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Nebs
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:01 pm
Posts: 6385
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 Two-Lane Blacktop Two-Lane Blacktop Quote: Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, and even published the entire screenplay in its April, 1971 issue, but the film was not a commercial success. The film has since become a cult classic. Brock Yates, organizer of the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (better known as the Cannonball Run) cites Two-Lane Blacktop as one source of inspiration for the creation of the race, and commented on it in his Car and Driver column announcing the first Cannonball.
Two-Lane Blacktop is notable as a time capsule film of U.S. Route 66 during the pre-Interstate Highway era, and for its stark footage and minimal dialogue. As such it has become popular with fans of Route 66. Two-Lane Blacktop has been compared to similar road movies with an existentialist message from the era, such as Vanishing Point, Easy Rider, and Electra Glide in Blue.
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| Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:36 pm |
 
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kypade
Kypade
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 10:53 pm
Posts: 7908
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Re: Two-Lane Blacktop From elsewhere: Reprinted in the booklet for the Criterion of Two-Lane Blacktop (beautiful set, btw, go buy it) is a "review" by Richard Linklater of the film. I'm gonna let him go ahead and take the bulk of this post, as it's one of the most insightful and awesome movie reviews I've ever read. I agree pretty much completely with everything he says. Quote: Ten (Sixteen, Actually) Reasons I Love 'Two-Lane Blacktop'By Richard Linklater - Because it's the purest American road movie ever.
- Because it's like a drive-in movie directed by a French New Wave director.
- Because the only thing that can get between a boy and his car obsession is a girl, and Lori Bird perfectly messes up the oneness between the Driver, the Mechanic, and their car.
- Because Dennis Wilson gives the greatest performance ever . . . by a drummer.
- Because James Taylor seems like a refugee from a Robert Bresson movie, and has the chiseled looks of Artaud from Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc.
- Because there was once a god who walked the Earth named Warren Oates.
- Because there's a continuing controversy over who is the actual lead in this movie. There are different camps. Some say it's the '55 Chevy, some say it's the GTO. But I'm a Goat man, I have a GTO -- '68.
- Because it has the most purely cinematic ending in film history.
- Because it's like a western. The guys are like old-time gunfighters, ready to out-draw the quickest gun in town. And they don't talk about old flames, but rather old cars they've had.
- Because Warren Oates has a different cashmere sweater for every occasion. And of course the wet bar in the trunk.
- Because unlike other films of the era with the designer alienation of the drug culture and the war protesters, this movie is about the alienation of everybody else, like Robert Frank's The Americans come alive.
- Because Warren Oates, as GTO, orders a hamburger and an Alka Seltzer and says things like "Everything is going too fast and not fast enough."
- Because it's both the last film of the '60s -- even though it came out in '71 -- but it's also the first film of the '70s. You know, that great era of "How the hell did they ever get that film made at a studio/Hollywood would never do that today" type of film.
- Because engines have never sounded better in a movie.
- Because these two young men on their trip to nowhere don't really know how to talk. The Driver doesn't really converse when he's behind the wheel, and the Mechanic doesn't really talk when he's working on the car. So this is primarily a visual, atmospheric experience. To watch this movie correctly is to become absorbed into it.
- And, above all else, Two-Lane Blacktop goes all the way with its idea. And that's a rare thing in this world: a completely honest movie.
I mean, what else do you need to know? One of the biggest reasons I loved this film, which sorta follows in line with number 15, is I really like it when nothing matters in a film. This film is absolutely about the "visual, atmospheric experience"; if you expect otherwise, you'll probably be disappointed. There are no real stakes involved and nothing really happens. You start somewhere in the middle of the journey and you get off long before it's over. It's fascinating and thrilling to me to experience this lifestyle. It might end at some point for the Driver and the Mechanic, but for the present, that end isn't anywhere nearby. They live the kinda life where it's not unusual to leave a diner after lunch and find a young girl sitting in the back of your car. To the point where they drive off with her almost without a word - who is she? Who cares? Every shot feels that way, aimless and unimportant. That nothing matters is all that matters, and I really love that. So yeah, it's pretty fn awesome. Check it out.
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| Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:56 pm |
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