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FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast James Taylor Laurie Bird Dennis Wilson Warren Oates.

Directors Monte Hellman.

Screenwriters Rudy Wurlitzer Will Corry.

Running Time 102 minutes

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Two-Lane Blacktop
US Road movie with James Taylor and Dennis Wilson.

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Plot
Two car-crazy men drive across the US as Driver and Mechanic picking up a girl on the way and then finding themselves in a drag race with an older TV Producer.

Review
Released in the wake of Dennis Hopper’s adored Easy Rider and mere months before his reviled follow-up The Last Movie, this beautiful and hypnotic road movie has always suffered from being sandwiched between the two.

Directed with a European stateliness by Monte Hellman, it stars musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson as two gnomic road warriors who cruise America’s faded byways in a 55 Chevy, racing for kicks. En route to, well, nowhere, they meet an older guy (Warren Oates), a former TV producer who challenges them to a race to Washington DC. But this is not a film about narrative but loneliness and life on the road, which it captures with a mysterious brilliance.

Two-Lane Blacktop Released: 18 June 2007 Dry but often illuminating commentary by Hellman and producer Gary Kurtz.

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Average user rating for Two-Lane Blacktop

Because of the fact that me and a friend of mine are gonna make a roadtrip through the west of the US ourselves this april, I thought it was about time to get into the mood watching a road movie. Two-Lane Blacktop is more than that though. Other than a road movie, most of all it`s an existentialist film in wich (especially) the (supporting) characters learn a lot about life and learn to appriciate it. That gives us some wonderfull scenes. Because that Hellman doesn`t really make the narrative ... More

Posted by TheGodfather at 22:00, 09 January 2010 | Report This Post

RE: Two_lane Blacktop

L: Technoguy The title says it all.A stripped down,lean existentialist movie.Two cars race each other to Washington DC.But it's the journey rather than the destination or arrival that's important.The Driver and the mechanic,James Taylor and Dennis Wilson speak little dialogue but you see them a lot as they set themselves up as the Best taking on all other road racers usually on race tracks.They pick up a girl who hitches with them.Warren Oates provides the main competition and charismati... More

Posted by Technoguy at 10:42, 05 July 2007 | Report This Post

Two_lane Blacktop

The title says it all.A stripped down,lean existentialist movie.Two cars race each other to Washington DC.But it's the journey rather than the destination or arrival that's important.The Driver and the mechanic,James Taylor and Dennis Wilson speak little dialogue but you see them a lot as they set themselves up as the Best taking on all other road racers usually on race tracks.They pick up a girl who hitches with them.Warren Oates provides the main competition and charismatic core of the film.H... More

Posted by Technoguy at 10:13, 05 July 2007 | Report This Post

RE: Two-Lane Blacktop

Warren Oates died well before his time. Two-Lane Blacktop is a great film, better than Easy Rider. The casting of James Taylor and Dennis Wilson worked for the movie mostly because they weren't given much dialogue. Oates' crowning achievement as an actor was Sam Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. ... More

Posted by Dr. Duke at 15:52, 23 May 2007 | Report This Post

RE: Two-Lane Blacktop

Saw this film on Moviedrome years and years ago ,remeber it being fantastic and Warren Oates being simply sublime as GTO. I understand its due for a UK dvd release sometime soon. Now all we need is Dillinger and Race with the Devil to emerge along with Cockfighter to see what a great actor Oates was   ... More

Posted by filmburner30 at 12:29, 18 May 2007 | Report This Post

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