Two-Lane Blacktop: Classic or Dud?

Just got done revisiting this. Way more awesome than I remember. Maybe the ultimate car porn movie as well. I geeked out during the first scene at the dragstrip, when they're parking the 55 in a wide shot and you can see a AMC Hurst Sc/Rambler coming into the lot in the back.

Now looking at the script and came across this pearl cut from the scene when Taylor picks up Laurie Bird after she ran off while they were waiting at the garage:

GIRL: I like the other car. I like the way the seats feel and the tape deck. I could get to like the backseat.
DRIVER: It's just another Goat.
GIRL: What do you mean, Goat?
DRIVER: GTO. They call it a Judge, too.
GIRL: I like Judge. I don't get along with Capricorns.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/PSB-5-38.jpg

http://bombsite.com/images/attachments/0008/1197/MaryHeilmanat303Gallery_body.jpg

I'd never even heard of this until very recently.

Laurie Bird went out with Art Garfunkel.

?!

And committed suicide in his apartment, age 25. She was only in 3 movies.

weird I was just posting about that elsewheres

laurie bird had such a weird life, made a handful of films (she was in annie hall!), was art garfunkel's lover, committed suicide. garfunkel wrote a book of poetry about it.

― it made me wish batman had written an article on mfas (Edward III), Friday, February 18, 2011 1:43 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

In August 1981, Art released his fifth solo album Scissors Cut (U.S. #113, U.K. #51). This album included the Gallagher & Lyle hit "A Heart in New York" (U.S. #61). The U.K. version contains the track "The Romance" rather than "Bright Eyes." The album was co-produced by Roy Halee, who also co-produced the Simon & Garfunkel albums, including Bridge over Troubled Water. Paul Simon makes a brief appearance on "In Cars" performing background vocals. Near the end of the song, Art sings, rather mystically, lines from "Girl From The North Country" ("Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine") The album is dedicated to Laurie Bird and includes a partial photograph of Ms. Bird on the rear cover.

Art was devastated by Ms. Bird's death in Art's New York apartment while he was in Europe filming Bad Timing - A Sensual Obsession. Art was quoted at the time, "Laurie was the greatest thing I ever knew in my life, now I've lost it."[1] In 1988, he added, "I took her death terribly and remained moody over it through much of the 80's." Probably why he did not release another solo album until 1988's Lefty (excluding 1986's The Animals' Christmas with Amy Grant).

http://www.d2.dion.ne.jp/~takanomo/LOVELOG_IMG/esquire_april_1971_01.jpg

Would love a poster of this cover.

Would love to have the magazine. Old Esquires are the best.

More Bird/G-funk trivia: Laurie took the cover photo for the Watermark lp, now resting in a dollar bin near you.

Yeah,the old Esquires are the shit. Expensive tho, I found listing for that ish online for about 45 bucks.

I couldn't find one on Ebay. Put in bids on a few lots from the early '50s, though.

It's funny, on ebay you can find upteen copies of the March and May '71 Esquires, but never the April.

^^Funny that, I scored a fairly expensive copy of the mag last week (arrived in the mail Tuesday), and now there's another up on ebay.

I guess people be wanting to keep that particular issue.

I just won the one that was on Ebay.

I think I might have been the asshole bidding you up on the last one, tbh.

Got rooked on 8 years worth of '50s Esquires that same day, because I wasn't near a computer to beat late-bidders.

I think I might have been the asshole bidding you up on the last one, tbh.

I figured as much. It's okay--lord knows I've done the same loads of times in the past (and probably will continue to do so).

Enjoy the mag. It is a nice artifact, and the cover is quite gorgeous in person (there's an ad for a Mustang Mach I on the back cover). Because of the large page size and the small typeface, the whole script only runs 13 pages.

sooo classic, this movie.

Just got done watching it. Mad at myself for not seeing it before now.

was surprised this actually was on cable the other day - just caught the end

there used to be a cable channel devoted to cars that showed it all the time in the late 90s

First time I ever saw this was mid 70s, late night, in the pre-cable days when local TV actually showed movies. I was quite stoned, and found the minimal dialog (and endless drone of the engines) really hypnotic. Final scene freaked me right out.

Interview with Hellman from a couple of days ago about his latest film Road to Nowhere.

executive producing "Reservoir Dogs" for Quentin Tarantino

!!! wtf never noticed this

I was watching Wings For Wheels, the Born To Run "making of" doc, and they included a clip of TLB's opening credits when covering the "cinematic influence" over Springsteen's writing, which makes sense because the Darkness On the Edge of Town and Nebraska lps are kinda unimaginable without this movie.

Went to look up showtimes for Road to Nowhere today... nowhere to be found. Really surprised it was only around for a week... Odd for NYC.

Classic or dud?! WTF kind of question is that? Under no conceivable circumstances could Two-Lane Blacktop be called "dud". It is somewhat debateable whether it is a great movie or just a good one and I can oscillate between these two alternatives, but dud? Never.

Rolling Stones: Classic or Dud

Citizen Kane: Classic or Dud?

Shakespeare: C/D?

"Oxygen: C/D?" pending.

But yeah, that Road to Nowhere... not in theaters in NYC anymore... major bummer :-/

Didn't know about this movie till I looked it up just now. Truthfully, I'd rather it were a documentary about all the road films from the late-'60s and '70s.

I woulda seen that today, for sure! Super 8 it is...

oh man, ROAD TO NOWHERE was really hard to watch, a total trainwreck

best description i've heard is "a lifetime version of mulholland dr."

yeah it sounds bad. oh well.

christ, this movie is good.

weird how this is on TV all the time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLhKh0RQ5Eg

"five hundred.. foot pounds of torque. whatever that is."

i love how bored his hitchhiker looks.

Good Lord

You scared me for a second there... I thought that your good lord bump might have been that they were remaking the film with Justin Bieber or something like that.

make it three yards motherfucker and we'll have us an automobile race

― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Thursday, January 7, 2010 10:40 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RGnd4jOr64

My old band had a song about this movie. I won't link to it though bc it's one of our worst.

Was it just the words "Two Lane Blacktop" sung to the chorus of Baba O'Reilly?

Saw this in the mid-'90s (on a double-bill with Panic in Needle Park), another rep screening tonight. Some great lines, nice landscapes, Warren Oates, and the incredible ending. (I was interested in what kind of reaction that would get tonight: dead silent, with some laughter--nervous? embarrassed?--from one person. My favourite line, Warren Oates' line about getting grounded--which I waited all night for--got no reaction whatsoever.) I don't think I'll ever see it again, though, and from what I remember of Cockfighter, I think I liked that better.

cockfighter was a horrible movie compared to 2 lane!

why would you base your reaction to this movie off of some reaction that randos in 2015 would have!