Two-Lane Blacktop

This article is about the film. For the band, see Two Lane Blacktop.

Two-Lane Blacktop
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Monte Hellman
Written by	Rudolph Wurlitzer Will Corry (also story)
Produced by	Michael Laughlin
Starring	James Taylor Warren Oates Laurie Bird Dennis Wilson
Cinematography	Jack Deerson
Edited by	Monte Hellman
Music by	Billy James
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	July 7, 1971 (US)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$875  000

Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, the Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird.

Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, and even published the entire screenplay in its April 1971 issue, but the film was not a commercial success. The film has since become a counterculture-era cult classic. Brock Yates, organizer of the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (better known as the Cannonball Run) cites Two-Lane Blacktop as one source of inspiration for the creation of the race, and commented on it in his Car and Driver column announcing the first Cannonball.

Two-Lane Blacktop is notable as a time capsule film of U.S. Route 66 during the pre-Interstate Highway era, and for its stark footage and minimal dialogue. As such, it has become popular with fans of Route 66. Two-Lane Blacktop has been compared to similar road movies with an existentialist message from the era, such as Vanishing Point, Easy Rider, and Electra Glide in Blue.

In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.".

Plot

The premise involves two street racers (played by Taylor and Wilson) who live on the road in their highly modified, grey-primered, brutal 1955 Chevrolet 150 two-door sedan drag car and drift from town to town, making their income by challenging local residents to impromptu drag races. The movie follows them driving east on Route 66 from Needles, California. They pick up a female hitchhiker in Flagstaff, Arizona (played by Bird), although it is more accurate to say that she picks them up by simply getting into their car. In New Mexico, they encounter another car driver (played by Oates, driving a 1970 Pontiac GTO). An atmosphere of hostility develops between the two parties. Although Oates is not an overt street racer, and, in fact, seems to know little about cars, a cross-country race to Washington, D.C. is suggested. Taylor proposes that the prize should be "for pinks," or legal ownership of the loser's car. Characters are never identified by name in the movie; instead they are named "The Driver," "The Mechanic," "GTO," and "The Girl". The movie follows the group east through small towns in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee, but no character makes it to Washington, D.C. during the film.

After sleeping with the Mechanic (and being desired by the Driver) during the journey, the Girl disappoints them by abruptly leaving with GTO while they compete at a racetrack in Memphis. The Driver pursues them intently, finding them at a diner where the Girl has just rejected GTO's idea to visit Chicago. The Driver proposes going to Columbus, Ohio to get parts, but the Girl rejects him. She hops on the back of a stranger's motorcycle, dropping her bag in the parking lot. The three men abruptly depart from the diner in their respective cars. The insecure driver of the GTO, who tries to impress various hitchhikers he picks up along the way (including an importuning homosexual hitchhiker played by Harry Dean Stanton) with made-up stories about himself and the GTO, then stops for two soldiers on leave. He brags to his latest passengers that he won the new car while skillfully driving a home-built '55 Chevy, emphasizing the circular nature of the film. The film ends during a drag race at an airstrip in East Tennessee.

Production

Two-Lane Blacktop originated with producer Michael Laughlin who had a two-picture deal with CBS Cinema Center Films. He convinced the production company to pay Will Corry $100,000 for his original story about two men, one black and one white, who drove across the country followed by a young girl which was inspired by his own cross-country journey in 1968. Returning from Italy after a film project had fallen through, Hellman was introduced to Laughlin who presented Hellman with two projects, one of which was Two-Lane Blacktop. He asked Hellman to direct, who found Corry's story "interesting, but not fully realized". Hellman agreed to make the film only if another screenwriter was hired to rewrite the script and Laughlin agreed. A friend of Hellman's recommended underground writer Rudolph Wurlitzer. Hellman read his novel Nog and was impressed enough to hire Wurlitzer, who began reading Corry's story, but gave up after five pages. Hellman and Wurlitzer agreed to keep the basic idea of the cross-country race as well as the characters of the Driver, the Mechanic and the Girl. Wurlitzer invented the GTO character and the rest of the supporting cast. To prepare for writing the script, he stayed in a Los Angeles motel and read car magazines, as well as hanging out with several obsessive mechanics and "stoner car freaks" in the San Fernando Valley. Wurlitzer said that he did not know much about cars, but did "know something about being lost on the road". He wrote a new script in four weeks.

In February 1970, Hellman began location scouting and was a few weeks from principal photography when Cinema Center suddenly canceled the project. He shopped the script around to several Hollywood studios that liked it, but wanted a say in the casting. However, Ned Tanen, a young executive at Universal Pictures gave Hellman $850,000 to make the film and gave him control of the final cut. Hellman saw a picture of James Taylor on a billboard on the Sunset Strip and asked the musician to come and do a screen test. Four days before beginning principal photography the role of the Mechanic was still not cast. Hellman was desperate and tested people he met in garages. A friend of casting director Fred Roos suggested musician Dennis Wilson. Wilson was the last actor cast and Hellman chose him because he felt that the musician "had lived that role, that he really grew up with cars".

