Two-Lane Blacktop at Speed Cinema

Three Starring Warren Oates
Two-Lane Blacktop
Directed by Monte Hellman

Wednesday, July 8, 6 pm | BUY TICKETS

$12 | $8 Speed members

“This is not a film about narrative but loneliness and life on the road, which it captures with a mysterious brilliance.” —Damon Wise, Empire Magazine

Drag racing east from Los Angeles in a souped-up ’55 Chevy are the wayward Driver and Mechanic (singer-songwriter James Taylor and the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson, in their only acting roles), accompanied by a tagalong Girl (Laurie Bird). Along the way, they meet Warren Oates’s Pontiac GTO–driving wanderer and challenge him to a cross-country race. The prize: their cars’ pink slips. But no summary can do justice to the existential punch of Two-Lane Blacktop. With its gorgeous widescreen compositions and sophisticated look at American male obsession, this stripped-down narrative from maverick director Monte Hellman is one of the artistic high points of 1970s cinema, and possibly the greatest road movie ever made. 1971, U.S., DCP, 103 minutes. Rated R.