Classic ++.
― Joe, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― duane, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― K-reg, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― mark s, Tuesday, 19 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― K-reg, Wednesday, 20 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
new Criterion edition in two weeks!
― milo z, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 22:31 (sixteen years ago) link
this movie is okay but overrated
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 22:33 (sixteen years ago) link
yes.
― sexyDancer, Wednesday, 28 November 2007 22:45 (sixteen years ago) link
no.
― Edward III, Thursday, 29 November 2007 01:44 (sixteen years ago) link
if brilliant and overrated, who cares? Oates has the best lines, like the hamburger one.
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 29 November 2007 14:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Seeing it again recently for the first time in a decade or so, I'd forgotten what a dork Warren Oates character is.
― Matt #2, Thursday, 29 November 2007 14:45 (sixteen years ago) link
love his rebuff to Harry Dean Stanton -- is it "I gotta concentrate"?
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 29 November 2007 14:46 (sixteen years ago) link
I wish somebody would issue "92 In the Shade" for the Oates/Stanton/Peter Fonda trifecta.
― Joe, Thursday, 29 November 2007 16:01 (sixteen years ago) link
One of the all-time bits of gearhead movie triva: The 55 Chevy from TLB reappeared (after some paint and bodywork) as Falfa's car in American Graffiti
― C. Grisso/McCain, Thursday, 29 November 2007 21:12 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought it was something like "This is a competition. I got no time to make tracks."
― Joe, Thursday, 29 November 2007 21:32 (sixteen years ago) link
"this is competition, man. I've got no time."
― Edward III, Thursday, 29 November 2007 21:56 (sixteen years ago) link
"performance and image. that's what it's all about."
"that´ll give you a set of emotions that´ll stay with you. know what I mean? those satisfactions are permanent."
― Edward III, Thursday, 29 November 2007 22:00 (sixteen years ago) link
one of my favorite last lines, so perfect
― Edward III, Thursday, 29 November 2007 22:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Monte Hellman presented this in Tucson maybe a year or so ago and all I could think to ask him during the Q & A was if Criterion would ever release this, since it's pretty singular. I should have asked him how it was pitched instead. So James Taylor, Warren Oates and, I don't know, one of the Beach Boys are sort of racing and chilling across the country....
― Cosmo Vitelli, Friday, 30 November 2007 05:06 (sixteen years ago) link
Does anyone know who does the version of "Hit the Road Jack" in this movie?
― Joe, Friday, 30 November 2007 13:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Jerry Lee Lewis
― Chris L, Friday, 30 November 2007 14:41 (sixteen years ago) link
I should have asked him how it was pitched instead.
"it's easy rider, starring real rock stars" **
**naturally assumes that hollywood execs don't know the difference between dennis wilson / james taylor and "rock stars"
― Edward III, Friday, 30 November 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link
from what I understand the script created a real buzz, and esquire serialized it. then felt sheepish when it bombed in the theatres.
― Edward III, Friday, 30 November 2007 15:44 (sixteen years ago) link
two-lane blacktop is like an american making a european film about america. it captures the rootless alientation of american life in this removed, critical way, yet it's still quintessentially american, nothing rings false.
― Edward III, Friday, 30 November 2007 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Dave Kehr, NY Times:
The Criterion package includes a full disc of recent interviews conducted by Mr. Hellman with some of the film’s surviving personnel, including Mr. Taylor — who says he still hasn’t seen the picture.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 19:01 (sixteen years ago) link
ha!
― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 19:03 (sixteen years ago) link
well, neither have JT's fans.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 20:03 (sixteen years ago) link
God, I really do want this, but $29.99? That's a little steep, eh?
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 20:23 (sixteen years ago) link
not for a newly released CC.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 20:25 (sixteen years ago) link
I guess. Me buying this is inevitable, but I think it'll be a post holiday gift to myself rather than an impulse purchase right now. I hope it's as great as I remember...
Speaking of which, Amazon has Vanishing Point on DVD for only $7.99!!
Now...make with White LIne Fever already!!!
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 20:29 (sixteen years ago) link
http://originalalamo.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-honor-of-monte-hellman-and-two-lane.html
― Oilyrags, Thursday, 10 July 2008 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link
"performance by a driver" is supposed to be "performance by a drummer," it's always wrong when that list is quoted
http://www.citypages.com/2000-03-29/arts/austin-powers
― milo z, Thursday, 10 July 2008 21:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Pretty damn cool.
