On first glance, Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop starring James Taylor, Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates and Laurie Bird seems like a stereotypical road trip film, but it more closely resembles art house films that preceded it. The creative choices Two-Lane Blacktop are bold and almost alienating at times. The film stars unlikable lead characters, has a loose narrative structure, and it concludes with an abrupt, downer of an ending. Two-Land Blacktop could be seen as an “anti-action” movie, as it focuses less on the intrigue and more on the realism of the characters’ directionless journey (Elsaesser, 281).
The main players in Two-Lane Blacktop go by the names of The Driver, The Mechanic, The Girl and (The Guy That Drives The) GTO. Viewers never learn the given names of any of the characters, which may cause some moviegoers to have a difficult time forming an attachment to and relating to the protagonists. Not only do we don’t know the characters’ motivations or backstories, but we don’t even know their real names. The only character who has any semblance of a personality or motive is GTO, but his motives are constantly changing in an attempt to impress all of the hitchhikers he picks up throughout the course of the film. An “end goal” is mentioned in passing, as the protagonists decide to race to Washington, but it is never the focus or driving force of the film (Elsaesser, 281). It also doesn’t help that the characters in Two-Lane Blacktop are ultimately unlikable. The Driver and The Mechanic stay very static throughout the film, each with only one defining trait. The Driver is stoic, The Mechanic is a gearhead, The Girl is naïve, and GTO is egotistical. For example, GTO never learns that making up stories about his past and future does not give him satisfaction. He continues to lie and boast until the very end of the picture. It is obvious that the film is about the journey of these characters, not their arcs. Easy Rider is very similar to this film in the regard that the characters in that film lack motivation and likable qualities. Wyatt and Billy are also very unappealing characters who the filmmakers choose not to develop, but instead focus on the symbolism of their excursion and the supporting characters that the duo encounter on their cross country trip. Wyatt and Billy, just like the Two-Lane Blacktop crew, are not role models in the slightest. Their main motivation is to abuse drugs and get intoxicated at Mardi Gras, they hang around a corrupt lawyer, they don’t assist the starving & parched settlers living in the ravine and they blow their money on prostitutes. Due to their lack of a defined motivations, it is very difficult to root for them on their “quest”.
The unmotivated characters in both Two-Lane Blacktop and Easy Rider both contribute to the films’ loose plots and structures. Both films feel pointless at times, as they barely have a definitive beginning, middle and end, as well as having very anticlimactic endings. Easy Rider spends a lot of its runtime showcasing the picturesque locales that the motorcyclists pass through. On the other hand, Two-Lane Blacktop spends a lot of time on its characters having meaningless conversations in classic Americana roadside diners, greasy gas stations and dull car interiors. The landscapes are depicted as quite bland, which also contrasts with Easy Rider’s romanticized American staples. In both cases, it does not feel like these scenes meaningfully move the plot forward. Easy Rider ends with the main characters abruptly dying by a random driver blasting them with a shotgun, whereas Two-Lane Blacktop concludes as The Driver engages in a street race, but the viewer does not get to experience the actual race or see who wins. The Last Picture Show also has a similarly loose structure and abrupt ending. The film is less about developing the characters and more about capturing the mundane day-to-day lives of these people’s existence in a small, dying town. These three films are all not concerned with being dramatic or cinematic, but revel in the dull features and disappointments of life. Easy Rider focuses on the various ways that people live in America, whether that be in a town, a ravine, on a farm or in a city, Two-Lane Blacktop puts an emphasis on the tedium and loneliness of the road trip and The Last Picture Show zeroes in on the young protagonists coming of age and the state of their town they reside in. None of these films are concerned with telling cohesive stories with traditional three-act structures, but they allow viewers to peek into the windows of these characters’ lives.
Elsaesser states in his “The Pathos of Failure” Essay, “what the heroes bring to such films is the almost physical sense of inconsequential action, of pointlessness and uselessness, a radical skepticism, in short, about the American virtues of ambition, vision, drive” (Elaesser, 282). This theme is present across Two-Lane Blacktop and its contemporaries, as they depict the main character(s) losing at the end or falling from grace in some way. In Two-Lane Blacktop, The Driver loses The Girl to a random stranger, who he had affections for and GTO continues his cycle of lying about his past and destination. In Easy Rider, the protagonists die brutally and the camera pans out to reveal the landscape encapsulating them, showing their insignificant existences. In The Last Picture, Sonny’s marriage with Jacy is annulled, the movie house is shutdown, Duane gets shipped out to war and Billy is struck by a truck and killed. These films counter the traditional Hollywood trope of happy endings by showing the protagonists losing their quests or people they were connected with. Another film from this era, Five Easy Pieces, also experiments with this style of ending. Bobby is rejected by Catherine for his self-destructive actions and his inability to show love. This forces Bobby to leave with his girlfriend Rayette, who he has no love for. When they stop at a gas station, Bobby hitchhikes his way in the opposite direction to escape both of his past lives. These endings are far from satisfying and end with the protagonists at their lowest, robbing the viewer of a happy conclusion. However, these cynical endings do wrap up the characters’ arcs. All of the protagonists in these films are directly responsible for their actions and they serve as cautionary tales for viewers to learn from. Although pessimistic, these endings are sensical for the tragic stories being told in aforementioned pictures.
Two-Lane Blacktop, and the many films that came before it, experiment with characterization, story structures, and endings that make these films memorable, but unsatisfying watches. It is interesting how many films from this era tackled similar themes, tropes and compositions, but in their own unique ways. Two-Lane Blacktop takes elements from the films that preceded it and made them its own, making it the ultimate time capsule for those wanting to experience what moviemaking was like in the counter-culture era.