Antonionian--i.e. more abstract than emotional, and more visual than narrative based. Like Antonioni, the film deals with alienation and dissatisfaction. What's interesting besides the way the visual elements communicate these ideas, is the way the establishment and anti-establishment characters are in the same boat (or car, as it were). Add the wide open spaces, and the big, fast cars, and you've got one of the best American road movies of all-time.

Blacktop is a slower paced road movie, delving into the frustration of wanderlust and male identity. It's a shame three out of the four leads are awful actors...plus that girl looked liked she was way too young to be getting diddled by a bunch of greasers.

Everything that Easy Rider got wrong, this got right. I also like how it ended, could've easily been 5 hours longer but ending the way it did was pretty much perfect. It's definitely an unconventional movie and saying that it's slow moving or complaining about the lack of dialogue is just strange to me. It's about so much more like the notion of disenchantment, finding yourself, and looking for authenticity in the world. Really lives up to its reputation.

Begs comparison to Vanishing Point released the same year, which also has high-speed interstate car action. The difference is that Two-Lane Blacktop is good, really good in fact. A subtle, understated drama, with excellent, naturalistic acting. Apart from the use of the superb actor Warren Oates, Monte Hellman shares with Sam Peckinpah the celebration of, meditation on, and most especially - discomfort with - testosterone and masculine behavior. These features are revisited in Cockfighter.

Existential angst in a '55 Chevy.

Mediocre.

Very existential. As for how I feel about this, I'm not quite sure. I appreciate what the film is trying to do, I liked the look at loneliness and at struggling to make connections, and I did love how Warren Oates' character never really tells the truth to people about himself. In fact, that bit of Oates' character is probably my favourite bit of the film and the one bit to hit me on a gut level. The rest of the film never quite managed to properly resonate with me in quite the same way.

Although I normally loathe these aimless, high brow existential films where the plot sort of falls apart halfway through, this was some how very enjoyable, even though the plot does exactly just…erm, well. For a cross country road race movie it feels surprisingly claustrophobic and slow. But the slow pacing doesn't matter when the mood (one of loss and loneliness) is as effectively conveyed as it is here. Cannonball Run by way of Antonioni, if you will.

Wistfully existential, this road movie prides itself on its Spartan qualities. Nobody's got a name or much of a goal in life, and the world seems to care as little for them as they do in return. The soundtrack is purely naturalistic and the performances are properly subdued, with Warren Oates being the clear standout. I'm not much into cars or the accompanying jargon, but there's a lot. It's a decent product of such an incredible era in American cinema, full of innovation and risks. Cool ending.

I do not want to say anything about this movie, because I am going to rewatch it eventually to form a real opinion on it.

#532

Takes the Easy Rider template and turns it around, shaking out some of the cynicism and nastiness and striking much closer to the heart. Although the film does seem to find reason to have a small amount of hope along the search for meaning, things don't look too bright for any of the characters by the end. The movie also runs deep with a rich feeling of Americana. Other countries have their own car/road movies, but it's impossible to imagine this one being made anywhere else.

Another existential '70s classic from Monte Hellman. Oates is supurb as "GTO."

James Taylor? What the hell?

Superb performance by Warren Oates.

Warren Oates is too cool....

# 473

This is a pretty cool (in both senses, stylish and emotionally detached) film that reminded me a lot of other offbeat meandering character pieces Easy Rider and Five Easy Pieces. This one is interesting enough, but ultimately it didn't really resonate with me - the obsession of these characters and the way it breaks down in the presence of the possibility of affection and human relationships is a decent theme, but it didn't really have the poignancy or punch of other, greater films.

435

518

The road can be both liberating and isolating. The characters are rarely alone (the young group has each other and the GTO is constantly picking up hitchhikers) and yet they're alone most of the time. I like here that the director wasn't afraid to let the characters just be quiet. The racing scenes don't do much for me but there are some really neat sequences. The ending in pretty interesting different given some of its contemporaries.

An uncompromising, deromanticized road movie, possibly a reaction to the likes of Easy Rider. Has a very clever ending that might be a sort of pun on the lives these characters have chosen and where it might eventually lead them. It's skillfully shot, skillfully written, and skillfully acted, but though I understood, appreciated, and connected with it I'd be lying if I said it didn't bore me right out of my skull. It's not for everyone, so consider this review a selective recommendation.

Taylor and Wilson play two metaph...err, CHARACTERS that live only to race their cars in order to win enough money to race their cars some more. They meet a girl that they (and we) don't care about. They also meet GTO, another racer we sorta care about, since he's the only character given any semblance of depth, and he's the only real actor present. While I appreciate the hell out of the nihilistic message, and I enjoyed some of the landscape shots, this was tedious, confusing, and unnecessary.

Rather dull with mediocre acting. Not terrible but the car obsessions and meandering aimlessness did nothing for me.

Beneath all the car talk lurks a pondering existential character study, with a touch of nihilism. There's the two young and anxious drifters ("you can never go fast enough"), and then you've got Warren Oates as the older counterpoint who seems to be trying to preserve his youth, even if it means compulsively lying about the past. I enjoyed the ambiguity and what felt like near-aimlessness. A much more subtle offering next to the film it's most compared to, Easy Rider.