Two-Lane Blacktop - Criterion Collection
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Movie Reviews of Two-Lane Blacktop - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: Two-Lane Blacktop: an existential road movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
Monte Hellman's cult classic, Two-Lane Blacktop, is a 1971 road movie that tells the story of two drag racers, "Driver" (musician James Taylor, Sweet Baby James) and "Mechanic" (musician Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys), who drift from town to town on Route 66 in their '55 Chevy challenging locals to races. Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker, "The Girl" (Laurie Bird), in Flagstaff. Somewhere outside of Santa Fe, they encounter another drag-racing drifter, "GTO" (Warren Oates, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia), driving a '70 Pontiac GTO, and they challenge him to a cross-country race to Washington, D.C. The free-spirited Girl sleeps with both Driver and Mechanic during the their brief journey, before abruptly leaving both for a stranger on a motorcycle. While many viewers consider Two-Lane Blacktop one of the greatest road movies ever made and the inspiration for other movies like Vanishing Point and Easy Rider, others see it as an existential parable about life itself in which individuals create meaning out of their otherwise meaningless lives. The film, like life, ends unexpectedly and with unresolved storylines.
The new Criterion double-disc edition features a new, high-definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Hellman, a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, two audio commentaries; one by Hellman and filmmaker Allison Anders, and one by screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer and author David Meyer, interviews with Hellman, star James Taylor, musician Kris Kristofferson, producer Michael Laughlin, and production manager Walter Coblenz, screen-test outtakes, and the original theatrical trailer.
G. Merritt
Movie Review: Hellman's masterpiece....
Summary: 5 Stars
Many American filmmakers love European films (with good reasons), and during the 1960's and 1970's, they tried to emulate them to some degree. Antonioni was a favorite to emulate, but this often resulted in pointless self indulgence and overly artsy work. Monte Hellman was one of the exceptions. This film, which I consider his best work, capture the Antonioni-like feel perfectly, but he still made a quinessentially American film. The pace of the film is slow and meditative, and Hellman's mise-en-scene is superb. He really uses the frame superbly. Hellman succeeds in making a real art film about drag racing, and that is quite remarkable.
The film is about 2 drag racers (James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, yes, the rock stars) who travel around the country and race, eat, sleep, race some more. There is very little explanation in the character's motivation, which really enhances the work. Warren Oates's character (who gives the best performance here) is just known as GTO (the car he drives). We never learn his name. Most people who went to see the film were probably expecting a great drag race movie with rock stars, but instead got a meditative, thought provoking film which was more like a European auteur film than an American film. The only quip I have is Laurie Bird's performance. She's not very good, and she can become a distraction when watching the film. The film was shot mostly on location in small town USA, and it gives the film an excellent atmosphere. It's not an Easy Rider type of film where everyone's a redneck. The people are just there, portrayed as human beings. Today, there would be a lot of snarky commentary by a smart a** teenager. Luckily, Hellman didn't do that here. This is Monte Hellman's best film, and one of the most neglected films of the 1970's.
Movie Review: A Blast from the Past!
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched this movie at the Rochester Drive-in Theater back in the 70's and I remember really enjoying it. Being a long time Gear head, this movie was a lot of fun to watch again. It's a bit dated, but seeing a young James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, and Warren Oats, was a big kick. Being a guy who grew up with the Muscle Cars of the 60's and 70's, this was a great movie that brought back the sweet sound of a Chevy 454 Big Block with open headers. I highly recommend this movie for all the Hot Rod fans of that era.Movie Review: Rock Stars can act!
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I don't really don't know if you can consider this acting. What procedes between Mr. Fire and Rain, The Beach Boy, and their many acquaintances on the road sound like things that everyday people would discuss, and that doesn't take alot to do. But most people can't transfer onto the screen as well as these boys can.
As for the movie itself. I loved it! What happened to America in the past 35 years since this movie first came out? We've all become so embroiled in our daily activities that we forget about what else is out there. This movie is, for me, a 100 minute snapshot of what freedom is. It's being out on the road, not being tied down to any real commitment, except for the occasional breadwinning. And these 2 friends have found their breadwinning niche in the form of their biggest passion, racing. For other people it could be music, surfing, or painting.
