Apparently a lot of respected movie critics also has this opinion. I've got a book called "1001 movies you have to see before you die" and it was listed there too. Sure it has flaws but the overall atmosphere more than makes up for it. I am a car nut, so maybe it helps. Then again despite being a car nut I thought the Gone in 60 seconds remake was garbage and an insult to all serious car enthusiasts.
shareI do agree actually. I hadn't even heard of it until about 2 or 3 years ago when an independent movie theater in town showed it. Monte Hellman was there. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was a little depressed that people keep bringing up Easy Rider - another film I love.
I like just about everything about this movie, especially Warren Oates, a guy I had heard of but wasn't too familiar with.
Too much flash bam pow in movies; I like how this is, at its core, the quintessential road film. It respects the audience, and as much as everyone talks about how much part of the world of 1971 this is, frankly, to me this doesn't seem dated at all.
Underrated, most definitely. This is clearly not for everyone. But I will say this - everyone should take the time to drive around the US, and stay off of the interstates as much as possible. Take the state and county roads, and stop and listen as much as you can; it's sad but where everything isn't all McDonaldsed into oblivion, it is still an important experience more people should have.
I agree with you completely about the remake. All remakes so far have been huge failures. The filmakers just don't get it do they?
shareI agree. "Two-Lane Blacktop" is a great movie and one of the most accurate depictions of the bummed-out malaise prevalent in early 70's Nixon-era America. Warren Oates is terrific as GTO and should have won the Oscar for his outstanding performance.
Look nonchalant and keep on smiling.
two lane blacktop is a great moody film because it happens to have, two of the most underrated great moody actors in it... warren oates and harry dean stanton, enough said.
i just popped in to see what condition, my condition was in.
agreed on the gi60s comment. That remake was complete junk. It lost all of the feel of the original.....
it would have been ok if they called it something else and changed the plot a bit :) Maybe i wouldnt have been so offended...anyway
I have been looking for two old car movies. 1 has a one of a kind plot. I can tell you that it was out on VHS. I saw it in the mid 80’s and I would say that it was a “B” movie but a GREAT car movie nonetheless. The plot was a disgraced street racer from LA. The two cars were a black 55 Chevy and a 1968 Barracuda (with the long fastback back window) and the guy driving the 55 was BLIND. He drove in the desert at night and stood on the gas and counted - so he would know how far he had been and then he would turn around and start counting again to get back to his starting point. The final scene has the Barracuda beat a car in a street race, and his opponent can’t handle the defeat so he drives off an incomplete interstate overpass in the final seconds of the movie. With that kind of plot you’d think it would be easy to find. But I have been looking for years with no luck.
The second is about street racers in the Hollywood hills. I can't really tell you any of the cars, I think there was a Porshe but not sure, but I can tell you the last scene has two racers coming down the hills racing and one racer always had a stop watch taped to his rearview mirror. Well in the final scene he loses control and goes off the side of the mountain to his untimely death, but when he does the stop watch is the only thing left on the side of the road. His opponent stops his car, looks over the side of the mountain and clicks the stop watch to make it stop. Again, you'd think it was easy to find, but NO!
CAN ANYONE HELP ME?
Signed- Needle in a haystack!
mixon
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