Friday Night Flicks: Two-Lane Blacktop
Yesterday I came to a startling realization: it’s been almost a year since this column really got going, and somehow, we’ve yet to touch on the holy trinity of seventies road flicks.
Chances are you’ve seen two of them, or are at least familiar with their names and the cultural weight they carry: there’s Easy Rider, the film that established Peter Fonda as the figurehead for the all-American road warrior archetype. The second is Vanishing Point, a lesser-known but equally potent death-trip of a film, which basically turned the phrase “high speed chase” into its own cinematic genre.
But, at the end of the day, neither of the two hold a flame to the trinity’s third installment, Two-Lane Blacktop.
Two-Lane Blacktop follows two nameless street racers - only ever referred to as “the driver” (played by James Taylor) and “the mechanic” (Dennis Wilson) - as they drift eastward from California in a modified 1955 Chevy sedan, the pair’s most prized possession. Seeing as they’ve got no particular agenda or destination in mind, they decide to make things interesting by picking up a hitchhiker along the way, who stirs the pot by sleeping with them both. But the bulk of the film traces the trio’s interactions with a man who calls himself “the G.T.O.,” who - after a series of hostile run-ins - accepts their challenge to a cross-country race, one with high stakes: the loser’s car.
Despite touting one of the biggest pop stars of the seventies and a Beach Boy as its two leads, the film has somehow fallen into relative obscurity over the years - which is a shame, because it’s as deserving of praise as any major blockbuster of the era. Watch it below. —Jackson Todd
