Double Feature

Charley Varrick

Charley Varrick is a small-time crook who outfoxes the Mob in this fast-paced offbeat thriller directed by Don Siegel. Academy Award® winner Walter Matthau stars in a rare dramatic role, along with the powerful Joe Don Baker, as a tough Mafia hitman. Charley robs small banks with small payrolls. That keeps him out of trouble until he stumbles onto the Mob’s secret stash. The chase is on as the Big Boys go after the “Last of the Independents.” It’s a heart-pounding ride that builds to a fiery airborne climax as Charley makes his last desperate run for the Mexican border and safety. (Universal Pictures)

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

This exceptional directorial debut from Michael Cimino is not only one of the greatest action comedies, but a cinematic estuary, blending 60’s tough guy American cinema sensibilities with New Hollywood and by teaming a veteran conservative icon with a young hippie star. Clint Eastwood is Thunderbolt, a long-dormant ex-con laying low in rural Montana, posing as a preacher. Jeff Bridges (in an Oscar-nominated performance) is Lightfoot, a hotshot drifter who roots out Eastwood for fun. They team up with two of Thunderbolt’s old criminal pals (George Kennedy & Geoffrey Lewis) to hit up a state-of-the-art bank vault. Blistering car chases, shot with Cimino’s sumptuous eye for Northern landscapes, litter the film’s clever action sequences.

“Michael Cimino’s Thunderbolt & Lightfoot is a buddy movie classic, with the amazing combination of Clint Eastwood in his prime and Jeff Bridges in one his earliest starring roles. This handsome duo head up a tough, funny and frequently insane heist movie. I dearly love this movie. With Bridges now attaining the same legend status as Clint himself, it will be great to watch this again with a crowd.” – Edgar Wright

“One of the best road movies of the 1970s, and the auspicious debut of one of the decade’s best directors” – Jake Cole, Slant

“Debuting director Michael Cimino obtains superior performances from Clint Eastwood, George Kennedy, Geoffrey Lewis and especially Jeff Bridges.” – Variety

“Both Kennedy and Lewis turn in colorful performances, but it’s Eastwood and Bridges’ film, and their ill-defined, tender friendship makes the movie. They’re kindred spirits, whatever their differences in age and temperament. But what unites them also makes them misfits in a world that keeps crowding out what it can’t tame.” – Keith Phipps, The Dissolve