Two-Lane Blacktop

Car guys will love this. The movie itself was not a big production type, so don't expect the 10-million dollar production movie. It's about a couple guys who race at various tracks, or on the street, to make a few bucks to get the next race. The 1955 Chevy is the same car used in American Graffiti driven by Harrison Ford. James Taylor (song writer and singer) is the driver who has very little dialogue and seems "stiff" in his acting abilities. The mechanic is Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys fame. They pick up a girl who tags along for the ride simply for the ride. They run across Warren Oats in his 1970 GTO who has a habit of picking up hitch hikers to keep him company and spins a different story about his background and what is under the hood of his GTO with each encounter. The race guys and GTO decide to race cross country for pink slips (car titles) and the one who get to the destination first wins and gets the other's car. The story line/dialogue is weak, but it is about the cars and racing that make this a great and iconic car culture movie to have in your collection.

This was an experimental movie at the time for a major release. It’s interesting to see a young James Taylor and Dennis Wilson in action. Also, it’s a Criterion Collection release so the extras are great as well.

Always wanted to see this but it was out of print due to legal entanglements with the use of a song by The Doors, which finally got resolved. This Criterion release is incredible. Beautiful color and clarity restoration of the entire print and sound, and it comes with a 48-page booklet. It was great to see James Taylor ("Driver") in his only film roll and I think it's too bad that he didn't make more movies. He was a real natural in this film, as well as Dennis Wilson ("Mechanic"). The story is slow-moving with some excellent action sequences. I found myself being drawn in by the characters who I found believable and interesting. Warren Oates is outstanding as "GTO Man". Comes with lots of extras, including an interview with a much older Taylor discussing the film and his acting career, as short-lived as it was.

Very good movie

Never heard of this film but though I’m not into “Car movies” this movie just sucks you in even though there isn’t much going on. I felt like I was back in 1970s again. Love this movie.

Less dated than Easy Rider, this early 70's time capsule is an existential masterpiece. What the hell does that mean? It means the film is full of space. It's about absolute nothing, or everything, or somewhere in between. It's a poem that doesn't deliver what an audience expects but is utterly faithful to it's idea. It doesn't have an emotional pay-off, but instead finds a stylish way to cinematically burn rubber and fade away. It's characters are called Driver, Mechanic, GTO and Girl. Its stars are James Taylor (yeah the pop singer), Dennis Wilson (yeah the late Beach Boy), Warren Oates (in perhaps his finest performances) and Laura Bird (most won't know her, she's good).Driver and Mechanic are the original slackers. They love racing, and hustling people to keep racing and their supercharged '55 Chevy. They are not hippies, but car junkies. The meet a loud mouth middle aged guy driving a newer sportier GTO who wants to race them for pink slips. Eventually they agree to what amounts to a gentlemen's type race from New Mexico to the East Coast. There's not a lot of suspense to the race, and the film is about. . . well whatever you want it to be about. GTO pretends to be someone else everytime he picks up a new hitch-hiker. He's amusing himself with his creative imagination and re-inventing himself to escape the middle age blues. Eventually there's a little bit of a competition over a young female hitchhiker.The film was filmed on location as cast and crew drove across the country. The bare-bones script is by Rudolph Wurlitzer and Will Curry. The film becomes more and more abstract as it moves along. The story matters less and less. A circle eventually forms and we realize we've been riding along on a very unique, one of a kind film. There's a wonderful example of an utterly open ended final shot. Some are going to find this film very dull and wonder what there is to admire and respect about it. Others are going to 'discover' all sorts of things that are of course not actually present in the film itself, but are thoughts and reactions the film has sparked and triggered within them as they watched the film. Other's will enjoy the muscle cars, and late 60's cars that make sporadic appearances or rev up their engines on occassion. It's a film you watch many times and find different subtexts, moods, ideas and space within. It's a film that requires the viewer to both observe, accept and participate in, like one would a living sculpture.It's the kind of art film you would never expect from a director who made two quirky Westerns for Roger Corman in the mid 60's (The Shooting and Ride the Whirlwind --with Nicholson right before Jack became a star with Easy Rider). Hellman also went on to make the very interesting Cockfigher with Warren Oates. He's appreciated by a small, growing cult of afficianado's and you'll find Hellman's name more recently as executive producer of Reservoir Dogs.For something really unique I suggest you find a way to watch the DVD of Two-Lane Blacktop.The film was long out of circulation because of disputes over music rights. They were resolved and the film has been beautifully transferred to DVD and actually looks better than it ever did since the contrasts in light were carefully boosted during the DVD transfer.Chris Jarmick Author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder - A steamy cyber thriller available January 2001. Please order it today. Thank You

Maybe you're a car enthusiast or a classic car enthusiast but maybe not American classics? Watch this film anyway because this is the Iconic Road Movie! Street racing for cars (pink slips) with some drag racing thrown in as well. Some humour, in fact a fair bit of fairly dry humour (even spelled the english way which amazon highlights as a mistake). How realistic are the car scenes? Well the scene at the start of the film was for real and the police turned up. The main car is the real deal and was also used in American Graffiti (actually there were 3 identical cars). Sure there's a slow section in the middle of the film but it picks up pace again after. Whatever your age if you're a car person you ought to watch this film at least once.

This unpretentious low budget understated movie, with sparse dialogue, minimal story line and virtualy no musical score,has disturbingly more depth and meaning than a thousand high budget crash bang, flash edited CGI comic strip type movies will ever have.I remember seeing it once in the late seventies on TV and it imprinted itself on my mind so sharply that I could still recall scenes and the melancholic feel of it more than 30 years on....so I thought I better get a copy and see it again. The beauty of it for me is that the scenes are not all jammed up with boring attention grabbing shock tactics, but allow the viewer some space to get absorbed into it,so after a while you end up on the road with the movie itself which is ultimately more engaging and satisfying than being force fed visual adrenalin. To sum up if you prefer deft characterisations,roaring V8 engines and entertaining realism this is a movie for you, if you've got a digitally reduced attention span you'll probably miss the point.

This is a film where nothing happens, except right at the end, when nothing happens. Dialogue is minimal. Acting is underplayed, and several of the stars are "non-actors" (whatever that means). The tone is nihilistic - although I should point out that no-one dies, and nothing particularly bad happens. Yet despite all that, it's watchable and engaging.This re-defined for me what film making can be. It's not like anything else I've seen (including films made after it), although directors like Jarmusch obviously share some of Hellman's values.It was on my "must see before I die" list for years, and I was prepared for it to fail to meet the hype. In fact, I think it far exceeds it: a classic, a milestone, a must for everyone with a serious interest (whatever that is) in film.

Ok, if you know what a 55 Chevy looks like and if you know what a 1970 GTO looks like and the colour Orbit Orange means anything to you you will like this film. Yes it is a bit slow but enjoy it for what it is, a home brew 55 drag racer takes on a piece of Detroit Muscle. The home brew crew need to do a bit of street and strip racing to survive on the journey - are they drag racing nomads at the start of the 70's. The GTO represents the middle age desk jocky who isn't satisfied with his lot and wants somthing else - but probably isn't sure what. As a Middle aged Mondeo driving desk jocky who always wanted to be the driver of the 55 this sometimes slow film has been one of my faves for the last 20 years.

Described to me as an iconic car movie by a Chevy 56 drag race driver i met through work. I recently watched it and was left feeling disappointed. Lots of loud exhausts but very little dialogue and no real ending.