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Two-Lane Blacktop (Widescreen Edition) [VHS]

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The 1971 film "Two-Lane Blacktop" is arguably the best of the late 60s, early 70s existential road film genre (including "Easy Rider," "Vanishing Point" and "Electra Glide in Blue"). Director Monte Hellman's stark, at times unyeilding examination of American alienation is brilliant simply because of its refusal to pander to an audience undoubtedly looking for the commercial release of an exciting car chase.

There is a race in "Two-Lane Blacktop," though it seems to end almost before it begins. There are extraordinary muscle cars as well, including a souped up '55 Chevy contrasted with a new Pontiac GTO. But Two-Lane Blacktop is a character study, even though the characters are not people we would particularly like to know.

The three main characters, haunted lost souls void of identity and emotion, are played by James Taylor, Dennis Wilson and Warren Oates. Taylor and Wilson silently cruise the backroads of America looking for the next race in their 55' Chevy. They eventually meet Oates, a chattering, nervous man involved in some kind of middle-age crisis while picking up hitchikers in his GTO. These men decide to race cross country, but eventually lose interest.

Throw into this uneasy mix a young hitchiker played by Laurie Bird. She jumps back and forth between these three men, holding off their awkward advances, eventually realizing their emotionless lives are headed down an endless highway without destination.

"Two-Lane Blacktop" is a morose study of men perpetually lost on the backroads of a nameless American landscape. They are hovering ghosts, void of identity, forever searching for a meaning which cannot be found. There are no easy truths or answers in Hellman's complex odyssey. These men are trapped, their cars serving as rolling coffins, redemption seemingly around the next bend, inexorably moving further and further away.

The time period of the early 1970s and the scratchy period music moaning from the AM radio, combined with the faceless gas stations and roadside diners of numerous small towns, all contribute to the overall effect of Hellman's dark character study. "Two-Lane Blacktop" is one of the finest American films no one has ever heard of.

Two Lane Blacktop is one of those movies that you hear about long before you see it. It seems that while every car guy I have ever run across has heard of Two Lane Blacktop, few have ever seen it. Like Vanishing Point, it examines on some level the disillusionment that came at the close of the 1960's. It is a movie about outsiders; those that choose to be and those that desperately do not wish to be. The one thread that ties them together is the road.

For a true gearhead, Two Lane Blacktop is a joy. To see all of the legendary sixties muscle cars in their natural environment.....it calls to mind a tradition of (illegal) street racing that still exists today, for better or worse. Anyone who has seen it or done it will instantly be pulled into the movie. Of course, the quintessential gray primer 55 Chevy, an unbeatable home-built street warrior, is the true hero of the film.

You don't see this movie for the dialogue and there isn't a lot of it. Some of the gearhead lingo is kind of lame, like where the gas station attendant asks the Driver (James Taylor) if the 55 Chevy has a "Chevy block." No duh. Don't worry about it. That isn't why you are watching it.

This movie is a time machine. As a 38 year old, I vividly remember those days and those cars, but through the eyes of an eight year old with Hot Wheels cars and a Dad that drove four door sedans (still does). I always wanted (and now have) fast cars. Seeing this movie for the first time 20 years ago poured even more fuel on the flame. Getting the opportunity to see it has always been an elusive pleasure, because it has been broadcast so rarely, and then often edited. This past Christmas, my girlfriend got me a copy in the collector's tin. I have watched it several times since, sometimes very loud. The movie has a deep texture, maybe even more so than Easy Rider, from which comparisons can be drawn. You aren't watching the people alone in this movie, however. Rather, you are taking in everything that is in it. The wide screen format is only way to go. If only you could smell the fuel, the oil and the burning rubber while you watch it. Every car guy has to have this video, along with Vanishing Point and Bullitt.

When I decided to purchase this DVD, I was just attracted by the name of the director of TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, Monte Hellman, who directed two excellent westerns in the sixties. I didn't know at all this movie and expected the worse. God ! How was I wrong ! TWO-LANE BLACKTOP is a divine surprise for those who, like me, long for titles of the quality of the american movies of the 70's.

