Car Movies

You have to figure that by 1983 James Taylor was having serious regrets about being one of the four stars of “Two Lane Blacktop”. Dennis Wilson’s 1983 drowning had been proceeded by Warren Oates’ 1982 heart attack and Laurie Bird’s 1979 suicide (she was just age 25). But somehow Taylor has dodged the “Two Lane Blacktop” curse and is still with us.

“Two Lane Blacktop” is a rather strange character study packaged as a car/road film. Strange because like a lot of Director Monte Hellman’s stuff, there isn’t much done in the character development department. Which makes studying the characters quite a strain but it seems like a lot of viewers are willing to burn serious energy on the subject. See “Ride the Whirlwind” and “The Shooting” for other examples of his technique. Hellman apparently is a master of working with actors from all backgrounds as he gets exactly the performances he needs from the experienced Oates and his three completely inexperienced co-stars. Note the use of local radio stations in this film and its similarity in this regard to “Reservoir Dogs”, a film that Hellman co-produced.

Anyway, what you have in the film are four people who converge from three different directions (universes) and link up. They interact for most of the movie and at the end separate and go back to doing exactly what they had been doing before, utterly unchanged by their interactions with each other. This is pretty much the polar opposite of most films, which exist to illustrate examples of characters changing as a result of their experiences. While there are films like “Fat City” where the main character is unchanged by the events of the film, “Two Lane Blacktop” may be unique in extending this to all four of the main characters. That it would be unique in this regard is especially interesting when you consider that real life interpersonal relationships are closer to the way they are portrayed in “Two Lane Blacktop” than in your basic uplifting film. I guess we are reminded of this fact daily and don’t need to be hit with it by our escapist entertainment.

An effort is made to symbolically illustrate the three universes Hellman portrays in the film. The Driver and the Mechanic are defined by their function and their 55 Chevy has been customized to maximize its most basic function, performance. It has no heater and no comforts other than a radio, which the Driver turns off when there is serious driving to be done. GTO is defined by things (his car and his baggage-both real and emotional). Like him, his car is a poser and is compromised by a host of non-performance related features. The Girl is defined by her companion of the moment and has neither function nor identity. The Driver is unable to teach her to function as a driver and she abandons what few possessions she has at the end.

What is most striking about the film is how beautifully it was shot and how contemporary it looks. The colors are great and the style is more like 2004 than 1971. The print being shown on the Sundance Channel is in perfect shape. A side benefit of the film is that it is a great time capsule of the muscle car era. There is an especially great shot early in the film, a wide shot from inside a diner with the jukebox on the right and a slit in the middle of the frame (the diner door) through which you see The Girl getting into the car. Highly recommended for brooding viewers.