Synopsis
A driver and a mechanic travel around the United States hopping from drag strip to drag strip in a 1955 Chevy Bel-Air coupe. They race for money, betting with their competitors. The pair gains a young and talkative female stowaway. Along the way they unintentionally attract a well-to-do drifter driving a new Pontiac GTO. This older man, looking for attention, antagonizes their efforts.
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Cast
- James TaylorThe Driver
- Warren OatesG.T.O.
- Dennis WilsonThe Mechanic
- Laurie BirdThe Girl
- Rudy WurlitzerHot Rod Driver
- Harry Dean StantonOklahoma Hitchhiker
- Jaclyn HellmanHot Rod Driver's Girl
- Alan VintMan in Roadhouse
- Katherine SquireOld Woman
- Bill KellerTexas Hitchhiker
Recommendations
- 100
Film Threat
This minimalist masterpiece is one of the greatest American films to come out of the 1970’s. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Certainly not an average car chase movie, Two-Lane Blacktop is perhaps director Monte Hellman's finest film. - 100
The A.V. Club
Hellman gives viewers plenty of time to study every detail, dwelling less on action than on quiet, small-town vistas, rundown diners, and forgotten stretches of Route 66. - 90
Variety
An excellent combination of in-depth contemporary story-telling and personality casting. - 90
Time Out
It's absolutely riveting. - 80
Chicago Reader
The movie starts off as a narrative but gradually grows into something much more abstract—it's unsettling but also beautiful. - 80
The New York Times
Two-Lane Blacktop is a far from perfect film (those metaphors keep blocking the road), but it has been directed, acted, photographed and scored (underscored, happily) with the restraint and control of an aware, mature filmmaker. - 80
The New Yorker
In Hellman’s film, Taylor and Wilson exert a negative charisma: their presence is both powerful and blank, deeply expressive in its neutrality. They offer one of the few original post-sixties reconfigurations of the movie star. Their manner is a perfect match for the story, and for the mythic, symbolic landscape in which it’s set.
