Review of Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) by Grifty G — 10 Jan 2010

This was made after Easy Rider and MASH were huge hits, and the studios were funding small counterculture films hoping they would hit pay-dirt. James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (of The Beach Boys) drive around in a souped up 55 Chevy, racing against local hot rods for money. Along the way they meet Warren Oates, an older, slightly awkward driver of a 70 GTO who they challenge to a cross country race. The prize is the other guys car.

It is this plot point that makes the movie such a bizarre experience. As a viewer you are ready for some sort of Cannonball Run type of back road racing, but the drivers seem as if they are in no hurry, often stopping to sit down and eat at diners, pick up hitchhikers, helping the other guy out with engine work, and even letting each other drive the other guy's car from time to time.

This is really just a road movie, where drivers drift from one town to the next, looking for the next drag race to bet on. If they took out every reference to the cross-county race, it wouldn't change any of the scenes and it would make a hell of a lot more sense. Oates is the only character that's fleshed out at all, Taylor and Wilson are pretty mush just soft spoken driving machines, and one of the blandest hippie chick characters is thrown in for one of the characters to inexplicably get hung up on. All in all a mixed bag.