Two-Lane Blacktop

Starring:James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson, David Drake (II), Richard Ruth, Rudy Wurlitzer, Jaclyn Hellman, Bill Keller, Harry Dean Stanton, Don Samuels, Charles Moore (IV), Tom Green (II), W.H. Harrison, Alan Vint, Illa Ginnaven, George Mitchell (II), A.J. Solari, Katherine Squire, Melissa Hellman
Director: Monte Hellman
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
James Taylor is The Driver, a car-obsessed racer with stringy hair and a concentration that precludes conversation. He travels the backroads of rural America with his buddy, The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys), an equally obsessed lost soul at home only in the car or under the hood. They have no names, only designations, and no life outside of their gypsy existence, riding the unending highway in their souped-up '55 Chevy from race to race. After picking up a hitchhiking Girl (Laurie Bird), whose presence breaks the tunnel-vision focus of the two men, they challenge a middle-aged hotshot, the garrulous G.T.O. (Warren Oates) to a cross-country race. Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop is the most alienated evocation of modern America ever made, an almost abstract study in dislocation and obsession set against a vague landscape of roadside diners and rest stops. Taylor and Wilson deliver appropriately blank performances, only expressing emotion when The Girl sparks jealousy between them. Oates is a glib dynamo constructing a new persona in every scene, as if trying on characters to play as he ping-pongs between the coasts. "How fast does it go?" asks The Driver, admiring G.T.O.'s car. "Fast enough," he answers. The Driver snaps, "You can never go fast enough." These are characters on the road to nowhere who can't work up enough speed to escape themselves. --Sean Axmaker

Two-Lane Blacktop
Average customer rating:

Rock Stars can act!

On the Road

Period film

Bring this movie back

cult road flick

Two-Lane Blacktop
Starring: James Taylor , Warren Oates , Laurie Bird , Dennis Wilson , and David Drake (II)
Director: Monte Hellman
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Oates, Warren | ( O ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Stanton, Harry Dean | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Taylor, James | ( T ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Vint, Alan | ( V ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Hellman, Monte | ( H ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00001ODI0
Release Date: 1999-10-19

Amazon.com

James Taylor is The Driver, a car-obsessed racer with stringy hair and a concentration that precludes conversation. He travels the backroads of rural America with his buddy, The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys), an equally obsessed lost soul at home only in the car or under the hood. They have no names, only designations, and no life outside of their gypsy existence, riding the unending highway in their souped-up '55 Chevy from race to race. After picking up a hitchhiking Girl (Laurie Bird), whose presence breaks the tunnel-vision focus of the two men, they challenge a middle-aged hotshot, the garrulous G.T.O. (Warren Oates) to a cross-country race. Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop is the most alienated evocation of modern America ever made, an almost abstract study in dislocation and obsession set against a vague landscape of roadside diners and rest stops. Taylor and Wilson deliver appropriately blank performances, only expressing emotion when The Girl sparks jealousy between them. Oates is a glib dynamo constructing a new persona in every scene, as if trying on characters to play as he ping-pongs between the coasts. "How fast does it go?" asks The Driver, admiring G.T.O.'s car. "Fast enough," he answers. The Driver snaps, "You can never go fast enough." These are characters on the road to nowhere who can't work up enough speed to escape themselves. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Rock Stars can act!.......2007-05-12

Although I don't really don't know if you can consider this acting. What procedes between Mr. Fire and Rain, The Beach Boy, and their many acquaintances on the road sound like things that everyday people would discuss, and that doesn't take alot to do. But most people can't transfer onto the screen as well as these boys can.

As for the movie itself. I loved it! What happened to America in the past 35 years since this movie first came out? We've all become so embroiled in our daily activities that we forget about what else is out there. This movie is, for me, a 100 minute snapshot of what freedom is. It's being out on the road, not being tied down to any real commitment, except for the occasional breadwinning. And these 2 friends have found their breadwinning niche in the form of their biggest passion, racing. For other people it could be music, surfing, or painting.