Two pop stars of that period, James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (Brian's brother), as the driver and the mechanic, race against Warren Oates in a journey through the heart of America. While Taylor and Wilson hardly speak, Warren Oates has a convulsive need to talk to the numerous hitch-hikers he accepts to take for a ride in his GTO.

TWO-LANE BLACKTOP is a road movie, in the tradition of EASY RIDER and THE VANISHING POINT, but the characters don't have to prove anything, they don't even care if they make it to their final destination, Washington D.C. They cannot either be considered as rebels because they don't have an ideal to defend or an authority to face. They are tragic figures without any ideals.

The DVD presented by Anchor BAY is sumptuous with top-notch images and sound ( vraoum, vraoum...). A trailer, a commentary and a very informative featurette about Monte Hellman directed by George Hickenlooper.

A DVD for the road.

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

A painlessly quick FYI by a longtime Amazonian on his biggest pet peeve of Amazon reviews: No matter how many DVD releases there are for a particular film, Amazon lumps them all together.

As such, the first 84 reviews are for the *initial* (and now waaaaaaaaay OOP) DVD release of this seminal film by Anchor Bay. The reviews for the *Criterion* release begin with the one on November 24, 2007, which is entitled, "Two-Lane Blacktop: an existential road movie."

Ok, I'm stepping off my titanium soapbox now.... d'oh!!!!

Great exploration of American angst....and American existentialist non-answers. Rudy Wurlitzer's script is a gem. Here's a clue for you Beach Boys fans out there. It ain't supposed to be fun fun fun 'til her daddy takes the T-Bird away. The acting is supposed to be "flat," emotionless (with the exception of Warren Oates' role as "GTO" and Laurie Bird's role as "The Girl"). The characters are supposed to be from nowhere and going nowhere. They are characters who have stripped away all "extraneous" elements from their lives. Hellman, given big-studio backing for the first and ultimately only time in his career thus far, was an exceeding brave man to make this film. Read some Camus and some Sartre and some Beckett, then talk to some serious gearheads for a while, then take a long road trip on some two-lane highways in my home turf, the American Southwest. Then watch this movie. You'll appreciate just what Hellman and company accomplished. By the way, James Taylor is the only leading actor in the film still living, and he made it while he was in the throes of a serious battle with heroin. Who would have thought he would have been the last left standing?

The insentient world of machines and the people who cohabit it. I love the sight and sound of machines, so Two Lane Blacktop is a natural for me. In this case the machines are cars with their drivetrains at full tilt. A wonderful flavor is the whine of the special cut gears of the '55 Chevy's M22 transmission handling the power of the big 454 motor.

The austerity and robot blankness of the characters and plot mate perfectly with the barren mechanical environment. The cross country scenery and coffee shop settings highlight the theme as well. Nothing pulls away from the dominating emphasis of machines . A very singular movie.

Two-Lane Blacktop is literature on film! At first viewing, it may seem stylistic but plotless, as the casual observer without proper frame of reference will miss some subtle subplots.

The first subplot is the contrast of the genuine versus the wannabe, as revealed in the cars and their owners. There has always been a street-race rivalry between the the home-built hotrod and the checkbook-aquired factory musclecar (fellow gearheads will nod knowingly). This contrast extends to The Driver, who is earthy and real, and GTO, who is always playing a role. At first, GTO tries to stand toe-to-toe with The Driver, but he is eventually subjugated by the horsepower of the '55 and the mechanical know-how of Driver and Mechanic.

The second and more interesting subplot is the tension within The Driver, who feels more comfortable with machines than with people (perhaps machines are easier to control). Believe me, this type of personality exists - confirm with any gearhead or IT professional. His machine zen is interrupted by the hitchhiker, to whom he opens himself up (barely). The hicthhiker eventually leaves, and at the end of the movie he slides shut the window of the '55 Chevy, symbolically shutting out human emotion/interaction and returning to his mechanical world.

Watch this movie looking for these subplots, and you may have a whole new viewing experience.