― a new Rock Hardy screen name because I can't find the old one (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 19 November 2008 03:16 (fifteen years ago) link
This is the sort of thing you could find on Terrestrial TV, back in the day (which is where I saw it)
Now we have 50+ channels, of which 10 could conceivably play a movie on, and what do we get? Basic Instinct, repeated 3 times in a week, just in case you missed it...
― Mark G, Wednesday, 19 November 2008 09:30 (fifteen years ago) link
just watched this, a wondrous movie. full marks.
― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Thursday, 20 November 2008 21:26 (fifteen years ago) link
warren oates 4eva
― velko, Thursday, 20 November 2008 21:28 (fifteen years ago) link
― Edward III, Friday, November 30, 2007 3:58 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark
this is almost exactly how a friend of mine described dead man, and i think it's true of both movies. (as opposed to, like, wim wenders making movies about america and filling them up with poetry where they need prose.)
anyway, just watched this. pretty great. i already wanna see it again.
― flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 3 October 2009 06:50 (fourteen years ago) link
make it three yards motherfucker and we'll have us an automobile race
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 8 January 2010 04:40 (fourteen years ago) link
I first read about two-lane blacktop in danny peary's cult movies back in the 80s and spent the next decade or so trying to see it. once I finally did, I reread peary's essay on the film, and noticed he mentioned a nonexistent skinnydipping scene. I just assumed he was confusing two-lane blacktop with easy rider. every once in a while I'd come across a reviewer who would mention the scene, and thought people were just repeating peary's error.
well apparently it exists...
http://www.danaddington.com/denny/mag.html
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 8 January 2010 16:46 (fourteen years ago) link
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/maggroup4a.jpg
so did this film get edited in the 90s?
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 8 January 2010 16:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Huh.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 8 January 2010 16:54 (fourteen years ago) link
hellman looking like henry spencer, love it
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/maggroup1.jpg
― 鬼の手 (Edward III), Friday, 8 January 2010 16:55 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm going to watch this this weekend. My brother got me the Criterion a couple of years ago, and I've only managed to watch it once since then.
― Clerk all KNOWIN (B.L.A.M.), Friday, 8 January 2010 17:20 (fourteen years ago) link
the skinnydipping scene is in the script (which is worth reading)
― super sexy psycho fantasy world (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Friday, 8 January 2010 17:22 (fourteen years ago) link
i have only heard of this bc of the mary heilmann painting named after it
http://images.artnet.com/artwork_images_3_467172_mary-heilmann.jpg
― plaxico (I know, right?), Friday, 8 January 2010 17:34 (fourteen years ago) link
so wait I don't get it - scenes were cut from the DVD release? That seems really strange
― larry craig memorial gloryhole (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 8 January 2010 23:18 (fourteen years ago) link
anyone got the criterion release? these scenes are into it?
might be lost!
― moullet, Friday, 8 January 2010 23:25 (fourteen years ago) link
why would you base your reaction to this movie off of some reaction that randos in 2015 would have!
― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, 20 July 2015 02:30 (eight years ago) link
You misunderstand--their reaction has nothing to do with my reaction, I'm just interested in that kind of thing. And, as I said, the two things I singled out--the ending and the one line--are two things I love about the movie.
I've only seen it the one time on an old VHS I bought in a liquidation sale, but I remember quite liking Cockfighter.
― clemenza, Monday, 20 July 2015 02:35 (eight years ago) link
Cockfighter is pretty solid for exploitation level material, but Two Lane is a legit great film.
― circa1916, Monday, 20 July 2015 05:21 (eight years ago) link
Suddenly very interested in Dennis Wilson (already true after Shakey and the Manson bio I read). I downloaded Pacific Ocean Blue yesterday, and I'd love to read this if it weren't so ridiculously expensive ($50 minimum online).
http://thejonstebbins.com/photos/rbbbook.jpg
One thing I wondered watching Blacktop the other night: did it have more language (specifically, the use of "fuck") than any studio-released film up to that point? I'd have to check Joe--I think that probably has more but milder profanity. I can't think of anything else offhand.
― clemenza, Monday, 20 July 2015 19:53 (eight years ago) link
I have that book, it's good
― Οὖτις, Monday, 20 July 2015 20:00 (eight years ago) link
not much in it about the movie tbh
― Οὖτις, Monday, 20 July 2015 20:01 (eight years ago) link
The inflated-value of this book really doesn't make much sense to me in view of its comparatively recent publication date (2000) and the fact that it basically looks to be a standard-issue celebrity bio (which is not to say that it isn't good). Checked the Toronto library system, and the only copy they have doesn't circulate.
