The screening on Wednesday 9 July will be introduced by season curator and Moviedrome’s producer Nick Freand Jones
‘What is a cult film? A cult film is one which has a passionate following but does not appeal to everybody. Just because a movie is a cult movie does not automatically guarantee quality. Some cult films are very bad. Others are very, very good. Some make an awful lot of money at the box office. Others make no money at all. Some are considered quality films. Others are exploitation.’ From 1988 to 2000 Moviedrome was presented by Alex Cox and then Mark Cousins. Across that time, more than 200 features were shown, and generations of movie fans and filmmakers would be informed and inspired by the selection, alongside the wit and wisdom of the introductions that preceded each screening. Moviedrome was a portal into the world of weird and wonderful cinema. This two-month season features some of the most notable titles screened and wherever possible they are preceded by the original televised introduction.
Nick Freand Jones, season curator and producer of Moviedrome
Alex Cox: Two-Lane Blacktop is, after Easy Rider, the king of the road movies. It came out in 1971, around the same time as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People, Five Easy Pieces and Richard Sarafian’s Vanishing Point. All of these are equally pessimistic variations on the same theme – which is, according to Rudy Wurlitzer, the writer of this film, that ‘you can’t escape from whatever you’re trying to escape from, and the lesson of the road is that there is no lesson of the road’.
Two-Lane Blacktop, based on a TV movie script by Will Corry, tells the story of two existential hot-rod racers, played by the singer James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, drummer of the Beach Boys. They become involved in an obsessive road race with a flash Harry character played by Warren Oates, all competing for possession of a pink slip – that is, a car registration or ownership certificate. The two hot-rodders drive a souped-up old car; Oates has a brand new Pontiac GTO. The two mumble a lot and are really bad actors. Oates has the most amazing line of patter and incredible adventures. Also watch out for Harry Dean Stanton as the gay hitch-hiker.
The director, Monte Hellman, is a mysterious figure, who has made few films but has had a great deal of influence on his peers – Coppola, Peckinpah, the other road-movie directors, and especially Wim Wenders. Hellman and Oates did their best work in collaboration, particularly in Cockfighter, a film which unfortunately we can’t see in Britain due to its subject matter. Oates was a great actor, one of the best of all American actors, and he lights up this film every time he appears.
Alex Cox’s original introduction for Moviedrome. Also published in Moviedrome: The Guide (BBC, 1990). With thanks to moviedromer.tumblr.com
Monte Hellman on ‘Two-Lane Blacktop’
What interested you in the original script for Two-Lane Blacktop ? And what did you think was missing?
The fact is that I’ve never been presented with a script I liked. Here I liked the idea of two guys travelling across the country in a ‘55 Chevy challenging guys to race. The rest of it was banal.
What intrigued you about [Rudy] Wurlitzer’s writing?
I liked his sense of humour. He was extremely funny. I think all my scripts are funny.
What were you after in this film?
I was interested in what has happened to love, for one thing. What contemporary attitudes towards love are as opposed to traditional attitudes, and how much romance is left in a non-romantic world … I don’t know how much is left in the world, but there’s a lot left in our movie. We’re in a world where love has been rejected, but people still have a nostalgia for it, and I think that’s what we deal with in this film.
Are you a romantic?
I’m romantic in the sense that Camus was romantic. I … feel a nostalgia for what cannot be.
Would you describe Blacktop as a love story? Who loves whom?
I always felt it was a love story. The girl loves the driver; the mechanic loves the girl and the driver, and he can’t decide between them and can’t accept his love for either. And the driver wants to love the girl, but can’t.
I’ve always felt there was a profound absence of love in Blacktop …
Well, I’ve expressed these things to Rudy, but I don’t know if he wrote exactly that story … Maybe audiences will see it differently, too. But I’ve always seen the driver as the same sort of character that Aznavour plays in Tirez sur le pianiste. He appeals to me too. It’s a guy who is so involved with his own existential dilemma, just dealing with himself as a person, that he throws away the thing he wants most, which is love. He can’t deal with those needs in time, and that becomes his tragedy.
You don’t think the cars, the roads, and the quintessential Americanness of the characters are significant?
That’s just a cultural appendage … side effects. A way to augment the reality.
