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Two-Lane Blacktop | Year: 1971 Classification: Action/Adventure Directed: - Monte Hellman Actors/Actresses: - James Taylor - Warren Oates Street Racer Cult Movie James Taylor and Dennis Wilson star in an interesting low-budget movie about outlaw drag racers traveling the United States. They scratch out a living and get their thrills suckering local street racers into risky high-stake drag races on backcountry two-lane roads. Taylor is the "Driver" and Wilson is the "Mechanic;" partner owners of a dingy-looking 1955 Chevy coupe packing formidable running gear, capable of blowing the doors off most challengers' hot rods in quarter-mile duels. The Driver and the Mechanic pick up the "Hitchhiker," played by Laurie Bird, and embark on a cross-country race with "GTO," played by Warren Oats, an eccentric adventurer driving a factory Pontiac GTO. While the story is interesting, Taylor's, Wilson's and Bird's performances are stoic to say the least. The late Warren Oates however, turns in an excellent performance as a character going through his mid-life crisis, spinning far fetched tales to hitchers he picks up along the highways. The movie conjures up a parallel to "Easy Rider" with several people traveling across the country and taking each day as it comes with no identifiable goals in their lives. In the end there are no surprises, the story portrays a unique event in the lives of four people for a short period of several days. Car enthusiasts will appreciate the portrayal of outlaw drag racing in this movie with no gimmicky tricks or special effects, just good old 1970's muscle car madness with huge V8 engines and gutsy driving. Since the late 1970's, this movie could only be caught on late-night TV broadcasts if a viewer paid close attention to program guides. Two Lane Blacktop recently gained cult status with its outlaw drag racing story and the fact that this is the only movie featuring singer-composer James Taylor and the late "Beach Boys" Dennis Wilson, as well as the remarkable performance by Warren Oates. Another interesting tidbit is the 1955 Chevrolet sedan in this movie that also served as Harrison Ford's ride in "American Graffiti." The DVD edition is a treat with the imagery, screen format and several deleted scenes restored to original 1971 specifications. Good movie about outlaw drag racers I saw this movie for the first time 22 years ago on a late-night TV show and was not impressed with it right away. Several years later I caught it on TV again and found the movie more enjoyable to watch. I found the movie more appealing the second time I watched it because I had seen numerous other car flicks which were just plain silly. This movie provides characters who are believable and numerous scenes with car enthusiasts that reminded me of those days when I drove a modified '55 Chevy and had friends who owned similiar cars. Although the two stars, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, are a bit stoic in their acting, they're not bad. Warren Oates is great, and the cross-country duel between him in his GTO and the "boys" in the '55 Chevy is good. Incidently, the '55 Chevy in this movie is the same car in "American Graffiti" which Harrison Ford drove. This movie is not for all audiences and is not packed with action, but it does provide an interesting story. For anyone who enjoys cars and drag racing, this movie is worth a look and I'm glad to see it's available on DVD. A RESPONSE TO REVIEWER "CORREIA" Hey Correia,<BR>Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but you're in the minority here. Two-Lane Blacktop is worshipped by film-lovers around the world and is regularly cited as one of the best pop-art flicks of the 70's, one of the most exciting periods in American cinema. The reviewer's two complaints (little dialogue, couldn't understand what it was about) reveal the shortcomings of the reviewer, not the film. I mean really: "no dialogue?" Is he serious? Has he never seen a Western? A film noir? Charlie Chaplin? Keaton? Bresson? Wong Kar Wai? In order to get Reservoir Dogs made, Quentin Tarantino got Two-Lane Blacktop director Monte Hellman to co-produce. I'm not a big Tarantino fan, but he DOES have great taste in other people's movies [his film company A Band Aparte is named after a Jean-Luc Godard film (paucity of dialogue, anyone?), he helped get Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express distributed, and idolizes Monte Hellman as one of the great American directors]. Based on the fact that Correia would critique a movie because it has little dialogue, it is no surprise that he "had absolutely no idea what the movie is