The only really thing I didn't like about the movie was Laurie Bird's butchering of some great tunes. Like her tonedeaf interpretation of The Stones' classic "Satisfaction" in the arcade or her annoying lyric echoing for that killer blues number playing on the GTO's sound system. You can see Dennis Wilson trying to keep himself from laughing at her in that scene. But luckily for me that isn't enough for me to take away a star.

It's interesting that direction Monte Hellmen, known for his Westerns, decided to choose a couple of rock stars (who at the time could've been considered the Wild West Heroes [and Villians, haha Beach Boys reference] of the day) to star in this movie.

Much like the dialouge, music is kept to a minimum. Mainly the only real excuse for music in this movie is the fact that it's always coming from a car stereo, instead of the usual dramatic effect (like in "Easy Rider" or "Vanishing Point"). It's same as everything else in the movie. A song just passes by as if it were an object by the highway. If you're going fast, it passes by quickly.

Hopefully this movie can translate to you, the same way it translated to me.

On the Road.......2007-04-21

I wasn't sure what to expect from the flick as I refused to read the blurb and wanted to go in completely unspoiled. The flick stars a young James Taylor (yeah, that James Taylor, the Fire and Rain, ex-hippie soft rock king), Dennis Wilson (of the Beach Boys), Laurie Bird, and Warren Oates (who I only really knew as Sgt. Hulka from Stripes.) Basically it's sort of an existentialist gear-head flick that follows two friends, a hitchhiker, and a compulsive liar as they race across the country.

The first thing that surprised me was how much I loved both James Taylor (as The Driver) and Dennis Wilson (as The Mechanic); both perfectly nail that disassociated quietness that comes from truly cool obsessive hobbyists (you know the type, that dude that's uber knowledgeable and has pretty much seen or experienced every aspect of something and just kind of hangs out mildly interested in the scene; think Chevy Chase in Caddyshack or Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused.) When they're checking out potential cars to race against, and they're rattling off engine types and model years it's with a total stoicism that's way more realistic and convincing than a more manic method approach (like Nic Cage in the Gone in 60 Seconds remake.) Very early on you get used to the two as a unit, almost inseparable, so later in the film with the introduction of Laurie Bird's hitchhiker, even though it's played out very subdued, you can really feel the distance growing between the Driver and the Mechanic. It's kind of painful to watch (in a good way.)

Overall the film is very slow, plodding along just fast enough with almost no plot that you might actually fall asleep if it weren't for the occasional engine revving or race. Warren Oates' character, an older guy with a much nicer looking car (a yellow 1970 Pontiac G.T.O.) than the duo (in their dark gray primer colored '55 Chevy) ends up adding a lot of unnerving humor and a lightness to the overly brooding film. He's constantly picking up hitchhikers and coming up with a new spiel about how he ended up with his G.T.O., none of which you can believe by the time he hooks up with the duo. There's actually a great cameo by Harry Dean Stanton as a gay hitchhiker that manages to be both funny and very disturbing at the same time.

This movie plays out much in the same way that Jack Kerouac's On the Road feels. What probably helped this along was that the director Monte Hellman only dished out a day's worth of the script at a time which seemed frustrating to the actors, but which helped to insure very organic performances. He also tried his best to deprive the actors of sleep so that they would be in the same head-space as the characters which were on a non-stop trip.

The flick also has a very abrupt (though interesting), pre-third act resolution, ending which I think says a lot more about the film than I realized when I watched it through the first time. The basic plot is that the duo, after picking up Laurie Bird, are confronted by Warren Oates' character at a gas station (though they've sort of had a couple run-ins with him before where he tries his best to initiate a race and both times they blow him off) and you can tell he's dying to get these three on the road with him, the two guys in a race, and the girl in his car. After a bit of macho posturing, Taylor and Wilson challenge Oates to a race across the country to D.C. with the two car's pinks as the trophy. They put their pink slips together and mail them to D.C. care of general delivery and head out. During the film all three guys make passes at Laurie Bird, who is more than willing, though only Wilson makes contact, however pointless and fleeting it is. At the same time Bird is sort of wary of the guys as it seems that she's looking for a bit of stability and all she can see in them is their need to race above all else, or in Oates' case, a little bit on insanity. Eventually she splits from the group and hitches a ride with some dude on his motorcycle, exiting the film and setting the tone for the rest of the picture which is when everyone sort of realizes that nothing is going to change and they all just sort of abandon the race, getting back to where they started the film leaving the bare plot resolution as a mere loose end. The race is really just a MacGuffin.

