Thunder Road

UK Release Date. 10 May 1958
Certification. U
Running Time. 1 hour 32 mins
Director. Arthur Ripley
Cast. Jacques Aubuchon, Gene Barry, Robert Mitchum.
Rating. 39%

Review.

Thunder Road was made at a time when the Motion Picture Production Code (more commonly known as The Hays Code) was doing its best to keep American cinema as one-dimensional, wholesome and bland as possible. Thunder Road technically sticks to the rules of the code, but the film is as disreputable and overtly anti-authority as anything else I have seen from the same era.

Based on an idea from the actor himself, Thunder Road was very much a passion project for Robert Mitchum. He wrote the story, took the lead role (his son also appears, as his younger brother), produced the film and even helped compose the theme song. 

Thunder Road tells the story of a Korean War veteran, Lucas Doolan (Robert Mitchum) who returns to the family home in Rillow Valley, Tennessee and races the back roads and highways of the Appalachian Mountains in a suped-up car with a tank full of bootleg whiskey.

There are no allusions of grandeur in this low-budget production. The rear-projection scenes are plentiful and painfully apparent and the main character, Lucas Doolin spends almost the entirety of the film wearing the same outfit.

However, Thunder Road may be viewed as a study in star power with the laconic Robert Mitchum commanding the screen with seemingly little effort. Contrast, if you will, Robert Mitchum's easy charm and magnetism with the performance of his son James, making his screen debut as the younger brother Robin Doolan. James Mitchum struggles to overcome an uncomfortable, mechanical stiffness.

A decent, if unremarkable, drama, Thunder Road overcomes budget limitations with star power and a sympathetic narrative. With the white-hot night-time road sequences, and an affectionate but unsentimental vision of backwoods America, it is easy to imagine the popularity of this film in 1958 drive-ins throughout the United States.