Slacker God Talks Blacktop Love

Richard Linklater gives 16 reasons to love the classic Two-Lane Blacktop.

March 15, 2000

The king of slackers sez, 'Lead by example.'

On the second day (Saturday, March 11) of the annual SxSW Film Festival, local Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater had the honor of introducing a special screening of Monte Hellman's Two-Lane Blacktop at the Alamo Drafthouse and Cinema. The film was part of the festival's tribute/retrospective of Hellman's work. In addition to being a huge fan of Hellman's work, Linklater was partially responsible for co-ordinating the tribute. Before the screening, Linklater took the stage and introduced the film by saying that it was a hi-lite in his cinematic life. Then he ran down a list of reasons why Two-Lane Blacktop is an American film classic.

Richard Linklater's Things I Love About Two-Lane Blacktop

Because it's the purest American road movie ever.
Because it's like a drive-in movie directed by a French New Wave director.
Because the only thing that can get between a boy and his car obsession is a girl, and Lori Bird perfectly messes up the oneness between the Driver, the Mechanic, and their car.
Because Dennis Wilson gives the greatest performance ever by a driver.
Because James Taylor seems like a refugee from a Robert Bresson movie.
Because there was once a god who walked the Earth named Warren Oates.
Because there's a continuing controversy over who is the actual lead in this movie. There are different camps. Some say it's the '55 Chevy, some say it's the GTO.
Because it has the most purely cinematic ending in film history.
Because it's like a western. The guys are like old-time gunfighters, ready to out-draw the quickest gun in town. And they don't talk about old flames, but rather old cars they've had.
Because Warren Oates has a different cashmere sweater for every occasion. And of course the wet bar in the trunk.
Because unlike other films of the era with the designer alienation of the drug culture and the war protesters, this movie is about the alienation of everybody else, like Robert Frank's American Comes Alive.
Because Warren Oates, as GTO, orders a hamburger and an Alka Seltzer and says things like "Everything is going too fast and not fast enough."
Because it's both the last film of the '60s -- even though it came out in '71 -- but it's also the first film of the '70s. You know, that great era of "How the hell did they ever get that film made at a studio/Hollywood would never do that today" type of film.
Because engines have never sounded better in a movie.
Because these two young men on their trip to nowhere don't really know how to talk. The Driver doesn't really converse when he's behind the wheel, and the Mechanic doesn't really talk when he's working on the car. So this is primarily a visual, atmospheric experience. To watch this movie correctly is to become absorbed into it.
And, above all else, Two-Lane Blacktop goes all the way with its idea. And that's a rare thing in this world; a completely honest movie.