Two lane blacktop

[b5blue]

Got a copy of the DVD from my library and forgot the opening seen is a wing car staging for drag race.    I was 16 when this movie came out so forgot most of it.   

[Kern Dog]

That movie sucks. It is the slowest moving borefest of a car movie that I have ever seen.
Dirty Mary was a decent flick.
Vanishing Point was great.

[b5blue]

Predictable comment from you.

[Kern Dog]

You mean reality?
Two lane was an extremely slow moving movie with scenes that dragged on. It may have been "real" but who watches a movie that depicts actual life?
I'm no fan of the hyper-speed Fast and Furious type movies but Two Lane dragged on and on. The scenes with the hitch hiker girl were boring. The racing scenes were few. The mechanic always seemed to think the jets needed to be changed. Neither he nor the driver had enough personality to be interesting.
In Vanishing Point, Kowalski had a back story. His reasoning for the mission was a mystery but it was interesting. To keep viewers engaged in a story, there has to be some interest in the history and the outcome of the characters.
DMCL had two guys that wanted to make it in stock car racing but didn't have the money. The mechanic was an alcoholic but was a solid wrench man. The driver was a cocky and reckless man that was willing to do anything to win. In the end, it looked like they were free and clear up until the surprise train wreck.

[b5blue]

Dude you need not go on, you were not part of the scene so you'll never get it. You need all this crap to get behind trying to understand a movie, I was there and just a bit too young to play. I was pulling transmissions and swapping parts while you were still filling you pants with poo. Okay you don't like the movie, go away. 

[Kern Dog]

Just because you're wearing diapers again and were born before me does not make that turd of a movie any better.
The movie sucked. There were no characters in it that were interesting. The racing scenes were okay but the pace of the movie moved like a documentary, not entertainment.
I have a promotional DVD of the movie that came in a 2 disc set with a bunch of pictures. Artistically, it looks great but the movie itself just moves too damned slow to be tolerable.
Here is one....The '55 and the GTO are supposed to be in some cross country race yet they find the time to slow down and pick up hitch-hikers? They hide out in some sleepy town for several hours and fall asleep trying to steal license plates? They have the time to stop at diners instead of grabbing something fast at a grocery store? The movie is full of plot holes and stupid decisions. If it were entertaining, you could overlook them but it was not much fun to watch.

[b5blue]

Yea... thanks for coming back after being uninvited and blathering on about how you don't get it I guess. Your in love with what you think you know not what really went on. The movie went on to inspire "The Cannonball Run" one of the most inspired races to ever take place so yea you are not correct.I'll not respond to any of your posts we just do not see eye to eye. 

[Kern Dog]

You think that "not respond to any of your posts" is somehow going to bother me?
Look, I appreciate that you do try to keep this forum going. This place has also slowed way down so when someone makes the effort to keep this place going, it is a good thing.
We butt heads on several things but I'll bet that we do agree on the greatness of these cars.

[Kern Dog]

I didn't respond here just to pick on you. I honestly think that Two Lane was a boring movie.
I may have some favorites that YOU didn't like.
Often times, I shake my head at movies that I have enjoyed that others didn't care for. I have to just chalk that up to a difference in personal tastes.

[tan top]

good car guy film  

 remember seeing that film late 70s & then again early 80s at that time i recorded it on video & was trying to freeze frame it on the white 70  , ( quote from the film )
its one of them dodge chargers let him go by ! not today )  the white 70 looks to have a white top & blue interior

also the dark red black top & bumble bee stripe 69 in the pits , 

there a few more mopars if i remember correctly will have to dig out the DVD & look these screen captures are from you tube , sure we spoke about this film many years ago on here or was the old site   

ive also heard many say its a boring film , i dont agree but  every one has their own opinion
slow poor acting etc , even my Dad who was a car guy & use to love all the road movies said it was boring, he was in to e bodies & use to love the original vanishing point i my self thought its was kind of the same acting , more like real life goings on in those situations, i use to argue with him saying its more like real life 
imo  both  films original vanishing point & especially  two lane black top more like real life , not over acting like  fast & furious  fantasy land films.
when i was a lot younger 30 plus  years ago i was a mixture of both the 55 Chevy guys when on a road trip especially in the charger , in fact i'm still kind of like them now when on a long trip no matter what car mybe i'm boring to     

my all time favorite  car / road movies

1  Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
2  Two Lane Black Top
3  Original Vanishing Point







