Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Benas Mcloughlin Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

billcr12 Robert Mitchum plays a bootlegging driver and his real life son Jim is cast as his younger brother. Jim is the spitting image of his father. Federal alcohol agents are constantly chasing Mitchum as he transports the illegal booze across state lines. He lives with his ma and pa, who are also in what seems to be the family business. At one point, at a meeting of the minds, the family heads discuss the logistical aspects of the operation. As the stills are smashed up by the law, they laugh and say this stuff has been going on for over two hundred years in the backwoods, and will continue, no matter what the law does. Cars are wrecked, a few people killed along the way, but Thunder Road is basically just an old fashioned good guys vs. bad guys movie with the audience mostly cheering on the bad guys, especially the elder Mitchum.

thinker1691 In the back woods of Kentucky, Tennessee and Macon Georga, there is a tradition of making moonshine which dates back to when these towns were first founded. However, the fact that distilling alcohol is no longer illegal, most of the fun has been taken out of it. But back in 1958 a movie came on the silver screen which made its star a national icon and a household name. The movie was called " Thunder Road" and stars Robert Mitchum as 'cool driving' Lucas Doolin. His job in the film is transporting untaxed moonshine from one county to another. Although sought after by Treasury Agent Troy Barrett (Gene Barry) who plans to put all of the moonshine distillers out of business, it's a new criminal faction who becomes more dangerous than the law. The new organization, headed by Carl Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon) plans to take over Relow Valley by force and make the mountain people go back to raising Bumblebee Cotton. The night time, high speed chases along some of the hottest roads in the back woods, makes for exciting, shoot-em up, roll-over action and Mitchem is superb as the ex-army veteran, turned moonshine runner. Not to mention the movie's title song which he wrote and later became a radio hit. Robert Mitchum's on screen persona is what makes this 50's film a true Classic. ****

wileyjackhammer This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I saw it when I was about 10 years old. I've always wondered what ever happened to the 50/51 Ford Robert Mitchum drove in the beginning of the movie ??? What happened to the cars from BULLIT has been explained in other magazines, but I've never seen anything on the ones in Thunder Road... either the 57 Ford he drove or the 50/51 Ford he drove. What happened to them ?? I know we see the 57 crash at the end, but that may or may not be the one he drove. In some of the other scenes with 57 fords, like the one with the 2 guys who go off the cliff, the wrong model of 57 Ford goes off the cliff and catches fire........ Does anyone know the answer...? Wiley Jack Hammer

tforbes-2 I really enjoyed this film! Maybe this film is not on the level of some art film, but it is one very engaging story. While Robert Mitchum takes center stage in this production, I also took special note of Gene Barry as the agent intent on putting the moonshiners out of business. He showed a grittiness that might have landed him the lead role on "The FBI," had he not been starring in another show in 1965 and had not been an activist in the Democratic Party.Even though I am a Northerner, I do understand the point of view that many Southerners have about this topic. I thought Mr. Mitchum did a fine job with his role. While I noticed that some of the supporting cast might have seemed a tad wooden, they did their work just fine. The cars and North Carolina locales also worked well.And I will give this film a "10" because of the extra work Mr. Mitchum did here, as well as the portrayal of a slice of Americana far removed from the streets of New York or Los Angeles.