Principal photography began on August 13, 1970 in Los Angeles and lasted for eight weeks with a crew of 30, three matching Chevrolets and two matching G.T.O.s traveling through the southwest towards Memphis, Tennessee. Hellman insisted on going across country, like the characters in the film, because he felt it was the only way to convince the audience that the characters raced across the United States. He said, "I knew it would affect the actors — and it did, obviously. It affected everybody". Hellman took an unconventional approach of not letting his three lead, inexperienced actors read the script. Instead, he gave them pages of dialogue on the day of shooting. The actors felt uncomfortable with this approach. In particular, James Taylor, used to having control when it came to his music, was upset at being unable to read the script in advance. Hellman eventually gave him permission to do so, but Taylor never did read it.

Hellman shot almost the entire script as written. The first cut of the film was three-and-a-half hours long. He was his own editor: "I can't look over someone's shoulder. I need my hand on the brake". He had control of the final cut, but was contractually obliged to deliver a film no longer than two hours. The final version ran 105 minutes. In their April 1971 cover story, Esquire magazine proclaimed Two-Lane Blacktop, "film of the year". Hellman initially thought that the Esquire article would be good publicity for the film, but in hindsight was not, because "I think it raised people's expectations. They couldn't accept the movie for what it was". There was a lot of advance buzz about the film, but Lew Wasserman, head of the studio saw the film and hated it. He refused to promote it and when it opened in New York City on the Fourth of July weekend, there were no newspaper ads promoting it.

Soundtrack

Unlike other existential road movies of the time (such as "Easy Rider", and "Vanishing Point"), Two-Lane Blacktop does not rely heavily on music, nor was a soundtrack album released. The music featured in the film covers many genres, including rock, folk, blues, country, bluegrass, and R&B. James Taylor and Dennis Wilson did not contribute any music.

However, there are some notable tracks featured in the film, including "Moonlight Drive" by The Doors, the traditional folk tune "Stealin'" performed by Arlo Guthrie, and the original version of "Me and Bobby McGee" performed by the song's author Kris Kristofferson. A song titled "Truckload Of Art" written and performed by Terry Allen can be briefly heard coming out of the GTO.

In 2003 Plain Records issued a tribute album made in honor of this cult classic called "You Can Never Go Fast Enough" featuring exclusive tracks by Wilco, Sonic Youth, Will Oldham/Alan Licht, Calexico & Giant Sand, Suntanama, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Charalambides, Mark Eitzel/Marc Capelle, Roy Montgomery and Alvarius B with rare tracks by Cat Power, Roscoe Holcomb, Leadbelly & Sandy Bull.

Reaction

Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "What I liked about Two-Lane Blacktop was the sense of life that occasionally sneaked through, particularly in the character of G.T.O. (Warren Oates). He is the only character who is fully occupied with being himself (rather than the instrument of a metaphor), and so we get the sense we've met somebody". In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "Two-Lane Blacktop is a far from perfect film (those metaphors keep blocking the road), but it has been directed, acted, photographed and scored (underscored, happily) with the restraint and control of an aware, mature filmmaker". Time magazine's Jay Cocks wrote, "The film is immaculately crafted, funny and quite beautiful, resonant with a lingering mood of loss and loneliness ... Not a single frame in the film is wasted. Even the small touches — the languid tension while refueling at a back-country gas station or the piercing sound of an ignition buzzer — have their own intricate worth". In his review for the Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, "Two-Lane Blacktop is a movie of achingly eloquent landscapes and absurdly inert characters". In his review for the Chicago Reader, Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote, "The movie starts off as a narrative, but gradually grows into something much more abstract — it's unsettling, but also beautiful".

The film has since become a cult classic. It currently holds a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.3 out of 10 score (based on 7,334 votes, April 4, 2015) the Internet Movie Database.

Home video

Two-Lane Blacktop was unavailable on video for years because Universal Studios only released a few films from their catalog each year and it was not a priority. In 1994, Seattle's Scarecrow Video invited Hellman to show the film at their store. They proceeded to collect 2,000 signatures, including Werner Herzog's, for a petition to get the film released on video. Both People magazine and Film Comment ran articles about the store's effort and the film.

For years, Universal had been looking for a partner to give Two-Lane Blacktop a proper release befitting its cult film status. However, efforts to release it had always been hampered by issues with music rights, in particular the use of "Moonlight Drive" by The Doors. Director William Lustig, also a "technical advisor" for Anchor Bay, got Hellman to approach the surviving band members to get their approval. In 1999, Michigan-based Anchor Bay Entertainment licensed the film from Universal and released it on VHS and DVD, with an audio commentary by Hellman and associate producer Gary Kurtz and a documentary on Hellman directed by George Hickenlooper. The limited edition DVD was packed in a metal tin and extras included a 48-page booklet featuring behind-the-scenes photographs and liner notes about director Monte Hellman, a 5" X 7" theatrical poster replica, and a die-struck miniature car key chain. Anchor Bay released a regular edition without the poster and key chain.

At a July 2007 screening of the film, Hellman revealed that the Criterion Collection was releasing a two-disc special edition DVD that featured a new documentary made by Hellman that included an interview with Kristofferson about how "Me and Bobby McGee" has become so closely associated with the film. This DVD set was released on December 11, 2007. Two-Lane Blacktop is available on Blu-ray disc from UK distributor Masters of Cinema, having been released on 23 January 2012; this release was marked as a Region B disc, which would only play in Blu-ray disc players in Europe, Africa and Australia.

Further reading

• Behind The Camera: Two-Lane Blacktop

See also

• List of American films of 1971

External links

• Two-Lane Blacktop at IMDb
• Two-Lane Blacktop at AllMovie
• Two-Lane Blacktop at Rotten Tomatoes