Period film.......2007-04-20

I'm younger than James Taylor but in 1971 my friends (T.C. Williams HS ala "Remember the Titans") assumed that the Driver and the Mechanic were maybe barely 20 - in contrast to G.T.O. G.T.O. is more than a generational foil. Warren Oats turns in what is easily the most poignant portrayal of mid-life crisis ever filmed (as it could only occur in 1969-70).

I look at this movie as a masterpiece period film. Forget about Last Picture Show, Diner, Tin Men - maybe American Graffiti: those are great period films (never liked American Graffiti). Two-Lane Blacktop a masterpiece. It is sui generis among American film classics and within its road movie niche. This movie is in the top five of my 10 best films list... (Includes: Blade Runner; The Last Detail; Kill Bill and In Harms Way.)

I think this is the quintessential portrayal of youthful disillusionment and isolation in the late 1960s, very early 1970s. By 1972 the youth culture portrayed in Two-Lane Blacktop had been overcome by events. The so-called "movement" was long over and all that remained were plastic echoes expressed in glib commercialized fashion statements.

Male youth of the era are portrayed accurately as having little to say and even less to accomplish. I would submit that the influence of Two-Lane Blacktop still pops up occasionally in films such as River's Edge, Stand By Me, even elements of Down in the Valley.

Just as that uniquely original youth period has passed so passed the America portrayed in the film's many segues. Likewise passes any opportunity to make as genuine and true a period piece as Two-Lane Blacktop. The film is too pure and simple for our "interesting times."

Bring this movie back.......2006-08-27

This movie needs to be brought back onto DVD. Its a classic car chase movie with rather shabby dialog, but the filming is excellent on this screenplay. The girl that they pick up on the way is pretty cute and the scenes are classic America 1971, before we got shafted with an energy crisis, runaway inflation, a 55 mph speed limit, and Wal-Mart. Its fun to see the drivers make their stops in ratty gas stations, greasy diners (pre-Waffle House) and go through what was small-town America. Long live the two lane blacktop!

Other movies that need to be put on DVD include the movie Stingray, made in 1978, a madcap comedy/action film about a couple of drug dealers who stash some money and cocaine in a 1964 Stingray ragtop and the chase to get it back.

cult road flick.......2006-07-18

Remember Jerry Lundegaard from "Fargo," a con man on his last tether who's so wrapped up in his lies that when they begin to unravel and he looks out of the screen with his puppy dog eyes, you pity him for not having thought things through well enough to pull it off? Lundegaard's got nothing on G.T.O. (named after the car he drives), a consummate liar who spins yarns without betraying a muscle, in a role played by Warren Oates that comes off like the prototype for Chris Cooper's orchid thief character in "Adaptation." In fact, the whole movie, simple yet engaging and at times mesmerizing, with characters who are underdeveloped but nevertheless feel natural and true, comes across like a study guide for modern-day indie filmmaking. James Taylor -- in his only movie role as a drifter whose survival depends on the virility of his Chevy -- with his chiseled stare, primitive-grunge style and somber presence is to Vincent Gallo as Jack Nicholson is to Christian Slater. Too bad he decided to stick with songwriting. "Blacktop" is like a Kerouac novel on film, an oddball adventure with no beginning and no end. The film also owes a healthy nod to "Easy Rider." Look closely for a non-frontal cameo by Harry Dean Stanton as a gay hitchhiker.

Average customer rating:

Rock Stars can act!
On the Road
Period film
Bring this movie back
cult road flick

Two-Lane Blacktop
Starring: James Taylor , Warren Oates , Laurie Bird , Dennis Wilson , and David Drake (II)
Director: Monte Hellman
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video