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IMDbPro

Two-Lane Blacktop

  • 19711971
  • RR
  • 1h 42m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
12K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
7,309
714
Laurie Bird, Warren Oates, James Taylor, and Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Trailer for Two-Lane Blacktop
Play trailer2:29
2 Videos
84 Photos
Drama
While drag-racing through the American Southwest in a Chevvy 150, a driver and his mechanic cross paths with an alluring hitchhiker and the inexperienced, tall tale-spinning driver of a GTO.While drag-racing through the American Southwest in a Chevvy 150, a driver and his mechanic cross paths with an alluring hitchhiker and the inexperienced, tall tale-spinning driver of a GTO.While drag-racing through the American Southwest in a Chevvy 150, a driver and his mechanic cross paths with an alluring hitchhiker and the inexperienced, tall tale-spinning driver of a GTO.
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
12K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
7,309
714
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Monte Hellman
    • Writers
      • Rudy Wurlitzer(screenplay)
      • Will Corry(screenplay)
      • Floyd Mutrux(uncredited)
    • Stars
      • James Taylor
      • Warren Oates
      • Laurie Bird
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Monte Hellman
    • Writers
      • Rudy Wurlitzer(screenplay)
      • Will Corry(screenplay)
      • Floyd Mutrux(uncredited)
    • Stars
      • James Taylor
      • Warren Oates
      • Laurie Bird
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 126User reviews
    • 124Critic reviews
    • 89Metascore
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 2 nominations

    Videos2

    Two-Lane Blacktop
    Trailer 2:29
    Two-Lane Blacktop
    Two-Lane Blacktop
    Trailer 2:29
    Two-Lane Blacktop

    Photos84

    Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Monte Hellman and James Taylor in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Laurie Bird, James Taylor, and Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Laurie Bird, James Taylor, and Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Laurie Bird, James Taylor, and Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Warren Oates, James Taylor, and Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    James Taylor in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
    Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

    Top cast

    Edit
    James Taylor
    James Taylor
    • The Driver
    Warren Oates
    Warren Oates
    • G.T.O
    Laurie Bird
    Laurie Bird
    • The Girl
    Dennis Wilson
    Dennis Wilson
    • The Mechanic
    David Drake
    • Needles Station Attendant
    Richard Ruth
    • Needles Station Mechanic
    Rudy Wurlitzer
    • Hot Rod Driver
    • (as Rudolph Wurlitzer)
    Jaclyn Hellman
    • Driver's Girl
    Bill Keller
    • Texas Hitchhiker
    Harry Dean Stanton
    Harry Dean Stanton
    • Oklahoma Hitchhiker
    • (as H.D. Stanton)
    Don Samuels
    • Texas Policeman #1
    Charles Moore
    • Texas Policeman #2
    Tom Green
    • Boswell Attendant
    W.H. Harrison
    • Parts Store Owner
    Alan Vint
    Alan Vint
    • Man in Roadhouse
    Illa Ginnaven
    • Waitress in Roadhouse
    George Mitchell
    George Mitchell
    • Truck Driver at Accident
    A.J. Solari
    • Tennessee Hitchhiker
    • Director
      • Monte Hellman
    • Writers
      • Rudy Wurlitzer(screenplay)
      • Will Corry(screenplay) (story)
      • Floyd Mutrux(uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      According to the director's commentary on the first DVD release, the reason the movie took so long to release on DVD was Jim Morrison. Two Lane Blacktop's sound track has scenes in the movie where Doors music is playing in the background. Monte Hellman and the producers had trouble initially securing permission from Morrison's estate to release the film with its original content of Doors music on to the medium of DVD. For obvious reasons, such DVD permission was not part of the original agreement with the Doors in 1972. Eventually, the studio got permission to use the Doors music again and the DVD was released.
    • Goofs
      When the G.T.O pulls into the gas station it's extremely shiny and clean considering it's just driven across 3 States!
    • Quotes

      Hot rod driver: Let's make it fifty.

      The Driver: Make it three yards motherfucker and we'll have an auto-MO-bile race.

