Two-Lane Blacktop

 

Moviedrome Introduction

Film Details

Release Date: 1971

Director: Monte Hellman

Stars:

James Taylor as The Driver

Dennis Wilson as The Mechanic

Warren Oates as G.T.O.

Laurie Bird as The Girl

Plot Summary

The story follows two unnamed protagonists: The Driver (James Taylor) and The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys). They are drifters traveling across the American Southwest in their heavily modified 1955 Chevy, engaging in street races to make money. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker, The Girl (Laurie Bird), whose free-spirited and unpredictable nature adds tension to their dynamic.

Their main rival is G.T.O. (Warren Oates), a middle-aged man driving a bright yellow Pontiac GTO. The characters challenge each other to a cross-country race to Washington, D.C., with vague stakes of ownership of their cars. However, the competition quickly becomes secondary to the idiosyncratic interactions among the characters and the disjointed exploration of their lives and philosophies.

Personal History

Never seen this (is it ever on TV or on a Streaming Service?) but I love a road movie. Looking forward to the point that I invested £8 on an ebay DVD.

Current Review

Where to start? 

The dialogue is that intermittent and the sound quality so bad, I had to turn on the subtitles. I wasn't missing anything. The mechanic and the driver are not actors but musicians..... Wilson, the drummer in the Beach Boys. Led to a wag saying the best performance in a film (by a drummer). Obviously never seen Keith Moon.

The story? About very little. Two very good looking young men race the primer grey souped up Chevy in drag races. They pick up a girl at a diner. They bump into Warren Oates, who is driving an ultra modern GTO. They challenge each other to a race across America.  Hitch hikers are picked up. One of them is Harry Dean Stanton. Who brings an odd homosexual bent into the film.

Can't not mention the ending.... Warren Oates, who has been telling whoppers all through the film, tells an almighty one. There is a final drag race. The film pausing, catches in the gate and catches fire.

Art, or did they run out of money/hours.

Mercifully short, with decent music.

Spoiler

Quirky Facts

• The Tutankhamen of Movies.... is it cursed?  Only James Taylor lives to old bones. Wilson, drowns in his thirties. Oates croaks it of the flu in his early fifties. Bird, commits suicide at 25. The same age and way as her mother.
• The scene where The Girl goes begging was filmed amongst real people, not actors. Asking for money for the bus fare home.
• A flop, pulled from theatres after just a week.

Quotes

Hot rod driver: Let's make it 50.
The Driver: Make it three yards, motherfucker, and we'll have an auto-MO-bile race.

G.T.O.: Everything fell apart on me. My job, my family, everything. I had this job as a television producer and I walked into the office and I...
The Driver: I don't wanna hear about it.
G.T.O.: What do you mean, you don't wanna hear about it?
The Driver: It's not my problem.

Sustenance

Lots of diner food consumed within - Cheeseburgers with everything on it, American breakfasts of bacon, eggs and pancakes.

Think I will go with rye whiskey with a beer on the side.

Future Inspiration

Surprisingly, I have watched another Monte Hellman film recently, Ride the Whirlwind. A minimalistic Western, starring Jack Nicholson, was his film before this one.

AI gives the usual road trip. Americana movies. Vanishing Point is a future Moviedrome film, coming in series 9.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac will be read, even if it is such a cliche.