I know its been covered before, but Two Lane Blacktop........

[Kern Dog]

What the heck is the point of this movie? I watched it again the other night. I should have just had my wife kick me in the crotch because it would have been more fun.
The car action was okay. The scenery was okay. I just can't wrap my head around the total lack of interesting dialogue! Besides Warren Oates, the show was less entertaining than a movie on the Lifetime network. The 55 Chevy guys were the most boring pair of assholes that I could ever imagine. Then theres the "girl". These racers stop at a diner to eat, and she slips into the car. They barely respond when they see her in the car. Is this how people really acted in the 70s? Driving for hours without speaking a single word? The mechanic bangs her in the motel later, but the driver has a crush on her. During their many stops,  she tries to leave a few times, but he is too slow to take the hint. Was this how society was back then? A near total lack of communication or emotion between people? I'm no 'touchy-feely" guy, but I just can't understand how people got along without basic communication.

[Fred]

I quite enjoy that one. Watched it many times. I much prefer the silence than the constant nonsense coming from Warren Oates.(the whole time I'm just wishing that he'd shut up).
And yes, I remember clearly, the 70's were like that.

[404NOTFOUND]

I remember the '70s being sort of like that too. Everyone seemed to be focused on being cool instead of being themselves and were less engaging than they are now. Perhaps it was depression because the muscle car era was ending. As for the movie, I agree with the original post above. I think Laurie Bird decided to watch the film one day and then look what happened.

[Dino]

I tried watching it on cable the other day, I think I lasted about 4 minutes which is progress since it was on last time.

[Mike DC]

                            
It's an art flick.  Existential as a MoFo.  Not meant to entertain as much as be thought-provoking.  

I think the attitude in the two cars is opposite because it makes everything coming from the guy in the GTO seem meaningless.  The other two guys in the Chevy go on doing exactly the same thing as the GTO guy, but without any of the pretense, talk, rationalization, philosophy, etc.    

I think the film reel ran out & melted at the end for the same reason.  As if to say the end of the story doesn't even matter, we're supposed to keep focusing on what was going on before the end.  "Life's about the journey, not the destination" sort of stuff.  




Yeah, it's a boring flick to sit through.  I've sat through it maybe twice in my life.  I admire the uncompromising nature of it but there's not much else to like.    

"Vanishing Point" was also very existential but it managed to be a lot more fun at the same time.  
   

[Chatt69chgr]

I'm 66 and hate to admit it but never saw this film back in the day.  Accidentally caught it on a cable channel one weekend at midnight.  I couldn't quit watching it.  I liked it but will leave it up to each person to determine if the film was good or bad.  What I really enjoyed was watching the old muscle cars in action.  When I heard the 55 take off and shift I instantly recognized the M22 rockcrusher transmission.

Funny how Harry Dean Stanton always seems to end up in interesting films that people talk about for years.  Sad about Laurie Bird.  I wonder if she isn't playing herself in this film.

The film sort of reminds me of Easy Rider where they shot the whole film out of the back of a pickup truck for a few hundred thousand dollars completely circumventing Hollywood and it's money men.

[RECHRGD]

Ever notice in Bullitt that the two bad guys in the Charger never said one word to eachother before or during the chase?  Even an OH SHIT at the end would have been appropriate.....

[Mike DC]

                         
Actually, there is a reason they sometimes do that in movies.  If an actor has no lines then the Screen Actors Guild rules say they don't have to pay him as much. 

Of course that's not necessarily the reason that both trigger men in Bullitt were silent.  I don't know about that either way.   

[SRT-440]

I watched it for the first time this weekend also...horrible acting (of course)...cool cars and old school drag racing...I like the part where he says "thats one of those Chargers...let him go by".
I thought it was funny that the '55 was beating everyone but at the track only ran "deep into the 12's"...I guess a 10 second car back then would own the streets and tracks huh? 

I did find it more interesting than DMCL...jus sayin.. 

[maxwellwedge]

It is mostly because Taylor and Wilson aren't actors....LOL

[Ghoste]

I suppose in this era of computer generated super effects where there is a giant fireball erupting beneath a car every 4 minutes, yes, it is boring.  If you were driving across country how intersting would it be really?
As for 10 second street cars back then, few and far between.

[maxwellwedge]

I suppose in this era of computer generated super effects where there is a giant fireball erupting beneath a car every 4 minutes, yes, it is boring.  If you were driving across country how intersting would it be really?
As for 10 second street cars back then, few and far between.

True  -  And if they were that quick - they always showed up on a trailer. Movie has some very cool "new" cars in it as well.

