2/5 Skipping along the road.
  by Sissy (Texas)
I bought it new, not used but it had skips
at the beginning then finally smoothed out.

Sissy

5/5 Thunder Road Update
  by Roger Brown (Phoenix Arizona)
WOW! Is all I can say about this film. I was 17 when I first saw it at the drive-in in Richmond Virginia and I was awed by it. I ended up seeing it over fifty times before I had to get a job to pay for my drive-in tickets.

Do you remember the opening chase scene where the 57 chevy is chasing Mitchum's 51 ford. When he made the 180 with the ford the car flipped over and landed on its right side and the left rear wheel rolls off in the bottom left corner of the screen. Then another ford is seen emerging from the dust (this was a later retake as the first ford was totaled).

A little known fact is the crash scene at the end of the movie was real. The actual ending was for the feds to catch him and put him in jail, showing crime doesn't pay. But what actually happened was the car really did go out of control and crashed into a real power station. It was a sharp bad curve and he was suppose to flip over (because of the flat tires) and everyone was there filming and waiting. Then the car rolled into the power station and they kept on filming.

Those cops shown in the movie were actors and they were trying to get him out of the car. Back then Mitchum did much of his own driving. The director thought the ending crash scene looked so good he had the ending rewritten to end the movie.

The song Thunder Road was written by Mitchum but wasn't sung by him in the movie. The movie version of the song was slightly different than the version Mitchum sings (it available on MP3 at Amazon). In the movie the song starts: Let me tell the story, I can tell it all about the whippoorwill who ran illegal alcohol... In the song made after the movie was out the words go: Let me tell the story, I can tell it all about the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol... There are other slight differences but the MP3 version sung by Mitchum is still GREAT!

This had a real impact in the south back then and I was right there living it. Great movie for its day. I still watch it every now and then and it brings back old memories.


5/5 very satisfied
  by Richard Redding
I was real pleased to get the dvd on time and not damaged. That dvd is a classic. I grew up and could relate to it, because of my father

4/5 Love That 'Hillbilly Film Noir'
  by Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA)
Someone once labeled this film "hillybilly film noir." I think that's a great description of this movie. This is about the good 'ole boys racing their souped-up 1950s Fords around country roads, running moonshine and trying to evade both cops and gangsters.

In fact, I wish they had more of those chase scenes because, even with primitive special-effects, they were fun to watch. The ending chase would have been longer, if I had my way.

Mitchum is fun to watch in here, too. He just looked like a rugged guy, a "man's man," as they say. His kid brother Jim made his film debut in here and wasn't bad for a beginner. He and another beginner, singer Keely Smith, are a bit wooden but passable as actors. Keely also had an interesting face.

I think this is one of those films that gets better with each viewing. Highly recommended.


5/5 Thunder road
  by Edward E. Switalski
One of my alltime favorite movies,fast cars,folks just trying to survive on tradition that goes back hundreds of years. Recomend it for anybody.