about." Surely he can't mean the plot? Two muscle-car drivers race across country for their cars' pink slips? Most Schwarzenegger movies are less "high concept" (i.e. easy to sum up in a sentence). Or is Correia admitting that he couldn't identify any Grand Themes or Social Issues? It's true, Hellman doesn't hit his viewers over the head with Deep Meanings. Like most of the greatest works of art, Hellman allows the meaning to be porous, letting each viewer read a certain amount of their own lives and themes into the characters. TLB bears analysis, and is in fact deeply philosophical, but it is first a riveting aesthetic and emotional experience. Like a great landscape painting (or a David Lynch film?), it is primarily meditative, spiritual, and even deeply religious, rather than intellectual. While watching it one re-experiences and understands many of the best things 'about' America-- the Road, movement, freedom-- and some of the worst-- rootlessness, restlessness, alienation. It can be read as a portrait of the modern, secularist, existential journey through life; in the lack of dialogue one could feel alienation and aloneness, or a comfortable silence expressing the deep bond between the driver and mechanic (we never hear the character's names, nor do the credits give them any). TLB traffics in pop iconography, in quintessentially American images. We travel with the perfect embodiment of the Self-Reliant American Male, through rugged, iconic American landscapes, until the landscape and the travellers (and the audience?) become one. Have these two men achieved a level of self-reliance that has freed them from the constraints of civilization? Or has their laconic independence imprisoned them, dooming them to ride alone, ala John Wayne in The Searchers? Hurtling through a Godless universe w A RESPONSE TO REVIEWER "CORREIA" Hey Correia, The reviewer's two complaints (little dialogue, couldn't understand what it was about) reveal the shortcomings of the reviewer, not the film. I mean really: "no dialogue?" Is he serious? Has he never seen a Western? A film noir? Charlie Chaplin? Keaton? Bresson? Wong Kar Wai? In order to get Reservoir Dogs made, Quentin Tarantino got Two-Lane Blacktop director Monte Hellman to co-produce. I'm not a big Tarantino fan, but he DOES have great taste in other people's movies [his film company A Band Aparte is named after a Jean-Luc Godard film (paucity of dialogue, anyone?), he helped get Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express distributed, and idolizes Monte Hellman as one of the great American directors]. Based on the fact that Correia would critique a movie because it has little dialogue, it is no surprise that he "had absolutely no idea what the movie is about." Surely he can't mean the plot? Two muscle-car drivers race across country for their cars' pink slips? Most Schwarzenegger movies are less "high concept" (i.e. easy to sum up in a sentence). Or is Correia admitting that he couldn't identify any Grand Themes or Social Issues? It's true, Hellman doesn't hit his viewers over the head with Deep Meanings. Like most of the greatest works of art, Hellman allows the meaning to be porous, letting each viewer read a certain amount of their own lives and themes into the characters. TLB bears analysis, and is in fact deeply philosophical, but it is first a riveting aesthetic and emotional experience. Like a great landscape painting (or a David Lynch film?), it is primarily meditative, spiritual, and even deeply religious, rather than intellectual. While watching it one re-experiences and understands many of the best things 'about' America-- the Road, movement, freedom-- and some of the worst-- rootlessness, restlessness, alienation. It can be read as a portrait of the modern, secularist, existential journey through life; in the lack of dialogue one could feel alienation and aloneness, or a comfortable silence expressing the deep bond between the driver and mechanic (we never hear the character's names, nor do the credits give them any). TLB traffics in pop iconography, in quintessentially American images. We travel with the perfect embodiment of the Self-Reliant American Male, through rugged, iconic American landscapes, until the landscape and the travellers (and the audience?) become one. Have these two men achieved a level of self-reliance that has freed them from the constraints of civilization? Or has their laconic independence imprisoned them, dooming them to ride alone, ala John Wayne in The Searchers? Hurtling through a Godless universe w Buy Two Lane Blacktop at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  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