Movie Description
Cult film director Monte Hellman follows up his legendary westerns THE SHOOTING and RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND with another bona fide classic, this time set on the paved highways of early 1970s America. Making their acting debuts, musicians Dennis Wilson and James Taylor play a pair of drag-racing drifters who battle against willing competitors all along the back roads of America, encountering a wild cast of characters. After stopping for lunch one afternoon, Taylor (The Driver) and Wilson (The Mechanic) discover a young woman in their back seat (Laurie Bird, credited as (The Girl). The newly formed trio continues to head east, and places a risky bet with Warren Oates after bumping into each other at a gas station. The first automobile to arrive in Washington D.C. is the winner. The prize: the loser's car (Taylor and Wilson drive a 1955 Chevy, while Oates pilots a 1970 Pontiac GTO). Strangely enough, rather than turning into a relentless fight to the finish, none of the participants seem too worried about picking up the pace. In fact, they act as if they're afraid of reaching their destinations, spurning an endless series of sidetracks that turns Hellman's film into a broad existential metaphor and cementing its place as one of 1970s Hollywood's bravest motion pictures.
| Credits | | Producer: | Michael Laughlin | | Cast: | Harry Dean Stanton |
Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
Single Side - Single Layer
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Additional Release Material:
Original Theatrical Trailer
Audio Commentary - Monte Hellman - Director, - Associate Producer
Documentary - MONTE HELLMAN: AMERICAN AUTEUR
Text/Photo Galleries:
Biographies - Cast & Crew, Theatrical Release: 1971
Theatrical rerelease: SEPTEMBER 29, 2000 (NY)
Critically-acclaimed, this genre-definer was restored and re-released in a new 35mm print in 2000, and was re-released theatrically on September 29, 2000 for a limited run in New York City.
In April 1971, Esquire magazine called TWO-LANE BLACKTOP "movie of the year" and published Rudy Wurlitzer's screenplay for the film.
Editorial Reviews
"...What the movie has is a feel for the road and out-of-the-way restaurants and gas stations matched by few others..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (10/15/1999)
4 stars out of 5 -- "As a study in obsession and emotional dislocation TWO-LANE BLACKTOP is in a class of its own."
Total Film - Philip Kemp (07/01/2007)
"Mr. Hellman films the flat, empty landscapes with his eyes on the horizon line, as if he were John Ford following a wagon train on its way west."
New York Times - Dave Kehr (12/18/2007)
"Hellman and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer keep it as stripped down as almost anything in contemporary European art cinema -- it's both abstract and concrete."
Sight and Sound - Tom Charity (03/01/2008)
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