I think about Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) more than any other movie I've seen this year

Submitted by The_ZombyWoof t3_zzcvbf in movies

Great art, whether it's a novel, a painting, a piece of music, or a film, should stay with you, force you to think, maybe even haunt you.

This year I bought the Criterion Collection Edition of Two-Lane Blacktop, and I haven't thought any other movie this year nearly as much.

The film stars James Taylor, Denis Wilson, Warren Oats, Laurie Bird, a tricked out 1955 Chevrolet 150 two-door sedan and a 1970 Pontiac GTO. In fact, the cars are the real stars of the movie. Not in any wide-eyed, auto-enthusiast sense, like the 1977 Firebird of Smokey and The Bandit. That car existed only to look cool and provide some platform for Burt Reynolds and Sally Field to get it on.

No, the cars of Two-Lane Blacktop are the actual extensions of the minimally drawn characters. They provide a good portion of the soundtrack; there are large swaths of this movie with no dialogue, no music, just the hum, or roar, of those big V-8s.

The sparse plot lays mostly upon the cross-country race between the Chevy and the GTO, but it's a MacGuffin, really. There is no destination, there is no goal for these characters, they are lost souls, all of them. Lost, and going nowhere fast.

Their journey takes them from the southwest through a fictional middle America, devoid of any corporate intrusion. No large, well lit gas stations or sterile, mass-market diners on this blue-highways tour. The small towns, dingy family restaurants, ramshackle petrol stations have all seen much better days. Soon-to-be ghost towns, already inhabited by wandering and adrift spirits of The Driver, The Mechanic, GTO and The Girl.

The obvious partner piece for this film is Vanishing Point, and I think the two together are the best car movies ever made. Hell, probably in the top 50 of the best movies ever made, period.

If you are a bit tired of the big boom spectacle of so many of modern movies, the get Two-Lane Blacktop, and spend some quality, quite time existing in a world long gone. And maybe ask yourself where are you going, too.

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VisibleEvidence t1_j2ayzya wrote

This movie is a perfect time capsule of 70’s car culture and a masterpiece of existentialism. Is it for everybody? Well, I once gave the remastered DVD as a gift to a friend and after they watched it he was mad at me for “pulling a joke” and “tricking them into watching it” and his wife banned me from their house permanently. If that isn’t the best recommendation for “Two Lane Blacktop” EVER, then I don’t know what is. This movie should be required viewing at every film school, on a double bill with “Breathless” (1960).

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The_ZombyWoof OP t1_j2b1xjc wrote

You definitely have to go into it with a certain state of mind, or at least expectation of what you're watching.

The film is a meditation, and the invite to the viewer is to come along and join the meditation. Which is, in a way, a perfect time capsule of 70’s culture overall. Or, at least those early 70s years.

If nothing else, I really miss the pacing of 70s films.

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KittysMenopause t1_j2b48qd wrote

It's a great film. I picked up the Criterion release last year. The interview with James Taylor and Monte Hellman is worth a watch.

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GoldAd9127 t1_j2bllga wrote

One of my last memories of my dad before his passing was watching this movie and watching him “shift through the gears” in the final scene.

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hulkhands81 t1_j2c6ovt wrote

I watched this movie years ago and as a gear head and a person with strange taste in movies, I really enjoyed it. If I remember correctly, the one main actor in the film was never even given a name and just simply referred to as GTO. It was a 69? GTO with the Judge package and the other was a bel air I think with a tilt front end. Very little in the way of dialogue but heavy on the open road trip feel. Like I said it’s been ages since I watched it but I remember it fondly. Come to think of it, I think I got the movie from Netflix when it was a mail delivery service.

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The_ZombyWoof OP t1_j2clj6y wrote

None of the characters have names, they are literally The Driver, The Mechanic, GTO and The Girl.

I believe the GTO itself was a 1970, and the '55 was a 150 two-door sedan, not a Bel Air

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hulkhands81 t1_j2cp13b wrote

I thought the guys in the other car had names at least in the credits but I do remember her being credited as girl.

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Gumderwear t1_j2cdhr5 wrote

One of the first uses of FUCK in a film. The 55 Chevy and the GTO Judge were used in television from time to time....Adam-12 used them both a couple of times. The 55 Chevy went on to be Bob Falfa/ Harrison Fords car in American Graffiti.

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Frag1 t1_j2cokn2 wrote

Vanishing point is amazing and im so glad you said it. Great post.

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