Two-Lane Blacktop **** (1971, James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson) – Classic Movie Review 6209

‘You can never go fast enough…’

Director Monte Hellman views his 1971 film masterwork Two-Lane Blacktop about a cross-country chase between two custom cars as a metaphorical odyssey into the heart of America. It is one of the best of the existential road-trip movies of the era, with cool cars.

Music stars James Taylor (as The Driver) and Dennis Wilson (as The Mechanic) make credible drifters as the two guys drag-racing across America in their primer grey ’55 Chevy. And Laurie Bird is credibly natural in her film debut as The Girl, a talky hippie hitchhiker. But the real acting comes from Warren Oates, playing GTO, a middle-aged drop-out behind the wheel of a yellow Pontiac GTO.

Though it was never the Easy Rider-style counter-culture crossover hit that the Universal studio was seeking, it was always hailed as an instant cult classic, and it is now a fascinating period piece as well.

Also in the cast are David Drake, Richard Ruth, Harry Dean Stanton (as the Oklahoma Hitchhiker), Rudy Wurlitzer [Rudolph Wurlitzer] (as the Hot Rod Driver), Jaclyn Hellman, Bill Keller and Alan Vint.

Will Corry and Rudy Wurlitzer [Rudolph Wurlitzer] write the screenplay based on Corry’s story. Floyd Mutrux, wrote much of the screenplay, but lost the credit in a Writers Guild arbitration as he was not a member of the guild.

Two-Lane Blacktop is shot in Technicolor and widescreen by Jack Deerson, is produced by Michael S Laughlin and Gary Kurtz, and is scored by Billy James.

It was shot in eight weeks between August and October in 1970.

This is the sole acting performance by The Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. He drowned accidentally on 28 December 1983, age 39. It is also Taylor’s only acting in a movie, apart from cameos as himself. Bird was a model when Hellman chose her out of 500 women as The Girl. She played in two more films – Cockfighter (1974) and Annie Hall (1977) – before committing suicide in New York on 15 June 1979, aged 25.

The film has scenes where Doors music is playing in the background, which held up the film’s DVD release as the producers had trouble getting permission from Morrison’s estate.

On the 2007 Criterion DVD release, Taylor says he has never seen the film but would like to.

Kris Kristofferson and Bruce Dern declined Taylor’s role of The Driver.

Three 1955 Chevrolets, built by Richard Ruth, were used as the street racer. The car with the twin carburetors was also driven by Harrison Ford in American Graffiti (1973). The 210 coupe at the gas station was recently located intact in Canada. The third car had a full roll-cage installed to be used in an unfilmed rollover scene, but it was later used in the rollover scene in American Graffiti.

Monte Hellman died after a fall at his home on 19 April 2021, aged 91. He made his directorial debut with the horror film Beast from Haunted Cave (1959) and gained acclaim for the 1966 Westerns The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind both starring Jack Nicholson.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6209

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