Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Thunder Road Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 6, 2015

Robert Mitchum was rather infamously arrested for marijuana possession back in the “Dark Ages” of 1948, long before the era of medical pot or widespread acceptance of use of the herb. Mitchum was typically sanguine about it all, joking that jail was like “Palm Springs without the riff raff,” and ultimately the conviction was set aside several years later when it turned out the arrest was part of a set up (though no one ever substantially argued with the fact that Mitchum not only toked, but actually inhaled). While that event actually sparked production of a quickie exploitation flick called She Shoulda Said No! starring Mitchum’s fellow arrestee, Lila Leeds, it perhaps also inspired Mitchum to undertake a supposedly fact based exposé of another “scourge” that rather surprisingly was evidently still going strong in the late fifties, namely moonshine running in the southeastern quadrant of the United States.

As odd as it may sound, by many accounts Mitchum was the auteur of sorts behind Thunder Road, not only starring in it as Korean War vet Lucas Doolin, now deeply ensconced in his family’s illicit hooch business, but also providing the story for the film, co-producing it, co-writing the title tune and (just for good measure) lending a helping hand to director Arthur Ripley when he felt it was necessary. Gene Barry is on hand as an ambitious Treasury Agent out to bring Doolin to justice, Mitchum’s own son Jim portrays Doolin’s little brother Robin (in a role originally written for and offered to one Elvis Presley), and Louis Prima’s main squeeze Keely Smith appears as a nightclub singer who catches Lucas’ eye. Decidedly lo-fi and a little awkward at times, Thunder Road is still surprisingly visceral, offering Mitchum a nice contrarian role that seems to perfectly suit his “fight the machine” persona. Blatantly overheated as it goes along (especially after a violent criminal type gets involved), the film will probably be a guilty pleasure for some (especially Mitchum fans), kind of like moonshine itself.

Thunder Road Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Thunder Road is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Timeless Media Group, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is a fairly modest looking high definition presentation, one that's certainly organic, with an at times very heavy layer of grain, but one that never achieves much in the way of sharpness or clarity. Contrast is occasionally problematic, making some of the dimly lit scenes in cars hard to make out. There are also curious differences in overall sharpness and grain structure that suggest this may have been sourced from disparate elements. Unfortunately some of the grainiest and least clear sequences are those featuring Keely Smith, a great singer who never had much of a film career. Image stability is fine and there are no signs of digital tweaking in terms of noise reduction or artificial sharpening.

Thunder Road Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Thunder Road's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix supports the film's dialogue and car chase sound effects very well, perhaps revealing the limitations of the source stems only in a somewhat shallow sounding reproduction of the score, which includes Mitchum's co-written title tune (that is not Mitchum singing, though it kind of sounds like him). Fidelity is fine and dynamic range is at least reasonable, given the era of the soundtrack's recording technologies.

Thunder Road Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (480p; 2:08)

Thunder Road Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A kind of florid, Southern Gothic take on individual responsibility within the confines of an illicit activity, Thunder Road offers Robert Mitchum a nice showcase for his patented tough but vulnerable persona. Barry's a little generic and bland as the government agent out to bring those dang nabbed moonshiners to justice, but a lot of the supporting cast is great. Atmospheric if also a little hokey in places, Thunder Road should certainly appeal to Mitchum fans. Video quality is a little iffy, but on the whole Thunder Road comes Recommended.