Directed by:
Monte HellmanCinematography:
Gregory SandorCast:
James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson, Harry Dean Stanton, Alan Vint, Melissa Hellman, James Mitchum, George Mitchell, Rudy Wurlitzer (more)Plots(1)
While driving eastward on Route 66, two rival car owners - The Driver (singer-songwriter James Taylor) and The Mechanic (Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson) in a souped-up, drag-racing '55 Chevy, and a middle-aged braggart (Warren Oates) in a gleaming GTO - begin to race for each other's "pink slips" and the affections of the listless female hitchhiker (Laurie Bird) who joins them on the road. With the melancholy open-road epic Two-Lane Blacktop, American auteur Monte Hellman poeticised the beautiful, terrible rootlessness of his nation in the era of Vietnam. Funded by Universal in a bid to recreate the success of Easy Rider - by giving a number of filmmakers $1m and final cut - Hellman's effort is now regarded as one of the key films of the New Hollywood renaissance of the early 1970s. Scripted by esteemed novelist Rudy Wurlitzer, and featuring the only screen performances of Taylor and Wilson, Two-Lane Blacktop remains a timeless, existential portrait of lives in transit and of a country questioning its identity. (Eureka Entertainment)
(more)Cast
James Taylor
USA
Best movies:
The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2002) (TV movie)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Funny People (2009)
Warren Oates
USA
Best movies:
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
East of Eden (1981) (series)
Laurie Bird
Best movies:
Annie Hall (1977)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Cockfighter (1974)
Dennis Wilson
USA
Best movies:
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Harry Dean Stanton
USA
Best movies:
The Green Mile (1999)
The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977) (series)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Alan Vint
USA
Best movies:
The Name of the Game (1968) (series)
The Panic in Needle Park (1971)
Badlands (1973)
Melissa Hellman
Best movies:
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
American Samurai (1992)
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! (1989)
James Mitchum
USA
Best movies:
Colorado Territory (1949)
In Harm's Way (1965)
The Victors (1963)
George Mitchell
USA
Best movies:
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Rudy Wurlitzer
Best movies:
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Walker (1987)
Katherine Squire
USA
Best movies:
Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
The Lolly-Madonna War (1973)
Bill Keller
Best movies:
Enter the Dragon (1973)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Ride in the Whirlwind (1966)
Jaclyn Hellman
USA
Best movies:
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
Flight to Fury (1964)
Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961)