    • Crazy credits
      The Car ... 1955 Chevrolet
    • Connections
      Featured in Adam-12: The Dinosaur (1971)
    • Soundtracks
      Moonlight Drive
      Written and Performed by The Doors

      Courtesy of Elektra Records

    User reviews126

    Review
    Top review
    9/10
    A poetic description of a world without possibilities
    Long out of circulation because of disputes over music rights, Two-Lane Blacktop, now available on DVD, is one of the most original and compelling American movies of the twentieth century. It is a road movie, a film about cars, and a search for meaning in American life that could easily be called "Zen and the Art of Drag Racing". Shot from the inside of a car, it is an authentic vision of what it is like to be driving across America at a specific historical moment. Promoted by Universal Studios in 1971 as an answer to Columbia's Easy Rider, the film was originally released to less than enthusiastic audiences but has since taken on the status of cult classic and it is richly deserved. Unlike Easy Rider, it is a film that simply observes and what it sees is pure Americana: its people, gas stations, diners, and drag strips. We feel the claustrophobia, the spaces, the speed, and the loneliness.

    The film stars singers James Taylor (Fire and Rain) and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys as taciturn drag races who drive their souped-up 1955 Chevy across the country challenging locals to a drag race. The main characters are drifters. They come from nowhere and are headed east, toward a destination that is murky at best. They are people whose reality begins and ends with their machines. Everyone talks about how good life can be -- somewhere else -- in New York, Chicago, the beaches of Florida, and the coast of Mexico, somewhere up the road apiece. Warren Oates, a Monte Hellman regular, turns in a truly outstanding performance as the driver of a Pontiac GTO who challenges Taylor and Wilson to a cross-country race, the prize being the ownership of the cars. GTO is a talkative fellow who concocts tall tales about his background to impress every hitchhiker he picks up (one is a gay cowboy played by Harry Dean Stanton). He is a sad and perhaps self-destructive individual but he is human and you can reach out to him and feel his pathos.

    First time actors Taylor and Wilson express little emotion and there is scant dialogue but they also seem right for their roles. Their total focus is on their car. Though the Chevy looks old and ugly, it is as powerful as any car on the road and the driver and the mechanic treat it like their own flesh and blood, constantly fine tuning to maintain its impeccable performance. They go from town to town, just trying to survive by racing. In the words of author John Banville, they "have no past, no foreseeable future, only the steady pulse of a changeless present". Along the way they pick up a cherubic young roadie (Laurie Bird) who is willing to go wherever the ride takes her. After each of the boys has sex with her in motel rooms and in the car, she becomes moody and resentful and fears that she is being used but has nowhere else to go. Though the main thrust of the plot is the race to Washington, DC, the focus seems to get lost along the way, and the film becomes more of a character study of the lack of human connection than about racing.

    The film looks for the soul of America in the early 1970s and comes up empty. It was released in 1971 at a time when the hopes and dreams of the '60s counter culture had given way to the disillusion of Kent State and Altamonte, the bombing of Cambodia, and the media's cynical preemption of the Hippie movement.

    The movie is about everything and nothing. Everyone is biding their time waiting for life to turn out rather than creating the possibility. Though they live for the moment there is no joy, only the gnawing reality of something missing. They are like many of us, skimming along on the surface of life, reminiscing about a goal that once seemed real but is now just out of reach. They look ahead to a blank future, while ignoring the life around them, what is in the present moment. Two-Lane Blacktop is an exceptionally beautiful film, a poetic description of a world without possibilities. It may also be the definitive statement of the anguish of the materialist paradigm that has begun to crumble and fall apart.
    helpful•168
    15
    • howard.schumann
    • Aug 22, 2005

    FAQ1

    • How can I access a copy of this film and watch it?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 28, 1972 (Japan)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Asphaltrennen
    • Filming locations
      • North Carolina, USA
    • Production companies
      • Michael Laughlin Enterprises
      • Universal Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $850,000 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 42 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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    Laurie Bird, Warren Oates, James Taylor, and Dennis Wilson in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
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