― clemenza, Monday, 20 July 2015 20:15 (eight years ago) link
I can't remember how much I paid for it, it was several years ago. I'm sure the inflated value is due to the (assumed) small print run in proportion to the level of fanaticism (and Dennis fans can get p fanatical)
― Οὖτις, Monday, 20 July 2015 20:22 (eight years ago) link
xp do an interlibrary loan to get it from outside your library system.
― new noise, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 00:46 (eight years ago) link
Probably. "Shit" had only started popping up in the late '60s, and "Fuck" (and derivatives) only made it's studio debut the year before in M*A*S*H* and Myra Breckenridge. In the Rudy Wurlitzer commentary on the TLB Criterion, he mentions that James Taylor was the first White guy to say "Motherfucker" in a Hollywood film.
― Love, Wilco (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 21 July 2015 01:01 (eight years ago) link
New noise: thanks, I didn't know libraries do that--will look into it.
One thing I like was how the profanity wasn't treated as a big deal. I only barely noticed it until it occurred to me after the film that this was unusual for '71.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 01:41 (eight years ago) link
Which contradicts my previous post--it was really after the film that I thought about it.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 21 July 2015 01:42 (eight years ago) link
Fixing to see this in 35mm.
― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 1 April 2016 23:41 (eight years ago) link
nice
this movie is such a trip
― calstars, Saturday, 2 April 2016 01:23 (eight years ago) link
G.T.O.: I'm not into that!hitchhiker: I just thought it might relax you while you drive.G.T.O.: This is competition, man. I've got no time.
― karla jay vespers, Saturday, 2 April 2016 03:25 (eight years ago) link
i love this movie so much. SO MUCH. hope you can see it on 35mm! (i've managed to see it that way three times, though spaced about 8 years apart.)
― wizzz! (amateurist), Saturday, 2 April 2016 18:04 (eight years ago) link
It looked fantastic! But the projectionist did a weird thing where they let the classical music they'd been playing prior to the screening continue quietly under the film. For the most part it wasn't noticeable, but it became very obvious under the final, mostly dialogue-less scenes.
― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 2 April 2016 19:16 (eight years ago) link
wait, that's really weird and wrong. you should get yr money back!
― wizzz! (amateurist), Saturday, 2 April 2016 19:22 (eight years ago) link
The box office was already closed :-(
Speaking of the music in the film*, how did Hellman latch onto Terry Allen's "Truckload of Art" for the soundtrack a good number of years before it was available commercially?
*One of my favorite small details in this film full of them is how the source music is pretty much all songs about cars, travelling, hitchhiking etc.
― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 4 April 2016 19:34 (eight years ago) link
Monte not too high on contemporary cinema
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/seeing-clearly-in-the-dark-a-profile-of-monte-hellman-in-present-day-los-angeles
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 23 October 2017 16:27 (six years ago) link
decided to skip the Oscars and watch this instead. love it more now than i did before. what little dialogue there is remains so memorable. love the scene where JT tries to make random go-nowhere philosophical small talk with Laurie Bird about cicadas and she cuts him off and he wanders away and she says, "You bore me."
Warren Oates is incredible, he goes between hilarious and moving so quickly. and the scene w/Harry Dean Stanton's hitchhiker coming onto him is (for the era) pretty understated and not especially homophobic.
In the Rudy Wurlitzer commentary on the TLB Criterion, he mentions that James Taylor was the first White guy to say "Motherfucker" in a Hollywood film.
i gotta use this to stump someone in 20 questions one of these days.
― omar little, Monday, 5 March 2018 17:32 (six years ago) link
Warren Oates is amazing in this.
― papa don't take no meth (stevie), Monday, 5 March 2018 18:27 (six years ago) link
(xpost) Fantastic piece of trivia. Take that, Lester Bangs.
― clemenza, Monday, 5 March 2018 23:10 (six years ago) link
I swear I'll like this movie one day.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 5 March 2018 23:11 (six years ago) link
Who was the first person ever to say that on film?
― pplains, Tuesday, 6 March 2018 14:54 (six years ago) link
^^Somebody in Myra Breckenridge, iirc.
