The last ones bite the dogs

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Movie
German title The last ones bite the dogs
Original title Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1974
length 109 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Michael Cimino
script Michael Cimino
production Robert Daley
music Dee Barton , Paul Williams
camera Frank Stanley
cut Ferris Webster
occupation

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot ( Thunderbolt and Lightfoot ) is an action comedy of Michael Cimino from the year 1974 . The film has so far been released in Germany under the title The Last Bite the Dogs on VHS , DVD and BD .

action

Former thief John Doherty known as "Thunderbolt" has gone into hiding as a preacher in a remote location. The alleged village idyll is abruptly disrupted when suddenly a former accomplice shoots him during a sermon in the church. Thunderbolt escapes through the back exit and is then followed in the cornfield. The driver "Lightfoot", who happened to drive by in a stolen car, unintentionally helps him when he accidentally runs over the pursuer. The men become friends. Young Lightfoot learns that Thunderbolt was involved in a heist on the Montana Armored company years ago and has hidden the loot to make grass grow over the cause. His former accomplices assume, however, that Thunderbolt has robbed them of their share of the loot. Eventually they pursue him to bring him down.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot want to go to the old school, where the loot was hidden behind the blackboard in the only classroom. Once there, however, they find that the building has been demolished and replaced by a modern school. Thunderbolt and its new partner Lightfoot are being followed by "Eddie Goody" and "Red Leary", who were also involved in the robbery at the time. After an argument between Thunderbolt and Leary, they form an alliance to raid the Montana Armored company again. They do normal jobs for a while because they need money to carry out the robbery. The alliance is shaking because the youthful-looking Lightfoot pokes fun at the serious Leary over and over again during the preparations. Leary vows to buy the "boy" after the robbery.

Thunderbolt and Leary break into the house of the bank director's family and extort the combination of numbers from him to the vault. In the vault, the former war comrades still have to overcome an obstacle and shoot a hole in the wall with a cannon from the Korean War to get at the loot. After the robbery, they plan to hide in a drive-in theater. Leary, hidden in the trunk, has to sneeze at the box office of the cinema, whereupon the cashier becomes suspicious. She alerts the police. While the four robbers are being chased in the car, Goody is shot and Leary throws him out of the trunk in cold blood. In a remote wooded area, Leary takes the opportunity and finally takes revenge on the Lightfoot he hated by giving him a hard blow to the back of the head and subsequent kicks. Then he fled alone with the prey in the car. Shot by the police, he can no longer control the getaway car and drives through the glass pane of a department store. There he is bitten to death by a Doberman . While the police are fixated on Leary, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot escape unnoticed. By chance, the two of them rediscover the old school in Warsaw - the building had been moved for historical reasons. Behind the blackboard they actually find the hidden money from the earlier robbery. You're buying a brand new, white Cadillac. When they try to get away with the money, Lightfoot suffers increasingly from symptoms of paralysis and appears absent-minded. While driving the Cadillac, Lightfoot tells Thunderbolt that he is happy and that he doesn't feel like a criminal but like a hero. Shortly afterwards he dies. Thunderbolt drives down the highway with his friend's body.

Reviews

Dave Kehr wrote in the Chicago Reader that the film contained too many lyrical interludes compared to the plot ("fatal preference for lyrical interlude over plot"). He seems "unruly" and "incoherent".

The lexicon of international film said: "Mixture of vagabond comedy, gangster personage and action film, cleverly nested and superbly photographed."

The magazine prisma wrote that the film was an "exciting, action-packed and melodramatic gangster comedy ". Their “fabulous typification” plays “a bigger role than the plot”.

Arne Laser considered Cimino's directorial debut for "a company carried out with admirable security - especially visually."

Chris Stewart noticed at IGN 2002: "And there is also a rabid raccoon in the passenger seat and a trunk with white rabbits."

Ulrich Behrens saw a bad end coming: “In the course of the plot, however, the tragedy and risk tend to increase. In particular, you always have the feeling that every victory is followed by a defeat that takes more away from success than it brought ”.

Awards

Jeff Bridges was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1975 .

background

The film was shot from July to September 1973 in Ulm , Augusta , Choteau , Wolf Creek , Fort Benton and in Great Falls , Montana . The opening scene was filmed at St. John's Lutheran Church in Hobson , Montana. The production cost of the film was estimated at four million dollars . The film grossed approximately $ 25 million in US cinemas.

The score was written by Dee Barton , but the song Where Do I Go From Here was written by Paul Williams , who also sings it.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by Dave Kehr, accessed July 13, 2007
  2. ↑ The last ones bite the dogs. In: filmdienst.de. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  3. ↑ www.prisma-online.de, accessed on July 13, 2007
  4. ↑ Dirk Manthey, Jörg Altendorf, Willy Loderhose (eds.): The large film lexicon. All top films from A-Z . Second edition, revised and expanded new edition. Verlagsgruppe Milchstraße, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-89324-126-4 , p. 1718 .
  5. ↑ Chris Stewart: Bottom Shelf Video Review: Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. (No longer available online.) In: IGN . July 12, 2002, archived from the original on September 28, 2010 ; accessed on February 5, 2009 (English): “One such event […] involving […] driving around with a rabid raccoon in the passenger seat and a trunk filled with white rabbits” Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / uk.movies.ign.com
  6. ↑ Ulrich Behrens: The last bite the dogs. In: www.follow-me-now.de. Retrieved February 5, 2009 .
  7. ↑ Filming locations for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, accessed July 13, 2007
  8. ↑ Box office / business for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, accessed July 13, 2007