Play One

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)
directed by Monte Hellman
rating: 5 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

I'm embarrassed to admit how many minutes I spent searching the message boards on Art Garfunkel's website in order to discover that the photograph of Laurie Bird on the back cover of 1981's Scissors Cut is exactly the sort of image one imagines Art Garfunkel would agree to, based on the snapshot of Art in a tux on the other side. It serves me right, but I still couldn't think of a thing to say that people I like who love Two-Lane Blacktop haven't already said.

So here's an observation and an old portrait instead. The shots from the interior of James Taylor's car do something that rear-projected chase scenes in black-and-white movies never could: there's a visceral sense of acceleration instead of simply speed. The movie's characters spend more time sitting in bars, restaurants, bleachers, and repair shops than they do inside automobiles, so of course Monte Hellman and cinematographer Jack Deerson would snag the heart of stop and start.



"Some day this country's gonna be a fine, good place to be. Maybe it needs our sweaters in the ground before that time can come."