says after listening to Barrett's threats. "But first you got to catch me. If you can." Kogan's threat is more direct and lethal. He wants to buy out and build his empire. In other words, the moonshiners belong to a loose cooperative and Kogan is threatening a hostile takeover. Barrett tries to win through persuasion; Kogan's goons use guns.
THUNDER ROAD loves cars and driving. When we aren't underneath the souped-up '51 Ford's hood admiring the curves of its engine, we're speeding and chasing and crashing along the rural backroads. The chase scenes were probably pretty exciting for the time, although today they just look quaint and hokey.
Mitchum is, as always, excellent. In an interesting bit of casting, and perhaps as a nod to the dubious paternity in some areas of rural America, Mitchum's son James is cast as his brother Robin Doolin. The less said about his acting the better, but they do look an awful lot alike. Another interesting and somewhat wooden choice is the golden-throated Keely Smith as Mitchum's big city's girlfriend Francie Wymore. As a bonus to her fans, she sings a couple of songs.
THUNDER ROAD is a minor cult classic, most popular in the Appalachia region. I read an interesting bit of trivia from the IMDB site: Elvis Presley was originally offered the part of Robin Doolin, but Tom Parker put the kabosh on it. Now THAT would have been interesting.

One of the All-Time Drive-In Movies
Produced by, co-written by and starring Robert Mitchum, this is his film all the way -- and would still be if it had been a slick studion product, instead of the wildcat production it was.

Seeing this film for the first time today, it must be almost impossible to imagine the impact it had (especially in the South) forty plus years ago; it's one of the first i know of that actually showed some understanding of what made those folks up there in the hills tick. I grew up in the Piedmont region of South Carolina and i was ten when this came out -- watching it today takes me right back to that time and that world.

I know for a fact that this film was so popular that it was still playing regularly as a summer drive-in movie in the Carolinas ten and more years after its release.

The story is a bit simplistic, the dialog ranges from adequate to banal, some of the performances just about adequately cover up otherwise blank places on the screen, there are continuity slipups (a scene set in Memphis is shot right in front of a store that says "Asheville's Finest", as i recall)... but none of that stuff MATTERS.

It doesn't matter because the performance that counts -- Mitchum's (and to a lesser extent, Gene Barry as the Fed) is Right On The Money. It's a classic Mitchum performance -- Big Bob at his sleepy-eyed, existentialist-loner best... the man who doesn't really give a damn about much of anything till someone *makes* him care. Which is about equivalent to walking up to a sleeping pride of lions and kicking one in the teeth.

The final, 3-way chase that leads to the inevitable tragic/mythic ending is a bit crude by the slick standards of today's action films, but, (especially for anyone who has driven the back roads and hills where they shot it and where it is set) it'll still get your adrenaline pumping. (Watch for the cigarette...)

((Of course, any review of "Thunder Road" must inevitably mention Mitchum's hit recording of the theme song from the film -- which i have to warn you is, unfortunately, *not* the version that was used on the print i remember, but which is worth looking for in and of itself.))

A great film, just on its own terms, but there's a bit more:

This, from what i have read, was the film that Mitchum ramrodded thru to save his career and prove he was still "bankable" -- that people would still go to his films -- after a brush with the law that would barely even be reported today, but was looked upon in the Hollywood of the mid-Fifties as a career-killer.

Imagine what we would have missed between then and now if "Thunder Road" had flopped.

Possibly Robert Mitchum's finest; a must!
This black-and-white movie appeared in countless drive-in theatres in the south during the late 1950's and achieved a cult following as the definite favorite of the good old boy set. In fact, any understanding of southern males who are today between the ages of 45 and 60 is incomplete without considering this movie. Robert Mitchum is a moonshine runner, using souped-up Fords as tankers and fighting both the feds (Gene Barry plays the head fed) and organized crime. The attitude conveyed is that a man should be able to do what he wants on his own land, including make alcohol. Mitchum's movie makes a compelling case for this, one especially receptive to southerners and those who were then between ages 15 and 25.

Thunder Road has thrilling car chase scenes and fine acting performances by Mitchum, Keely Smith, Gene Barry, and Jim Mitchum (Robert's son). A big song was also composed by Mitchum: "The Ballad of Thunder Road." This is one to get and watch over and over again, especially with a six=pack of beer, hot dogs, barbecue, and lots of serious drive-in grade junk (fun) food,

This is for a good old time, so grab it and enjoy!