The only really thing I didn't like about the movie was Laurie Bird's butchering of some great tunes. Like her tonedeaf interpretation of The Stones' classic "Satisfaction" in the arcade or her annoying lyric echoing for that killer blues number playing on the GTO's sound system. You can see Dennis Wilson trying to keep himself from laughing at her in that scene. But luckily for me that isn't enough for me to take away a star.
It's interesting that director Monte Hellmen, known for his Westerns, decided to choose a couple of rock stars (who at the time could've been considered the Wild West Heroes [and Villians, haha Beach Boys reference] of the day) to star in this movie.
Much like the dialouge, music is kept to a minimum. Mainly the only real excuse for music in this movie is the fact that it's always coming from a car stereo, instead of the usual dramatic effect (like in "Easy Rider" or "Vanishing Point"). It's same as everything else in the movie. A song just passes by as if it were an object by the highway. If you're going fast, it passes by quickly.
Hopefully this movie can translate to you, the same way it translated to me.
Movie Review: On the Road
Summary: 4 Stars
I wasn't sure what to expect from the flick as I refused to read the blurb and wanted to go in completely unspoiled. The flick stars a young James Taylor (yeah, that James Taylor, the Fire and Rain, ex-hippie soft rock king), Dennis Wilson (of the Beach Boys), Laurie Bird, and Warren Oates (who I only really knew as Sgt. Hulka from Stripes.) Basically it's sort of an existentialist gear-head flick that follows two friends, a hitchhiker, and a compulsive liar as they race across the country.
The first thing that surprised me was how much I loved both James Taylor (as The Driver) and Dennis Wilson (as The Mechanic); both perfectly nail that disassociated quietness that comes from truly cool obsessive hobbyists (you know the type, that dude that's uber knowledgeable and has pretty much seen or experienced every aspect of something and just kind of hangs out mildly interested in the scene; think Chevy Chase in Caddyshack or Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused.) When they're checking out potential cars to race against, and they're rattling off engine types and model years it's with a total stoicism that's way more realistic and convincing than a more manic method approach (like Nic Cage in the Gone in 60 Seconds remake.) Very early on you get used to the two as a unit, almost inseparable, so later in the film with the introduction of Laurie Bird's hitchhiker, even though it's played out very subdued, you can really feel the distance growing between the Driver and the Mechanic. It's kind of painful to watch (in a good way.)
Overall the film is very slow, plodding along just fast enough with almost no plot that you might actually fall asleep if it weren't for the occasional engine revving or race. Warren Oates' character, an older guy with a much nicer looking car (a yellow 1970 Pontiac G.T.O.) than the duo (in their dark gray primer colored '55 Chevy) ends up adding a lot of unnerving humor and a lightness to the overly brooding film. He's constantly picking up hitchhikers and coming up with a new spiel about how he ended up with his G.T.O., none of which you can believe by the time he hooks up with the duo. There's actually a great cameo by Harry Dean Stanton as a gay hitchhiker that manages to be both funny and very disturbing at the same time.
This movie plays out much in the same way that Jack Kerouac's On the Road feels. What probably helped this along was that the director Monte Hellman only dished out a day's worth of the script at a time which seemed frustrating to the actors, but which helped to insure very organic performances. He also tried his best to deprive the actors of sleep so that they would be in the same head-space as the characters which were on a non-stop trip.
The flick also has a very abrupt (though interesting), pre-third act resolution, ending which I think says a lot more about the film than I realized when I watched it through the first time. The basic plot is that the duo, after picking up Laurie Bird, are confronted by Warren Oates' character at a gas station (though they've sort of had a couple run-ins with him before where he tries his best to initiate a race and both times they blow him off) and you can tell he's dying to get these three on the road with him, the two guys in a race, and the girl in his car. After a bit of macho posturing, Taylor and Wilson challenge Oates to a race across the country to D.C. with the two car's pinks as the trophy. They put their pink slips together and mail them to D.C. care of general delivery and head out. During the film all three guys make passes at Laurie Bird, who is more than willing, though only Wilson makes contact, however pointless and fleeting it is. At the same time Bird is sort of wary of the guys as it seems that she's looking for a bit of stability and all she can see in them is their need to race above all else, or in Oates' case, a little bit on insanity. Eventually she splits from the group and hitches a ride with some dude on his motorcycle, exiting the film and setting the tone for the rest of the picture which is when everyone sort of realizes that nothing is going to change and they all just sort of abandon the race, getting back to where they started the film leaving the bare plot resolution as a mere loose end. The race is really just a MacGuffin.