Barnes & Noble

A hypnotic road trip and an ode to the lonesome highways of America, Two-Lane Blacktop follows two car-obsessed drifters who put up their customized 1955 Chevy in a cross-country race against a straight-from-the-factory 1970 Pontiac GTO. But this skeletal story quickly dissolves into a series of stops for hitchhikers, small town drag races, brushes with the law, and rest stops at an endless succession of small-town diners, motels, and gas stations. The only music is heard through car radios and cafe jukeboxes, and the sparse, nuts-and-bolts dialogue -- the two laconic drifters don't talk about much besides headers and sparkplugs -- ultimately yields to the ever-present rev of engines. No character names here, just "The Driver" (singer James Taylor) and "The Mechanic" (Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys) versus "G.T.O." (a magnificent Warren Oates), with a hitchhiker, "The Girl" (Laurie Bird), along for the ride -- the principals competing for her affection. Directed by the iconoclastic Monte Hellman, Two-Lane Blacktop is a haunting reminder of the often-brilliantly conveyed sense of disaffection and alienation that pervaded American films in the 1970s. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

A '55 Chevy takes on a '70 GTO in a race across the Southwest in Monte Hellman's cult favorite. The Driver (James Taylor) and the Mechanic (Dennis Wilson) phlegmatically slouch from race to race, pitting their gray Chevy against any and all gearheads in order to make money for gas and food. They and the tag-along Girl (Laurie Bird) meet their match in "Oh Maybelline" fan GTO (Warren Oates), and they all set off on a cross-country race to Washington D.C., with the winner getting the loser's car. But it isn't the end that really counts; it is the process of getting there, as the Girl's fickleness forces the Driver to decide what matters more: endless races or her. Shot on location from a spare script by Rudolph Wurlitzer and Will Corry, Two-Lane Blacktop was trumpeted as the "film of the year" in Esquire Magazine before its release. It bombed, and disputes over music rights kept it from home video until 1999, but repertory and TV screenings have gained it an avid following for its automotive detail, flashes of authentic idiosyncrasy, and artfully abstract examination of the urge to forge ahead, whether or not there is anywhere to go. Lucia Bozzola

Product Details

• UPC: 715515026925
• Source: CRITERION
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Time: 1:43:00
• Sales Rank: 4,995

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