Two-Lane Blacktop: Classic or Dud?

(xpost) Fantastic piece of trivia. Take that, Lester Bangs.

I swear I'll like this movie one day.

Who was the first person ever to say that on film?

^^Somebody in Myra Breckenridge, iirc.

RIP Monte Hellman

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/78/4f/f2/784ff2394a3747d7c6049344dec16205.jpg

Still haven't seen either of his two 1966 films, Ride in the Whirlwind or The Shooting.

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.

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."

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).

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.

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.

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).

Aw. Monte Hellman was a very fun facebook follow, even when he bafflingly stanned for "Blame It On Rio".

TLB is not on the Criterion Channel currently (Ride in the Whirlwind is). Is there a legitimate stream out there?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MDNTdnw0fE

james taylor squirming is a delight to watch

Great clip, thanks

JT does not seem chill

Do people like his last film. Road to Nowhere?

Expiring soon from MUBI USA. Seems intriguing.

Forgiveness is the killer of snakes, my friend.

my

They’re all planets, they only reflect light.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52025/sonnet-xxv

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.

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.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GZ7UYFG.jpg
(bit of a Nirvana Unplugged vibe for me)

Watched The Shooting the other day. Not quite as radical as Two Lane tho it does end in a similar way.

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.

(bit of a Nirvana Unplugged vibe for me)

Son of Kurdt and Krist.

xp to self
Guess he had to end it somehow. Anyway really enjoyed watching this, thinking about it and reading about it.