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James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson, David Drake ... see more see more... , Harry Dean Stanton , Richard Ruth , Alan Vint , Jaclyn Hellman , Melissa Hellman , George Mitchell , Katherine Squire , Rudolph Wurlitzer , Don Samuels , James Mitchum , Charles Moore

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, pitt... read more read more...ing 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, Rovi

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81% liked it

5,442 ratings

Critics

93% liked it

27 critics

R, 1 hr. 42 min.

Directed by: Monte Hellman

Release Date: July 7, 1971

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DVD Release Date: October 19, 1999

Stats: 514 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (514)

  • axadntpron
    June 4, 2011
    axadntpron
    Hellman's 1971 road picture is a genuine slice of Americana. It takes place in the general malaise of the early 70's, as the idealism of the late 1960's gave way to chaos and the harsh reality of humanity. Oates' performance is absolutely masterful and heartbreaking as a man in a... read more constant state of reinvention in hopes to one day be grounded. Even though he is more transparent than Taylor and Wilson, there is an air of despair that hovers around all of these men as they try to create their own path in life unsuccessfully. Hellman lets the viewer go along for the ride as his camera is always placed in the backseat looking through that dusty windshield. It is an excellent piece of American cinema and a snapshot of world turned upside down.
  • kenstachnik
    March 27, 2011
    kenstachnik
    One groovy flick.
  • rubystevens
    March 27, 2009
    rubystevens
    i love this movie!!! this is better than easy rider, if i may say so
  • DrBenway
    September 4, 2008
    DrBenway
    Not everyone will embrace it, but for me it's the best road film ever made. Some are going to find this film very dull and wonder what there is to admire and respect about it. Others are going to discover all sorts of things that are not actually present in the film itself, but ... read moreare thoughts and reactions from it.

    Ever wonder what a zen film might be like? This might be it. It's definitely an art film, but it's not stuffy or trying to express some sort of exaggerated importance in the least.
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  • mjgildea
    June 24, 2008
    mjgildea
    There's no way in hell I could pass final judgement on Two-Lane Blacktop after only one viewing. True, this movie is every bit as... out there as the characters its two stars (James Taylor and Dennis Wilson) play. I imagine this movie got pushed to the wayside as it's not filled ... read morewith car chases like its contemporaries such as Vanishing Point or Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. Two-Lane Blacktop seems to go for a more cerebral approach like Easy Rider. All I can say after seeing it once is that Warren Oates was great and for all the briefness of Harry Dean Stanton's role offered, it was great. Admittedly I was getting a tad bored with this movie but I loved the last 20 minutes.
  • michaelcorleone
    August 26, 2010
    michaelcorleone
    Quietly romantic, ingeniously subdued filmmaking. This film has a lot of impact, and director Monte Hellman manages to create that emotional resonance with suggestion rather than exposition.The visual composition in virtually every scene is gorgeous, creating a uniquely aesthetic... read more expression that makes all the quiet moments more powerful.
  • lesleyanorton
    April 1, 2010
    lesleyanorton
    Cult 70's road trip film as Dennis Wilson (Beach Boys) and James Taylor (James Taylor) race against Warren Oates to get to Washington DC, with a mysterious girl, The Girl in tow, and hitchikers picked up here and there. The film starts and ends in the middle of nowhere and there'... read mores enough non-action for inserting philosophical and metaphysical meanings into the story, if you like that kind of thing, or for remembering a time when you too had nowhere particular to go and nowhere particular to be .
  • danieljparsons
    February 14, 2009
    danieljparsons
    Hypnotic, dreamy road film - something very romatic about it. And I actually kinda fell in love with James Taylor just a little bit.
  • jackamaku
    January 10, 2010
    jackamaku
    This was made after Easy Rider and MASH were huge hits, and the studios were funding small counterculture films hoping they would hit pay-dirt. James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (of The Beach Boys) drive around in a souped up 55 Chevy, racing against local hot rods for money. Alon... read moreg the way they meet Warren Oates, an older, slightly awkward driver of a 70 GTO who they challenge to a cross country race. The prize is the other guys car.
    It is this plot point that makes the movie such a bizarre experience. As a viewer you are ready for some sort of Cannonball Run type of back road racing, but the drivers seem as if they are in no hurry, often stopping to sit down and eat at diners, pick up hitchhikers, helping the other guy out with engine work, and even letting each other drive the other guy's car from time to time.
    This is really just a road movie, where drivers drift from one town to the next, looking for the next drag race to bet on. If they took out every reference to the cross-county race, it wouldn't change any of the scenes and it would make a hell of a lot more sense. Oates is the only character that's fleshed out at all, Taylor and Wilson are pretty mush just soft spoken driving machines, and one of the blandest hippie chick characters is thrown in for one of the characters to inexplicably get hung up on. All in all a mixed bag.
  • patrickdol
    January 2, 2009
    patrickdol
    This film works sort of like a response to Easy Rider. Accept these characters aren't really looking for some kind of spiritual answer to some big unnamed question. These people have reached a sort of plateau. The two young dudes have now achieved a super fast hot rod, and just s... read moreeem to be racing around going nowhere really, but traveling many miles going there. The girl is just lost and is hitching rides looking for something, but seems to have almost accepted that there's nothing out there. Now Warren Oates' character is really interesting. He's sort of like the older version of the two young guys, he's plateaued years and years ago and has now gone sort of crazy, constantly lies, and it strangely delusional. As if he is just looking for a purpose somehow but all he knows is cars and his sweet GTO. As for the guys, they are on there way to Oates' situation and really all they talk about is cars and racing.
    Anyway all the parties meet and get involved in this mass race with each other. For the guys it seems like a last effort for meaning, for the girl it seems like something fun to get involved in, and Oates, well it's hard to tell.
    Interestingly there's elements of the martial arts film with these Ronin types wandering around from town to town challenging others, but not with physical combat, with car speed.
    Either way this is a film that sort of defies a good summary and is one you gotta just see, a great road movie.

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Critic Reviews

J. Hoberman
December 13, 2007
J. Hoberman, Village Voice

Two-Lane Blacktop is a movie of achingly eloquent landscapes and absurdly inert characters. Full Review

Variety Staff
December 13, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

The strange and sometimes pathetic world of barnstorming, hustling street-racing is explored with feeling by director-editor Monte Hellman. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
December 13, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

This exciting existentialist road movie by Monte Hellman, with a swell script by Rudolph Wurlitzer and Will Corry and my favorite Warren Oates performance, looks even better now than it did in 1971. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 9, 2005
Vincent Canby, New York Times

A remarkably engaging movie, mostly in spite of, rather than because of, its metaphorical aspirations.

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Some of the racing and road scenes, and the visual texture of the movie, make it worth seeing. Full Review

Anton Bitel
January 20, 2012
Anton Bitel, Little White Lies

even if the Driver and co. are just passin' through, they encapsulate a whole generation lost in the rootless, directionless '70s, scorching the viewer's retina with their quest for nothing. Full Review

Nick Schager
June 19, 2011
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Captures an aura of existential despondence that's married to a far less evocative (and durable) strain of counterculture romantic doom. Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.
August 1, 2010
Felix Vasquez Jr., Cinema Crazed

Much more about the journey and the thrill of being a racer as it is about races... Full Review

December 13, 2007
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Perhaps director Monte Hellman's finest film. Full Review

Tom Milne
June 24, 2006
Tom Milne, Time Out

It's absolutely riveting. Full Review

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