a review of 双车道柏油路

Two-Lane Blacktop was a pleasant surprise. I love this kind of hidden cinematic gem. The theme of fast cars patronizing hillbilly cops in the US countryside was still very fresh in 1971, and Two-Lane Blacktop didn't go the farcical route of later mainstream productions like Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and The Dukes of Hazzard. In stead, it's got the coolness, rebelliousness and sense of freedom of Vanishing Point, which was also released in 1971. But Two-Lane Blacktop is more subtle than Vanishing Point. Two-Lane Blacktop's main characters are as cool as they come, the driver being singer James Taylor, and the co-driver / mechanic being Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. The coolness doesn't stop there, as cult hero Harry Dean Stanton shows up as a hitchhiking gay cowboy. But it's the slow pace and the lack of a structured narrative that gives Two-Lane Blacktop a sense of youthful timelessness. The main characters have no real direction, no tangible goal, they just ride across the country, participating in races and not giving a fuck. There's a fatalistic, even nihilistic undertone throughout Two-Lane Blacktop, which is also present in Vanishing Point, as well as in The Last Picture Show, which also happens to be from the same year (1971). I guess the turn of a decennium stimulates a rebellious attitude towards changing times and previous generations. The car accident scene was mesmerizing, and might very well have inspired David Lynch's surreal car wreck scenes in Wild at Heart and Lost Highway. Finally, I loved the ending. I would spoil it if I would discuss it, but there was something poetic about it.