Flipping through channels last night, I caught the last 45 minutes of Thunder Road (1958) starring Robert Mitchum.
A cult classic, I first heard about this film listening to a Bruce Springsteen bootleg over 15 years ago. On the record, Springsteen tells the story (and I don't quite remember how the story went as my turntable is in a box these days so I can't access it) of how he came across the poster in a movie theater but never saw the flick just before he leads into his classic masterwork Thunder Road from his album Born To Run.
The film inspired one of the all time great rock ballads.
Mitchum wrote The Ballad of Thunder Road for the movie.
The culture of moonshining in the South has certainly caught my attention over the years. One of my personal favorite sports pieces is Tom Wolfe's 'The Last American Hero.' A story first published in Esquire about North Carolina stock car legend Junior Johnson.
Classic films from the 50s are always a joy to watch and this one was no different. Watching Lucas Doolin tear down the backstreets in his '57 Ford is a piece of Americana too irresistible to ignore.
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