Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Monte Hellman

Writers:

Will Corry (story)
Rudy Wurlitzer (writer) ...

Release Date:

28 October 1972 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

You can never go fast enough...

Plot:

Story of two men drag racing across the USA in a primer grey 55 chevy. Wilson is the mechanic, James Taylor is the driver.

Plot Keywords:

Car | Driver | Mechanic | Gas Station | Drag Racing

Cast

James Taylor	...	The Driver
Warren Oates	...	G.T.O
Laurie Bird	...	The Girl
Dennis Wilson	...	The Mechanic
David Drake	...	Needles Station Attendant
Richard Ruth	...	Needles Station Mechanic
Rudy Wurlitzer	...	Hot Rod Driver (as Rudolph Wurlitzer)
Jaclyn Hellman	...	Driver's Girl
Bill Keller	...	Texas Hitchhiker
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Oklahoma Hitchhiker (as H.D. Stanton)
Don Samuels	...	Texas Policeman #1
Charles Moore	...	Texas Policeman #2
Tom Green	...	Boswell Attendant
W.H. Harrison	...	Parts Store Owner
Alan Vint	...	Man in Roadhouse

Runtime:

102 min | Argentina:105 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:X | UK:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:M | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:Btl | USA:R | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Athens, Tennessee, USA

Company:

Michael Laughlin Productions

Trivia:

This would be Laurie Bird's (as the girl/hitchhiker) film debut. She would only star in two more films including Cockfighter (1974) and Annie Hall (1977) before taking her own life in New York in 1979.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the gas station attendant (Tom Green) calls the police after discovering Warren Oates attempting to steal the license plate, the sound of rotary dialing is laid onto the sound track, but he doesn't actually dial the phone, he just runs his finger around the dial, as if the dial is merely painted on.

Quotes:

G.T.O.: Performance and image, that's what it's all about.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Wanderlust (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Moonlight Drive

A superb road movie - and more than a road movie.

Warren Oates plays a GTO driver who, on his road East, challenges two car nuts for "pink slips". The first to get to Washington D.C. wins the other's car. The two young guys have also picked up a girl on their way, or more accurately, she just got in their car, no questions asked; who she is, where she's going, nada. She's just tagging along for the ride. All four major characters are drifters, men (and woman) with no names, and their credit titles reflect that: G.T.O., The Driver, The Mechanic, The Girl. They're parts of a long tradition of genre anti-heroes, drifters and outcasts, that includes the likes of Sanjuro (Yojimbo) and The Man with No Name.

However they face the same paradox every cinematic anti-hero faces: by separating themselves from society, by refusing to sit still and conform, they're free; it's just them, the engine revving and the road. The problem is that even though they are free, they don't seem to realize it. They keep trying to define themselves through society values. As Warren Oates muses about settling down: "If I'm not grounded pretty soon, I'm gonna go into orbit". The only thing that still permits these people identity and a place in society is through their cars. If the end is a symbolic representation of this moral double-bind that pushes them into two opposite directions, only Monte Hellman knows.

The reason I'm musing about characters in a car movie however is simple. Two-Lane Blacktop is not just about the race between a 1955 Chevy and a 1970 Pontiac. And that's probably why the movie meanders seemingly aimlessly in places, as if in a trance. It's not a racing movie. It doesn't try to be a tight, gripping thriller. In that light, the sometimes slow pacing becomes part of what defines the movie. It feels more like some sort of existential journey through 70's America. But the beauty (and Hellman's talent) is that he refuses the easy way out of obvious allegories (the kind of which Jarmusch used in Dead Man). Things are pretty much open and left for interpretation. But as the two cars cross country on their way to Washington D.C., Hellman captures the zeitgeist of the times in a unique way. I don't know how this slice of Americana looks in the eyes of Americans, but for a European like me, it paints the country in the same mythic colours Sergio Leone's movies did. The difference being this is not a reconstruction of a time and era seen through the eyes of a fascinated European director, but real locations and people.

In any way, Two-Lane Blacktop is closer to Vanishing Point than Gone in 60 Seconds. A superb road movie on all counts and more than a road movie.