two lane blacktop DVD Review

Ever wonder what a zen film might be like?  Here it is.    It's definitely an art film, but it is not stuffy or pretentious in the least.

Two Lane Blacktop is a poem.  It does not deliver what the audience expects, it doesn't build to a crescendo or emotional pay off, but instead finds a stylish and memorable way to cinematically burn rubber and fade away.   It's unique and you have to surrender yourself to its leisurely pace and be somewhat intrigued and interested in the characters and actors you are watching.  It might require a slightly different way of watching a movie for many-but it's worth making the effort I assure you.

The four main characters are called:  Driver, Mechanic, GTO and Girl.  Despite the names they are not merely types or clichés, but the do all exist in the moment.  We are with them, along for the ride, we don't know many facts about any of the characters... we can decide that or ourselves.    The stars of the film are  James Taylor (yes the pop-folk-singer),  Dennis Wilson (the late Beach Boy member), Warren Oates (in perhaps his best performance) and Laura Bird (who most won't know-but she' very good).

Driver and Mechanic are the original slackers. They love racing, and hustling people to keep racing in their supercharged '55 Chevy.  They are not hippies (but do look like hippies), but car junkies. They have $300 bucks racing money and 20 bucks to spend and are looking  to drive cross country and race locals for fun and a little bread.  The meet a loud mouth middle-aged guy (Warren Oates)  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.

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 he became a star with Easy Rider). Hellman also went on to make the very interesting and almost as good movie called  Cockfighter with Warren Oates. He's appreciated by a small, growing cult of afficionado'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.

DVD NOTES

The Anchor Bay DVD from a few years ago is now unfortunately officially out or print... but hopefully it will be back and available soon.  In the meantime I hope you can snag a copy at least to watch and experience this unique movie.

Do listen to the feature length commentary by director Monte Hellman and Producer Gary Kurts (who later on would produce Star Wars with Lucas).  It's informative and entertaining.     The short featurette by cult director George Hickenlooper, American Auteur: Monte Hellman  features interviews with L.A. Times critic Kevin Thomas,  Director Monte Hellman and Roger Corman.   Good but too short.