Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

Two-Lane Blacktop
Directed by Monte Hellman
Written by Rudy Wurlitzer and Will Corry
1971/USA
IMDb page
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

G.T.O.: If I’m not grounded pretty soon, I’m gonna go into orbit.

I came in expecting one thing.  I got something different, and better.

None of the characters in this movie has a name so I’ll be referring to them by the actors’ names.  James Taylor and Dennis Wilson own a souped-up 1955 Chevy hot rod.  Taylor is the driver and Dennis is the mechanic.  They are the kind of guys who don’t speak unless strictly necessary and when they do it’s usually to reveal the solution to some mechanical puzzle they’ve been working out in their heads.  They survive by challenging other hot-rodders to drag races for money.  They pick up bedraggled but pretty hitchhiker Laurie Bird but pay her far less attention than she would like.

As the story goes on, our heroes meet up with Warren Oates who is the proud owner of a new orange GTO.  After much banter, the three agree to race cross-country to Washington DC.  The stakes will be the pink slips to their vehicles.  We spend the rest of the film watching the unorthodox proceedings.  Oates constantly picks up hitchhikers so he can regale them with tall tales and lies about his very colorful fantasy life.

Well, I thought this was going to be a movie about drag racing.  In fact, there is hardly any racing in it.  And after the “race” with Oates begins, the other car frequently lets him catch up.  It’s the journey that is the point. The story has much to say about alienation, obsession, aimlessness, and looking for America.  It’s 1971, man.  I liked this a lot.  Oates is utterly fantastic.