Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

Very well executed

Best movie ever!

Absolutely the worst movie.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a weird one. I never heard of it but being at a muscle car convention they showed clips from this flick and a remake is in the make so it was time to pick it up.There isn't much of a story in it. It's all about racing, picking up hitch-hikers, a lot of nonsense while talking, I mean. On the edge of boring but still it is over before you know it. Boring due the story itself but if you are into muscle cars then this is a must see. You will come across all of them, from the main lead, a GTO and a stripped '55 Chevy to Camaro's , Mustang, you call it it's all there. While they are on track for racing it's where this movie takes it's fame. And for the geeks they do talk a lot about the cars and engines. Made in the heydays of the muscle cars, only for those geeks. There's better out there to see with a good story but still, it do pull off somehow. Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Two-Lane Blacktop is "all about image and performance". Guys like the driver and the mechanic are the only ones who understand what's under the hood. Hearing them rattle off various car parts is no less cryptic, or magic, than anything else they do or say.Between the motherfuckin' automobile races, the two friends barely speak. They are fixated on the road and nothing else. They'd rather listen to it than the radio. Even after a win, they remain stoic, unaffected, mechanically recounting the results and the car's performance. Conversely, g.t.o. can't shut up. He's desperately searching for anybody along the road he can lie to or a tape he can pop in. He doesn't want a conversation either, not a real one anyway.The little dialogue there is happens between core characters inside of their cars. The minor characters barely exist, merely garnish for the racetracks. One of the few introspective thoughts, g.t.o. drunkenly opening up, is cut short by the driver. "It's not my problem", he says coldly. Despite their differences, they're tied together. Their fixation on their rides, genuine or superficial, can't fulfill them. "If I'm not grounded pretty soon, I'm gonna go into orbit." "The girl" is the only character not identified by something car related. Neither of the men say a word when she hops in their Chevy uninvited. She breaks the silence for them. Her character's role as an object of desire might feel like "sexism or somethin'", but it's not. She's the satisfaction she sings about. The rich, middle aged liar with the expensive car can't buy her. The good looking quiet types with the homegrown street-sweeper can't win her or win her over. She's temporary: here one minute and gone the next. "She's gonna burn you, man" Riding off on a motorcycle, the hippie girl ends up where she belongs: with an Easy Rider headed back to the '60s.

I remember when this film came out, I liked the title. The film itself was looked upon in the industry as maybe being up for a week or so in the Drive in circuit. How right they were. As an example of how far the quality of movie making had, and was slipping, this is a fair guide.Now, it's getting a few raves from a generation who were brought up on these 'less is more' movies. The 70's have been described by some as one of the poorest eras in film making, they could be right. This films credentials don't stack up very well either. The Director, Monte Hellman was an early collaborator of el-cheapo film maker Roger Corman. Hellman, who's only earlier claim to fame would most likely be two 1966 quickie Westerns, "The Shooting" and "Ride in the Whirlwind" ~ while these were quite watchable, were by no means great movies. 'Two Lane Blacktop' was clearly intended to cash in on the surprise success of "Easy Rider", it's roadside café scene set up to look like a carbon copy, endless roads traveled by drop-outs going nowhere, and minimal story to get in the way or complicate the low cost film making process. I can understand Universal studio chief of the day, Lew Wasserman not wanting anything to do with it, in fact seems he hated it. My wife and I screened the theatrical version, clocking in at 1hr 40min. By around the 55min mark she could no longer stay in the room. Thank heavens Wasswerman forced Hellman to reduce his original 3Hr 30m cut! I doubt anyone would have had the staying power to remain brain numbed for that long.Many are now reading all manor of deep and meaningful insights into these empty characters and their wasted lives. But hey, they chose to be petrol heads 'n speed freaks, to hide from any commitments that would make them responsible for their lives. Any or all moral fiber has been stripped away from their being, they live for the road and any other riff-raff they pick up on the way to the next drag circuit. This is all they want to know or enjoy. The movie even reduces them down to being known as, the driver, the mechanic, and the girl.The only real actor in the cast, Warren Oates is known only as GTO (his car of course ). As the only trained professional he is given the most lines (knowing this interesting, one of a kind actor, he probably made many of them up as he went), what a sad loss he was at only 56. The critic Leonard Maltin sites his performance as worthy of the years Oscar...Where had he been! didn't he see him as Arch, the partner in "The Hired Hand" '71, or as Mr Giddens in Leslie Stevens's curious "Hero's Island" '62, he was even this good as Ves Painter in Leslie Stevens's short lived "Stoney Bourke" series. The GTO character was good, but not that good.Director of Photography: Jack Deerson whose claim to fame was mainly made up of some dreadful el-cheapo porn films, shoots a lot of interiors from fast cars and some scruffy country shots. He does what he can with the very limited, unsubstantial material. One of my favorite performers Harry Dean Stanton, gets wasted in a throwaway role as a queer hitch hiker. The 'Girl' Laurie Bird, plays an ultra loose hippie, went on in real life to take her own life at the ripe old age of 25! This film, and the film making life-style probably did not help her any either. And what happened to Beach Boys drummer Denis Wilson, who went on to 'drown'. So sad. As for that famous ending, almost lifted out of William Castles cheapie "The Tingler" '59...while it looks cleaver, is mostly just another cop-out. A neat way to end the endless. If you like to look for deep meanings in cheap fiction, born out of an era of film making where so many were looking at ways to cash in on the minimalist 'small is big' - then this is the film for you! Anyone looking for more, be warned, it just may not be there.....

For books it's words. Music, notes. Movies rely on sound and images to convey story. Two Lane is one of those that underscore movie elements (in this case via moody settings, disjointed dialogue) in its telling of a deceptively simple tale of four people racing in two cars across America.There is also the right amount of uncertainty, the kind that doesn't confuse you to distraction. It's subtlety done right and I've never been a fan - give me clarity, make it stupid is usually my credo. You never get the answers to some questions; this keyhole way of looking at things (people, actions, motivations) enhances the prevailing tone of the whole piece. Nowadays you get needless explanations and backstory. There is a resultant flatness to characters due to this endless outlining of someone's history. Two Lane is from a time when filmmakers had more trust that the audience will understand what they're seeing.It's lovely. If you give it a chance with an open mind you'll see it for what it is. Any movie is never about what it's about. In the case of Two Lane Blacktop, the movie is not about a cross-country race. For me it's about people discovering what they want by encountering all kinds of things they don't want.You can decide what it is for you.