In anticipation of its release later that year, Esquire magazine ran a substantial piece on Two-Lane Blacktop and boldly proclaimed it to be the best film of the year. Despite high praise from such a prestigious periodical, the studio refused to promote the film and it was barely released theatrically. Perhaps the studio felt that the minimalist plot and characterization, coupled with the existential vibe, wouldn't appeal to a mainstream audience. However, over the years, Two-Lane Blacktop developed a small, but loyal following among car enthusiasts who fetishized the 1955 Chevy and 1970 Pontiac GTO featured so prominently that they deserve top billing alongside the lead actors. The film also found an audience with people who dug other nihilistic road movies like Easy Rider (35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) and Vanishing Point.

Director Monte Hellman's camerawork is very minimalist, almost documentary-like in how matter-of-factly it depicts the race and the places and people that they encounter along the way. With all of the car-speak and loving shots of fast, muscle cars, Two-Lane Blacktop is a car lover's dream. It has also become a nostalgia piece as they just don't make cars like the ones in this film anymore. This film also immerses us in the car-racing culture of its day like no other film then or since.

Fans of the Anchor Bay edition will definitely want to hold onto that copy, especially if you're lucky enough to own the limited edition collectors' tin, as none of the extras are included on this new one.

The first disc features an audio commentary by the film's director Monte Hellman and joining him is filmmaker Allison Anders. He talks about how he got his start as a filmmaker, working for Roger Corman and American International Pictures. Anders keeps things moving by asking Hellman a lot of questions about making the film.

There is another commentary by the film's screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer and film professor David Meyer. They kick things off by defining the road movie and what it's all about. Wurlitzer talks about the romanticism of Jack Kerouac's On the Road: The Original Scroll and the evolution to the existentialism of Two-Lane Blacktop. This is a very philosophical track as he and Meyer talk about the film's themes and analyze their meaning.

"On the Road Again" features Hellman and some of his film students revisiting some of the locations in the film. Along the way, he talks about how he got involved in the film, how Rudy Wurlitzer came on board, and casting the lead actors. Hellman also talks about the troubles he had getting a studio interested and how Universal Pictures backed it. He talks about the style and intentions.

"Make It Three Yards" is a conversation between Hellman and James Taylor done in 2007. Taylor recounts his impressions making the film, including a few hair-raising mechanical mishaps with the cars.

"Somewhere Near Salinas" is a conversation with Kris Kristofferson who let "Me and Bobby McGee" be in the film. He talks about how he contemplated playing the role of the Mechanic but Hellman felt that he was too old.

"Sure Did Talk to You" features production manager Walter Coblenz and producer Michael S. Laughlin talking about the making of the film from their point-of-view. They talk about how Hellman let the actors only read the pages of the script for that day in order to allow for a more spontaneous reaction.

"Those Satisfactions are Permanent" allows one to see screen-test outtake footage of Laurie Bird and James Taylor. They don't actually read from the script but are interviewed instead.

"Color Me Gone" is a collection of behind-the-scenes stills.

"Performance and Image" features car enthusiast Walt Bailey reconstructing a '55 Chevy and offers his account via text and photographs. Also, then and now photos of locations used in the film are displayed.

Finally, there is a theatrical trailer.

Also accompanying the DVD is a copy of Wurlitzer's screenplay and extensive liner notes including tributes by Tom Waits and Richard Linklater and a fantastic Making Of article from Rolling Stone magazine.

Truely a muscle car masterpiece that takes the viewer to a time when life was simpler and gas cheaper.

The absence of dialogue between Dennis Wislon and James Taylor amplifies the true philosophy of racing. "No talking, concentrate on the engine." An example of this is when James Taylor tells Dennis Wislon to turn off the radio so he can hear the sound of the engine.

The drivers downfall of course is when he falls in love with the hitchhiker and his obsessions are no longer with the machine.

Having owned both a Pontiac GTO and several Mopars,the movie is very refreshing and exciting, comparable only to perhaps "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" and "Vanishing Point".

Note: This is the same 55 Chevy that Harrison Ford drives in American Graffiti.