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Amazon.co.uk Review
James Taylor is The Driver, a car-obsessed racer with stringy hair and a concentration that precludes conversation. He travels the backroads of rural America with his buddy, The Mechanic, (Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys), an equally obsessed lost soul at home only in the car or under the hood. They have no names, only designations, and no life outside of their gypsy existence, riding the unending highway in their souped-up '55 Chevy from race to race. After picking up a hitchhiking Girl (Laurie Bird), whose presence breaks the tunnel-vision focus of the two men, they challenge a middle-aged hotshot, the garrulous G.T.O. (Warren Oates) to a cross-country race. Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop is the most alienated evocation of modern America ever made, an almost abstract study in dislocation and obsession set against a vague landscape of roadside diners and rest stops. Taylor and Wilson deliver appropriately blank performances, only expressing emotion when The Girl sparks jealousy between them. Oates is a glib dynamo constructing a new persona in every scene, as if trying on characters to play as he ping-pongs between the coasts. "How fast does it go?" asks The Driver, admiring G.T.O.'s car. "Fast enough," he answers. The Driver snaps, "You can never go fast enough." These are characters on the road to nowhere who can't work up enough speed to escape themselves. --Sean Axmaker
Synopsis
Cult film director Monte Hellman follows up his legendary westerns The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind with another sterling film, 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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a great movie! First of all it stars Singer Songwriter James Taylor an Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson in their first and only acting roles. They are two drifters who race their Ol' 55 Chevy for money. Warren Oates stars and steals the show as the driver of a Pontiac GTO who races them across the backroads of america for "Pinks"(car docs) picking up various weirdos on the way. They pick up a (Laurie) "Bird" who joins them for a ride. You never really know what's going on or what might happen next and the film does have an abrupt ending. This can all be explained in the director voice over option. It's a shame this appears to be in short supply. Maybe get it from amazon.com. It's a classic buy it! IMPORTANT I can only play this on my PC dvd player and not on my multi-region DVD player for some reason(maybe my dvd player isn't too hot)
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I've been waiting for this to be re-released in this country for years. I remember seeing it a couple of times on TV. For anyone who's into this period of American movie making this can be considered a classic. For anyone who's interested in James Taylors' career it's very interesting to watch. Why it's taken until 2006 to get a release seems strange, although I expect it'll only appeal to niche markets and true movie lovers unless there's some promotion. Shame.
59 of 61 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Read the comments on the IMDB site and you'll find plenty of people who obviously watched it thinking they were getting another "American Graffiti" or 1971 version of "The Fast And The Furious" and came away hugely disappointed - little action, monosyllabic and underplayed acting, no real story and a strange unsatisfying ending. But it's all those things that make the film so wonderful! It's a perfect late 60s/early 70s road movie. Two guys who just drive about in a 1955 Chevy (so stripped that it doesn't even have a paint job) challenging local hotshots to street drag races until they bump into a strange bullshitter who challenges them to race across the US, and off they go. James Taylor and Dennis Wilson beautifully underplay their parts. They just exist to race and so anything else, talk included, is really superfluous. A girl hitcher gets picked up at one point and ends up walking away from the pair of them obviously bemused and somewhat pissed off that despite her attempts to make one jealous of the other they really just don't care about her. And you get all the talk you need from the wonderful Warren Oates, who plays the GTO driver brilliantly - the character's just too old to have `gotten' the sixties and knows they he's missed something. Every hitcher he picks up as he races across the country gets told a different story, and his sense of jealousy for what he thinks Taylor and Wilson has is palpable. It's beautifully shot and proceeds at a langorous, leisurely pace. The ending is what one can only describe at "cinematic". If you want thrills-and-spills then give it a miss. If you want to see a cult gem, one of the coolest films ever made, check it out. I first saw it twenty odd years ago and it became my favourite film; the nice thing is, twenty odd years later it still is.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The coolest movie you will ever see!
After watching this movie for the first time, i knew from that second that i had just seen the coolest movie i had ever, and maybe will ever see!
Published 1 month ago by Nate
Two-Lane Blacktop Blu-ray
This is a very good road movie with a good soundtrack. The story is not very believable but it is good 1970's escapism to a bygone time.
Published 1 month ago by N. McCandless
Another classic on Blu-ray!!
Amazingly, this is the first time I ever saw this movie. I'm into cult classics like Easy Rider, Electra Glide in Blue and Vanishing Point. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Archie Dickson
GHOSTS ON THE HIGHWAY
Often cited along with Easy Rider as an example of 60s counter culture film making, Two Lane Blacktop is really a very different kind of movie. Read more
Published 4 months ago by nelson viper
god bless this movie!
this sits deservidly in my all time top ten movies!!! it puts you in a time where any man could have muscle and mpg just did'nt matter. Read more
Published 10 months ago by michael
NOT FAST.NOT FURIOUS.
Well well well i think we have what is commonly known as a "cult" film here i.e a film nobody watched on its theatrical run. Read more
Published 10 months ago by mister joe
slow lane
What a letdown,acting is not even to the standard of a school drama class,shame coz the basic story is a cool one. Read more
Published 17 months ago by agent smith
top film
what you thought the roads would be like when i was growing up speed excitment birds
but then its traffic jams and cranny shopping brill film all the same
but then its traffic jams and cranny shopping brill film all the same
Published 18 months ago by Mr. R. R. Ladlow
A cult car film
This is one of the films that if you are into cars you have to see. The filming is very moody, the story is simple but interesting and the cars are loud and fast. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Lost sheep
two-lane blacktop
bought for my hubby, its a very strange film, not much talkin goes on, but he luvs it for the cars n racing
Published on 11 April 2010 by J. A. Downs
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