Arthur Ripley's Thunder Road feels like a precursor to Michael Mann's oeuvre and the themes which it would explore, specifically related to the anti-hero and the shifting notions of criminality which take place under the weight of commerce, capital, and power. Robert Mitchum just oozes cool throughout this film, a bootlegger who seemingly lives for the thrill of the chase while also being tied to his spatial reality, one in which the procurement and processing of whiskey are embedded into the traditions of the region. Thunder Road is a a rather lean crime thriller, one which is rough and rugged, relying on Mitchum's scenery-chewing protagonist too much at times to keep momentum and yet what I found particularly interesting is how the film posits morality not as it relates to legality (correct) but to coercion - in this case, modernity (capital), intruding on the communal-based industry. The chief antagonist Kogan, heads up a syndicate that attempts to eliminate Mitchum and all his competition, which could subtextually be read as a commentary on industry intruding on family-owned, communal-based society. Kogan and Mitchum's only commonality is that they are both on the wrong side of legality, from a morality perspective they are polar opposites.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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