Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

Tagline: Their world is a two-lane blacktop. [That was helpful.]

Curiosity: Dennis Wilson is my favorite Beach Boy. Yeah, that was it.

Plot: A group of travelers meet on the open road (on the two-lane blacktop, if you will). Their relationship is at once a bond (They help each other with vehicle upkeep and maps) yet also kept at a distance (No one goes by their real name.) The Driver (James Taylor, in a performance that is at least as good as his “Fuck Facebook” bit from Funny People) and The Mechanic (Wilson) get by as street racers, pushing their 1955 Chevy 150 all over the country. They meet The Girl (Laurie Bird), a pretty, young, directionless free spirit, and GTO (Warren Oates), a rich guy with a brand new 1970 GTO Judge and a midlife crisis. They’re not sure what’s going on in life, but they like to drive, so they place a bet: First person to reach Washington, D.C. gets the other’s pink slip.

Thoughts: It takes a few scenes to adjust to Two-Lane Blacktop. It implies a lot of existential questions without actually asking any, abandons its plot, moves at a slow pace, and features prominent performances from inexperienced actors (Taylor and Wilson are/were, of course, primarily musicians, while Bird was a new face). Oates is the only experienced thespian in the group, and of course he’s great, but so is the rest of the principle cast. They each work for different reasons – Oates underscores his dialogue with increasing desperation. We slowly realize that for all his wealth he is actually more lost than these drifters. Given that director Monte Hellman opted to shoot the film in sequence, in a real life road trip from coast to coast, I suppose that offered Oates an opportunity to build the character in real time. Taylor is quietly intense, focused on the road and the road alone, while Wilson is more affable. Bird plays pretty and bored perfectly. I love the scene where she first meets them: She gets out of a car and into theirs, and they simply accept it and drive. The scene is dialogue-free.

Two-Lane Blacktop holds up partially because of its sparse set-up. The fashions were meant to be dialed down, since none of the characters save for GTO would be able to keep up with contemporary trends, and in doing so the cast looks like it could have emerged from today instead of 1971. Same with the dialogue. I love Easy Rider, but that movie is clearly entrenched in its time period. But nothing in Blacktop dates it save for references to dates. The interactions all have a timeless quality. It’s not meant to be some grand counter-cultural statement, and in doing so sidesteps any baggage that baby boomer generation carries. It’s on the slow/cheap side, but the movie captures the human condition beautifully.

Reflection: Is it ironic that I’m listening to The Beatles right now?