RIP Monte Hellman
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/78/4f/f2/784ff2394a3747d7c6049344dec16205.jpg
― blue whales on ambient (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 00:00 (three years ago) link
Still haven't seen either of his two 1966 films, Ride in the Whirlwind or The Shooting.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 00:16 (three years ago) link
There is a quote about the original pitch of the movie in Warren Oates biography that I kind of wish existed in tandem because it’s wildly unlike the finished product.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 00:48 (three years ago) link
By August, Oates would be playing a drifter again, with horsepower gunning in place of a horse's hooves. Two-Lane Blacktop had a meandering origin. Its original screenplay, by Will Corry, was the story of two men, one black and one white, who drive across the country with a young girl. Michael Laughlin, one of Hollywood's youngest producers at thirty-two, optioned the script for $100,000 for Cinema Center. Laughlin approached Monte Hellman with Corry's script, which the director told Brad Stevens was "The Gumball Rally." "Only it was a Disney version of that, if you can imagine such a thing. It was the most insipid, silly, sentimental, dumb movie you can imagine."
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 00:54 (three years ago) link
It was completely written by Wurlitzer.
Up until recently, China 9... was a free title on Prime (now a rental starting at $1.99). However, Cockfighter is up on there and still free to view (can't vouch for the quality; hopefully better than the grey market DVD I have somewhere).
― blue whales on ambient (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 01:08 (three years ago) link
I saw The Shooting late at night on TV, it's a severely underpopulated but well-made dusty existential Western. They were showing Ride in the Whirlwind right afterwards, but I'd heard it wasn't as good.
Now James Taylor has free rein for his movie comeback, Three Lane Blacktop.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 01:13 (three years ago) link
xp agreed but I think the idea that the final script came from was Corry’s.
it’s too bad there’s not documentary footage from the shoot. I find it fascinating some of the seedlings that would become Joni Mitchell’s Blue grew during the shooting of this movie.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 02:43 (three years ago) link
Oops, I meant REwritten. Yeah, it was Corry's concept, and Floyd Mutrux did some uncredited rewriting as well (iirc he was responsible for most of the technical car talk).
― blue whales on ambient (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 03:03 (three years ago) link
Aw. Monte Hellman was a very fun facebook follow, even when he bafflingly stanned for "Blame It On Rio".
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 21 April 2021 09:15 (three years ago) link
TLB is not on the Criterion Channel currently (Ride in the Whirlwind is). Is there a legitimate stream out there?
― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Wednesday, 21 April 2021 15:05 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MDNTdnw0fE
james taylor squirming is a delight to watch
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, 20 January 2022 09:04 (two years ago) link
Great clip, thanks
― calstars, Thursday, 20 January 2022 18:55 (two years ago) link
JT does not seem chill
― kurt schwitterz, Thursday, 20 January 2022 18:57 (two years ago) link
Do people like his last film. Road to Nowhere?
― Double Elvis on the Dime (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 June 2022 03:29 (one year ago) link
Expiring soon from MUBI USA. Seems intriguing.
― Double Elvis on the Dime (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 6 June 2022 15:43 (one year ago) link
Forgiveness is the killer of snakes, my friend.
― The Crazy World of Encyclopedia Brown (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 June 2022 00:00 (one year ago) link
my
― The Crazy World of Encyclopedia Brown (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 June 2022 00:01 (one year ago) link
They’re all planets, they only reflect light.
― The Crazy World of Encyclopedia Brown (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 June 2022 02:36 (one year ago) link
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52025/sonnet-xxv
― The Crazy World of Encyclopedia Brown (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 June 2022 03:20 (one year ago) link
I haven't seen Road To Nowhere, but casting both Dominique Swain and Shannyn Sossamon was some serious 'keeping the millennium--era hawt dream alive' move for 2010.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 13 June 2022 03:49 (one year ago) link
quick callback to the discussion above - I think this is the sweater JT mentions which Joni knitted for him, with the two-lane blacktop across the middle:https://i.pinimg.com/originals/10/25/63/10256381b7a9e9c5a35a13fb246b19f3.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/GZ7UYFG.jpg(bit of a Nirvana Unplugged vibe for me)
― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 13 June 2022 03:52 (one year ago) link
Watched The Shooting the other day. Not quite as radical as Two Lane tho it does end in a similar way.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 13 June 2022 09:17 (one year ago) link
― The Crazy World of Encyclopedia Brown (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 June 2022 11:28 (one year ago) link
(bit of a Nirvana Unplugged vibe for me)
Son of Kurdt and Krist.
― pplains, Monday, 13 June 2022 13:59 (one year ago) link
xp to selfGuess he had to end it somehow. Anyway really enjoyed watching this, thinking about it and reading about it.
― The Crazy World of Encyclopedia Brown (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 13 June 2022 14:10 (one year ago) link