[SRT-440]

Smokey and the Bandit was pretty interesting and they were driving halfway cross country .. I think it's good for what it is...it's kinda like The Fast and the Furious the only reason we really watch it is cuz of the cars and driving. 

[Ghoste]

Smokey and the Bandit could have been placed as driving across town and had the same effect though.

[Indygenerallee]

I have never watched two lane blacktop completely through for just that reason alone!! WAY too boring only part that is cool in that movie is the Daytona doing a burnout at the strip!!!!

[GOTWING]

I watched a interview with James Taylor just a couple of years ago and he said to this day he has never wathced the movie. Now that is strange since he was the main character. I like the line "that Cuda had a hemi with a torqueflite" I thought it was a AAR Cuda that only came with a 340 six pack.

[Ghoste]

I get a kick out of the way the driver almost never speaks when driving and the mechanic almost never speaks when the car is being worked on.

[Cooter]

What the heck is the point of this movie? I watched it again the other night. I should have just had my wife kick me in the crotch because it would have been more fun.

If you have to ask, you wouldn't understand. That's just the reason these movies are what they are today. No meaning, just a glimpse into a day in history, in the life of two guys that go from coast to coast draggin' everybody they run across. No plot, no meaning, no BS.

A typical 1970's flick. Hense, the name just simply "Two Lane Black Top"..Not, "Two guys on a Two Lane Black Top, Drag Racing a '55 Chavy, who meet up with some really funny and weird people along the way. They really have no reason for doing what they do, just do it."

[Kern Dog]

My point wasn't to piss all over anyones favorite movie. I was just curious if I missed something that everyone else could plainly see.
I did like the racing scenes. The trash talk before the races seemed realistic enough to get a mans ass kicked! If they had some dialogue between the actors, it would have been better. The GTO guy was interesting in comparison: A guy in the later years, telling BS stories to anyone he snared into his web....
Was it MORE common to pick up hitchhikers back then? I got my license in 1982 and it was common knowledge then to avoid it. I will only help stranded motorists, NOT hikers.

[Ghoste]

Much commoner, it was a reasonably useful way to get around at one time if you didn't have wheels.

[84shelby]

 



     stoner times ,      he blew his mind           racing      in the final scene     

[Budnicks]

I have watched it many times over the years, not a very good movie at all, not very good actors either, but I do like the premise of driving across the country, racing everyone you could along the way... I think the mechanic "Dennis Wilson's" only lines in the film were either, "I need to check the valves" or "I need to change the jets"... It does have a big cult following, why ?? "I'm not really sure", maybe it's the people that brains were always fried from all the drugs in the 70's, remember it differently... Warren Oats was really the only interesting caractor in the film & he was a lying B.S. artist in a 70 GTO "the judge" 455 Ram Air IV...   I had a 10 second BB V-8 72 Vega racecar in the 70's, it wasn't a really a street driven car though, well most of the time anyway, we were known to go out & dable in street racing every so often, locally in the Concord or Walnut Creek east bay area in NorCal... Class of 77

[Fred]

Ever notice in Bullitt that the two bad guys in the Charger never said one word to eachother before or during the chase?  Even an OH SHIT at the end would have been appropriate.....

Yes, every time I watch it. I'm always amazed by that scene.

[Chatt69chgr]

Hitch hiking was an accepted practice back in those days.  I used to hitch home from college and back since I didn't have a car.  The only thing you had to watch out for was drunk guys and homosexuals.  The trick was how to get those two category of folks to let you out without making them mad.  Usually some kind of funny quip about nothing or a mention that you had to take care of a pressing bio break would do the trick.  Most of the rides I got were from bored businessmen just looking for someone to talk to as they traveled from one sales location to another.

It was common on the west coast for girls to hitch.  But usually they had a guy with them.  There were a lot of hippie girls around then.  Not so much in the south I don't think.  So having the hippie girl in the movie was appropos for the time.  I liked the crazy little places that they stopped at and the unusual characters they would run into there. 

All in all, this movie is one of those that you either like or hate.  Not too many in betweens.  Sort of the same with Bullitt.  My car buddy says that movie doesn't make any sense but I like it.   

[kab69440]

I like the line "that Cuda had a hemi with a torqueflite" I thought it was a AAR Cuda that only came with a 340 six pack.

That doesn't mean a motivated individual could not have dropped a Hemi in just for the sake of more firepower than he would otherwise appeared to have been packing. "Here's a likely sucker, thinks that small block is hot stuff...  Holy crap! WTF?!!!"