Two-Lane Blacktop

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This article is about the movie Two-Lane Blacktop. For the hard rock band, see Two Lane Blacktop.

Two-Lane Blacktop
DVD cover
Directed by	Monte Hellman
Produced by	Michael Laughlin
Written by	Will Corry (story) Rudolph Wurlitzer (screenplay) Will Corry (screenplay)
Starring	James Taylor Warren Oates Laurie Bird Dennis Wilson
Music by	Billy James
Cinematography	Jack Deerson
Editing by	Monte Hellman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	July 7, 1971 New York City, New York
Running time	102 min
Language	English
Budget	$850,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, and Dennis Wilson.

Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, but the film was not a huge commercial success. The film has since become a cult classic. Brock Yates, organizer of the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (better known as the Cannonball Run) cites Two-Lane Blacktop as one source of inspiration for the creation of the race, and commented on it in his Car and Driver column announcing the first Cannonball.

Two-Lane Blacktop is notable as a time capsule film of U.S. Route 66 during the pre-Interstate Highway era, and for its stark footage and minimal dialogue. As such it has become popular with fans of Route 66. Two-Lane Blacktop has been compared to similar road movies with an existentialist message from the era, such as Vanishing Point, Easy Rider, and Electra Glide in Blue.

1 Plot summary
2 Budget
3 Trivia
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The premise involves two drag racers (played by Taylor and Wilson) who live on the road in their 1955 Chevy and drift from town to town, making their only income challenging local residents to races. The movie follows them driving east on Route 66 from Needles, California. They pick up a hitchhiker in Flagstaff, Arizona (played by Bird). In New Mexico, they encounter another drag racing drifter (played by Oates, driving an "Orbit Orange" 1970 Pontiac GTO "Judge") and challenge him to a cross-country race to Washington, D.C. with the winner of the race getting the title to the others' car. The characters are never identified by name in the movie, given only names such as "The Driver," "The Mechanic," "The GTO," and "The Girl". The movie follows the group east through small towns in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee. They never make it to Washington, D.C. and eventually drift apart, with the film ending in a drag race at an airstrip in East Tennessee after Oates and Bird have departed.

[edit] Budget

This film was considered a low budget film at the time of its production. It only cost an estimated $850,000.00 to complete. In its initial release, it was expected to only make the rounds through the then thriving Drive-in theater market, where low budget and B-movies found a thriving audience. Instead, due to the fact of its primary characters being James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, this film experienced a surprising, though short lived, successful run in the traditional theater market.

[edit] Trivia

Two of the '55 Chevys used in the filming of Two-Lane Blacktop were later used in the filming of American Graffiti.
The camera car from Two-Lane Blacktop was also used in a later movie (Smokey and the Bandit) but it was only heard and not seen. The director of Smokey and the Bandit felt that the Trans-Am used in the movie didn't have the sound he wanted, so he had the sound of the '55 Chevy's engine dubbed over the sound of the Trans Am's engine.
In 2003 Plain Recordings released a Two-Lane Blacktop tribute album entitled You Can Never Go Fast Enough featuring Will Oldham, Calexico, Mark Eitzel, Giant Sand, Leadbelly, Sonic Youth, Cat Power and others.
Rob Zombie wrote a song called "Two-Lane Blacktop," available on his 2003 Past, Present & Future collection. The song loosely covers the plot of the movie.
Filmed from August to October of 1970. Dennis Wilson was forced to miss several concert appearances including the Big Sur Folk Festival at the Monterey Fairgrounds due to his commitment to the film.