Two-Lane Blacktop

Film Info

United States
1971
103 minutes
Color
2.35:1
English
Spine #414

Drag racing east from Los Angeles in a souped-up ’55 Chevy are the wayward Driver and Mechanic (singer-songwriter James Taylor and the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson, in their only acting roles), accompanied by a tagalong Girl (Laurie Bird). Along the way, they meet Warren Oates’s Pontiac GTO–driving wanderer and challenge him to a cross-country race. The prize: their cars’ pink slips. But no summary can do justice to the existential punch of Two-Lane Blacktop. With its gorgeous widescreen compositions and sophisticated look at American male obsession, this stripped-down narrative from maverick director Monte Hellman is one of the artistic high points of 1970s cinema, and possibly the greatest road movie ever made.

Cast

The Driver	James Taylor
GTO	Warren Oates
The Girl	Laurie Bird
The Mechanic	Dennis Wilson
Hot rod driver	Rudolph Wurlitzer
Driver’s girl	Jaclyn Hellman
Texas hitchhiker	Bill Keller
Oklahoma hitchhiker	H. D. Stanton
Man in roadhouse	Alan Vint
Driver at accident	George Mitchell
Tennessee hitchhiker	A. J. Solari
Old woman	Katherine Squire
Child	Melissa Hellman
Last kid at accident	Jared Hellman
The Car	1955 Chevrolet
The GTO	1970 Pontiac

Credits

Director	Monte Hellman
Produced by	Michael S. Laughlin
Screenplay	Rudolph Wurlitzer and Will Corry
Story	Will Corry
Associate producer	Gary Kurtz
Photographic adviser	Gregory Sandor
Assistant camera	John Bailey
Film editor	Monte Hellman
Unit production manager	Walter Coblenz
Assistant director	Ken Swor
Costumes	Richard Bruno
Production sound	Charles Knight
Music supervisor	Billy James
Custom auto design and construction	Richard Ruth, William Kincheloe and H. Alan Deglin

Disc Features

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION

New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Monte Hellman, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, supervised by Hellman and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
Two audio commentaries: one by Hellman and filmmaker Allison Anders and one by screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer and author David N. Meyer
Interviews with Hellman, actor James Taylor, musician Kris Kristofferson, producer Michael Laughlin, and production manager Walter Coblenz
Rare screen test outtakes
Performance and Image, a look at the restoration of a ’55 Chevy used in the movie and the film’s locations in 2007
Color Me Gone, photos and publicity from the film
Trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Kent Jones, appreciations by director Richard Linklater and musician Tom Waits, and a 1970 on-set account from Rolling Stone by Michael Goodwin (Blu-ray and DVD); and Wurlitzer’s screenplay (DVD only)

New cover by Marc English