Well, 2 Lane Blacktop and HWY are to of my all time favorites. Got them both on DVD. Jim Morrison doing doughnuts in a 67 GT500, James Taylor racing a 55 Chevy. Whats not to like? Seriously, I start watching and just watch. I don't fast forward I just watch, the background, the cars, everything and remember all the hitch hikers and the way things where back then.
At the time this film was made, the Beach Boys were hardly a "garage band" hoping to hit it big someday.
the california kid and 2 lane are a couple of my favorites ,the m22 rockcrusher sounds are awesome, not often you hear real sound in a show these days. the producers don't care...i work in the film industry and i often hear them say..."nobody will ever notice" ....yeah right!!!!!!
This movie represents the reason we are all here at the HAMB. This one line of dialogue is the key to the whole film. By 1970 anyone could walk into a dealer showroom and buy a factory musclecar without ever getting their hands dirty, and think they had the bitchinest car in the valley. James Taylor tries to tell Warren Oates early on at the gas station that "There are lots of cars like his on the road.(The GTO) And they all perform about the same" By the end of the movie, Warren Oates finally understands. Here is the exact clip, a few seconds in... if you miss it, read my signature line. Isn't that what this whole board is all about? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_V_fCLItWqc#t=518s
just a wierd priod movie. but it os more than that. its the details and history of the cars and people that are in it. the 55 being the early version of falfas 55, the whine of the 4-speed. its all goo. but i agree the "gto" driver was a little annoying to say the least lol!
I heard a rumor around the camp fire about the audio clip for the 55 being used in Smokey and the Bandit. Hence the auto shift Trans Am shown in the movie and the sound of a manual shift car. Any once elce hear the same?
GTO is every smuck who told a bullshit story about how fast his car is. Kinda like 90% of the people that own cars.
No mention of Dennis Wilson? This was about the time he was venturing out on his own, and selling tickets to this movie to all of the youth for sure! The ending to this movie was no different than that of Vanishing Point, or Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. I love the movies from that time period, and there are many that I am not able to find, see, or watch.
It's on now now on the east coast and I'm watching. It is a cheesy,weird,long haired flic. But the cars are cool. There are a lot of parts your like wtf though, I could of come up with a better plot. Most old car movies you don't watch for the movie, it's all about the cars. I'm sure everyone claiming "best movie ever" watches all of bullet for the great acting. Lol Oh yeah, and no one is worried about her rear end. Haha
Well having been around in that time frame I can tell you that you have to recognize that the girl is a hippy chick and everyone loves a hippy chick if you catch my drift. As far as the movie itself it is lame as hell. But you have to remember that it is a '70s movie and they were all pretty lame. Actually I just watched it yesterday and to tell you the truth it was a lot better movie when I was looking at it through an opium haze. Just wasn't too impressed this time around.
How old are you?(you don't have to actually reply) I can't believe anyone older than 10 and is a car guy, hasn't seen TLB already! If you do a search, their are a butt load of threads on this very subject... JUST SAYING.....................
Just finished watching it tonight on west coast time. It may be a wtf movie, but I don't watch it for the academy award performances.
Kozik nails it. Total counter culture movie with great car shots. I'm in it. My uncle used to own alot of the land around Lakeland Drag Strip(he farmed). Back then it was safe for 11 year olds to tag along with their friends and get in the way of someone trying to make a movie. We used to get our older cousin to take us to Lakeland all the time. We were in the stands when they were filming the drag racing. I'm always sad when I go back and check on relatives and see how different the area looks. Broke my heart when they closed Lakeland. We also watched them film up and down Hiway 64. Showed it to my 82 year old mother and she remembered alot of the buisiness(which are now gone). We were hoping my grandfathers county store was in the film somewhere. Must have been on cutting room floor. We(family) have no good pictures of my grandfathers store and everyone still living remembers them filming near there. Oh for what its worth Hi way 64 is total suburbia where alot of it was shot.
We have it on DVD and put it on at the shop the other night. Hadn't seen it for a while. The acting is bad, the plot is ridiculous, but the car and the other cars are great. Love the rockcrusher whine. Another movie that is semi dumb but cool is "Hot Rod", the one where a guy wrecks his Mopar and is given a Willys ex drag car so he can beat the local rich kid in his Olds. I guess some of these car movies are like adult movies........the plot doesn't matter much it is the props that keep them interesting. Don
We have a fantastic clone over in the UK, when I shot it for Custom Car Magazine we tried to recreate some of the scenes, those daisy rims in the back are from one of the actual cars in the film. Two Lane Blacktop Custom Car Magazine 1 film by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr Two Lane Blacktop Custom Car Magazine 2 shoot by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr Two Lane Blacktop Custom Car Magazine 3 shot by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr Two Lane Blacktop Custom Car Magazine IMG_5587 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr Two Lane Blacktop Custom Car Magazine IMG_5660 by NickGrant.co.uk, on Flickr
Never liked the chick in this movie. She was annoying as hell and not hot at all...and I dig the skinny ones. I sure as hell wouldn't have let her try to drive the car, even for a handy or better. also: Nice synopsis by Kozik.
For those of you who love the 55. (and who wouldn't) and want to see the car it is still around. Check it out http://twolaneblacktop.yuku.com/ Even though Two Lane was filmed in 1971 a little before American Graffiti I still laugh every time I see the scene where they pick a 32 Ford 5 Window Coupe to race out of all of the cars in the drive in. I read they were going to have the 55 crash at the end but changed their minds. They didn't want to close the story that way opting for the film burn. That worked our for George Lucas as he used the spare 55 as his burn car. Note to the guy who thinks the rollover car was a 4 door....... You may want to watch the movie again. It was a 2 door hardtop that rolled. They wedged a 2 x 4 in the window opening to make it look like a 2 door post.
They cut the rear bracing out from under the package tray. No seat, plus no bracing, equals the carrying capacity of a station wagon! -Brad
I own the dvd and love it for the 55..but it is so stupid we laugh our @$$es off everytime we watch it. someone remake it ..and please re write it,use the same cars... do it good.
In my opinion, Two Lane Blacktop is not about being a 'story' or even 'a movie about cars'. If anything, its a meditation on 'nothing'. It's about being on the road, with no where to go. There is no attempt to make the people in it actual 'characters'. they are symbols. You need to put it in context with other 'new wave' counter culture film of the time, a time when American 'culture' was starting to unravel and people such as film makers where groping to expose the beginning of a dark time, the 1970's. Its not a car movie, or a racing movie. Thats just the backdrop. Think of it as a weird poem, or a piece of strange music. About 15 years ago I was asked to give a talk in London about 'american culture or its lack of it'...I showed this film, along with what I consider its companion, Vanishing Point. Of the 400 or so people who attended the 'talk', none of them had seen either movie, and they where totally freaked out by it, in good ways and bad. I think that is what the director was attempting to do. No moral, no lesson learned, no neat ending. Just a dark thought about the meaningless of life.
kozik, you nailed it. that is exactly what i had in mind when i tried to express it (twice, actually, there are too many threads about this movie haha), although i cannot regret that it inspired me also automotive-wise, and made me fall in love with the car, too.
Two Lane Blacktop is still my favourite film. As somebody else said, you either get it, or you don't. It was only recently I figured out what Richard Ruth is saying in that scene. I'd always heard his line as something like "Garth Ames's panel truck", but I think he actually says "Got a Thames panel truck"? Thames is pronounced tems over here, as in the river Thames, hence my confusion... The third TLB '55 was used as the rollover car in AG, but it was a sedan. The burn car which explodes was yet a another '55 - as you say, a hardtop made to look like a sedan, and it had stock rear wheel wells.
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