 

[Kern Dog]

I'll give credit to the movie for the cars in it. It is great to see what we now call "classics" being driven and used as just cars back when they were only a few years old.
A slow moving movie just turns me off.
Also, I see movies as a departure from real life. I don't care to see a movie that is as slow and boring as some of our days actually are.
Maybe comparing this movie to DMCL and VP isn't fair but then again, I never liked Bullitt either. It moved too slow for me. I need the action to move faster, the plot to be interesting and the characters to make you care what happens with them. Take a look at other movies that were made around the same time to see if they too have a slow-pace sort of vibe.
Some do. Many do, actually.
 At some time recently, the use of "jump cuts" made it possible to fast forward through the boring parts of a story. For example, say a guy is digging a hole in a field. To show every damned scoop would be as boring as how I view Two Lane Blacktop. Instead, the scene shows a man with a shovel taking a couple digs at the ground, then the scene cuts to something else, maybe a sub-plot, a different scene with different characters. THEN it cuts back to the guy doing the digging and at this point, he is just finishing up.
It wouldn't have been hard to do with TLB and it would have made the movie easier to take.
Say they are on the road from one town to another. Instead of a continuous series of interior scenes, cut away to exterior shots of the car, the landscapes, traffic, stores and buildings, signs and other things. It helps the viewer appreciate whet the people in the car are experiencing and engages the viewer more with the road experience.
Vanishing Point had this and it wasn't a bore-fest to sit through.

[Mike DC]

   
'Two Lane Blacktop' has a deliberately drawn-out minimalist mojo.  I'm not saying anybody has to like it, but it was an artistic choice rather than just bad filmmaking. 

It kinda pushes existentialism. The whole "find your own meaning in life and do that" sort of vibe.  The guys in the Chevy aren't racing to get somewhere, they are racing for the sake of it.


Gary Kurtz was one of the movie's producers.  He was also a producing partner with George Lucas for 'American Graffiti' and the first two Star Wars movies.



The 'Blacktop' script actually had the 55 Chevy getting rolled over during that scene with the white Charger.  But car stunt science was pretty primitive at the time.  They didn't have any ramp setup and the driver couldn't get the Chevy to turn over by spinning it out alone.  They settled for having it run off the road. 

The 55 Chevys were re-used (with some changes) in 'Graffiti'.  That time they had a ramp and finally got the stunt car overturned. 

[Kern Dog]

I considered the possibility that the movie was intentionally spartan in terms of frills and action.
I've seen movies and TV shows where the time spent watching is somewhat of a snippet in time with no definitive start, middle or end. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't.

[Mike DC]

Yeah, arthouse stuff is more hit-or-miss than mainstream entertainment shows.  That's the nature of it.

In 'Blacktop' the Chevy guys make a stark comparison to Mr. GTO.  The Chevy guys never say much and it's all business.  The GTO guy never shuts up and he's full of crap.  One car is custom built & tuned and the other car is bought.  One car is old and the the other is new (at the time).  The Chevy guys are young & scruffy and Mr. GTO looks older & cleaned up.  The big contrast seems intentional.  The movie's message seems to be that none of these lifestyle things really matter, do they?  The characters are all running the same race to the same place.

IMO the movie was an interesting concept but it's overhyped.  I don't ever feel much urge to re-watch it after the first time.  Today it's mainly still interesting as a nostalgia piece to see the cars & the era.   

IMO 'Vanishing Point' wasn't trying quite as hard with the message and it has aged much better. 

[Drache]

The daytona in that movie was Big Willie's wasn't it?

[Kern Dog]

Big Willie Robinson.
There are some conflicting stories with that guy....

[Mike DC]

 
That Daytona's body was later acid-dipped for too long and totaled. 

Old race cars lived hard lives.   
 

[6PakBee]

It's been years since I saw Two Lane Blacktop and all I can remember is the mechanic setting the valves over, and over, and over.....  But so what, what else would I watch today, The Handmaid's Tale?  Now there's a winner.