Bruce Springsteen borrowed the title for his 1975 song “Thunder Road” from a 1958 Robert Mitchum movie, and since then it’s been borrowed back for a couple of TV movies. But filmmaker Jim Cummings not only took the title for his short film that won the Grand Prize at Sundance this year, he based his film around a performance of the Springsteen song, and even wrangled permission to use the song from the always-picky rock star.
“Thunder Road,” one of the finalists in TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival, is an alternately funny and wrenching story about a cop (played by Cummings) who goes to his mother’s funeral and, in lieu of delivering a eulogy, sings and dances along with Springsteen’s classic recording, which he says was his mother’s favorite song.