"Two Lane Blacktop"

I spent my early morning watching “Two Lane Blacktop.”

It’s a 1971 film directed by Monte Hellman, known to film aficionados (you know, geeks) as the guy who made low-budget movies in the 1960s with (among others) Jack Nicholson before he became “Jack Nicholson,” celebrity.

As you can guess from the title, “Two Lane Blacktop” is a road movie, specifically a road racing movie. It shares some similarities “Easy Rider,” but doesn't have quite the same spirit as that 1969 counter-culture icon. It’s more like the disgruntled, dead inside child of “Easy Rider.”

In “Easy Rider” the two protagonists cross the country seeking a goal, as muddle-headed as that goal may be; for them there is some idealized hippie future, if only they can get there. In “Two Lane Blacktop” the protagonists drift through the country, making "bread" (yeah, they talked funny back then) by racing their ’55 Chevy; for them there doesn't seem to be a future beyond the next race, if only they can get there.

The “stars” of the movie are James Taylor (yes, Sweet Baby James!), in his first and last film appearance, as the Driver, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, in his first and last film acting appearance, as the Mechanic, Laurie Bird as the Girl, and the great Warren Oates as GTO, so-named because he drives a GTO. Duh. There’s also a brief cameo by Harry Dean Stanton (billed as H. D. Stanton) as the frisky Oklahoma Hitchhiker.

"Two Lane Blacktop" is like a Robert Altman film in that the story line is minimal, barely a story at all. These guys race cars. Taylor and Oates become rivals on the road and for the Girl. They decide to race to Washington, DC, the winner getting the loser's automobile. That's the crux of it, but the film is really more just about watching these people do what they do.

You can tell from the character’s names that there is an existential quality about the film, in the true sense of the word. The characters in the movie simply exist. The Driver drives, the Mechanic fixes the car, GTO is no more than a guy who drives a GTO and has an ever changing life story, indicating he may very well have no life beyond what he’s doing at the moment.

As for the Girl, she is just that: the Girl. Representative of all girls, she is yearned after by the men of the movie. The Mechanic digs her (I told you, they talked funny then), the Driver does too her and GTO wants to take her places or settle down or both. Ironically, (SPOILER ALERT) in the end, the four wheeled men lose her to a young man with two wheels. The Girl rides off with Boy With Motorcycle. (I really do love these character names.) The Girl's duffle bag, filled with her life's possessions, has no place on the bike, so the Girl sets the bag down on the ground, hops on the bike and Boy and Girl peel out. The Girl has left her baggage (and the men dueling for her) behind. Get it?

The dialogue is sparse and lean. It's also pretty reflective of real life male conversations and behavior. Taylor and Wilson speak of almost nothing but cars and racing. Sometimes they talk about the Girl. GTO spins a different life story to each hitchhiker he picks up; sometimes he talks about racing, sometimes about the Girl. And sometimes GTO drinks. To excess. My favorite line of the movie is when he’s in a rural diner and he orders “a hamburger and an Alka-Seltzer.”

The acting ranges from the professional Warren Oates delivering his lines with a weary sort of insanity to Taylor, Wilson and Bird doing their thing in a natural, unforced, although mostly deadpan, style. While Wilson seems to be a bit more at ease, Taylor always seems a little tense, although I think the Driver is just a tense guy anyway. At one point, Taylor seems to flub his lines, repeating words and starting over and I can't tell if he's doing it on purpose to seem more natural or if he just can't remember what he's supposed to say.

"Two Lane Blacktop" was a commercial flop when it came out in '71 but it went on to become a cult favorite. Perhaps it just wasn't idealistic enough for the times. True, it's not a movie that offers hope, but it's not a downer either. It simply doesn't offer anything other than people on the fringe of existence doing what they do.

Whatever you may be thinking after reading about characters named the Driver, the Mechanic and GTO, think again. While the names may be a contrivance, this is a good, watchable movie. It's fun to see a young James Taylor (with long hair no less) driving around with a young, full of life Dennis Wilson. The film is beautifully shot and the cars look great, particularly the '70 GTO. Everything looks great really, from the rural gas stations to the small town and the diners to the roads themselves, stretching straight through the desert or curving around green hills.

That's the thing of it though. Watching this film in 2009 is, to those of us actually old enough to remember the 1970s or times earlier, to a certain extent an act of nostalgia. There are no muscle cars quite like the Pontiac GTO prowling the blacktop anymore. There isn't even any Pontiac now. You can't go to a gas station, have your car filled up by an attendant, buy some snacks and a Coke and spend only 8 bucks and change. The diners and cafes of 2009 are new buildings meant to look old. Retro chic. An unreal reality.