You haven’t mentioned one of the two major characters, G.T.O. (played by Warren Oates). What function does he serve?
G.T.O. is time … God, that sounds pretentious. Look, I’m evolving, I’m getting older. My films have to reflect this. G.T.O.’s function is as a reference to the process of time. A reminder of mortality. The idea of time is a double-edged element. The illusion and delusion of time … Cars, roads, speed are one thing. G. T.O. sings ‘Time Is on My Side’. Well, it’s not. And the love thing is involved with him too. The temporal nature of love, or at least of sexual love. He has been through it. He’s part of the generation gap.
There is a confusion in people’s minds about what the essential elements of a movie are. We create ‘genres’ – the road picture, the melodrama, the Western … I don’t think those are good categories. Certain movies are made over and over again, each through a different director’s vision. The prototypes for Blacktop are Minnelli’s The Clock, Lelouch’s Un homme et une femme, Nichols’ The Graduate, Wilder’s The Apartment. They are all the same story, told against a different background.
Interview by Beverly Walker, Sight and Sound, Winter 1970-71
Two-Lane Blacktop
Directed by: Monte Hellman
©/Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Michael S. Laughlin Enterprises
Produced by: Michael Laughlin
Assistant to the Producer: Lee Wenner
Associate Producer: Gary Kurtz
Unit Production Manager: Walter Coblenz
Assistant Director: Ken Swor
Script Supervisor: Bonnie Prendergast
Casting: Fred Roos
Screenplay by: Rudy Wurlitzer, Will Corry
Story by: Will Corry
Director of Photography: Jack Deerson
Photography Adviser: Gregory Sandor
Editor: Monte Hellman
Custom Auto Design and Constructions: Richard Ruth, William Kincheloe, H. Alan Deglin
Costumes: Richard Bruno
Title Design: Marion Sampler
Titles: Universal Title
Music Supervisor: Billy James
Music Editor: Synchrofilm
Sound: Edit-Rite, Inc
Technical Adviser: Jay Wheatley
Cast
James Taylor (the driver)
Warren Oates (G.T.O.)
Laurie Bird (the girl)
Dennis Wilson (the mechanic)
David Drake (Needles station attendant)
Richard Ruth (Needles station Mechanic)
Rudy Wurlitzer (hot rod driver)
Jaclyn Hellman (driver’s girl)
Bill Keller (Texas hitch-hiker)
Harry Dean Stanton (Oklahoma hitch-hiker)
Don Samuels (1st Texas policeman)
Charles Moore (2nd Texas policeman)
Tom Green (Boswell station attendant)
W.H. Harrison (parts store owner)
Alan Vint (man in roadhouse)
Illa Ginnaven (waitress in roadhouse)
George Mitchell (driver at accident)
Katherine Squire (old woman)
Melissa Hellman (child)
Jay Wheatley (1st man at race track)
Jim Mitcham (2nd man at race track)
Kreag Caffey (boy with motorcycle)
Tom Witenbarger (pick-up driver)
Glen Rogers (soldier)
USA 1971©
102 mins
Digital
Moviedrome transmission date: 6 August 1989
With thanks to
Bob Cummins and Sharon Maitland
SIGHT AND SOUND
Never miss an issue with Sight and Sound, the BFI’s internationally renowned film magazine. Subscribe from just £25*
*Price based on a 6-month print subscription (UK only). More info: sightandsoundsubs.bfi.org.uk
BFI SOUTHBANK
Welcome to the home of great film and TV, with three cinemas and a studio, a world-class library, regular exhibitions and a pioneering Mediatheque with 1000s of free titles for you to explore. Browse special-edition merchandise in the BFI Shop.We're also pleased to offer you a unique new space, the BFI Riverfront – with unrivalled riverside views of Waterloo Bridge and beyond, a delicious seasonal menu, plus a stylish balcony bar for cocktails or special events. Come and enjoy a pre-cinema dinner or a drink on the balcony as the sun goes down.
BECOME A BFI MEMBER
Enjoy a great package of film benefits including priority booking at BFI Southbank and BFI Festivals. Join today at bfi.org.uk/join
BFI PLAYER
We are always open online on BFI Player where you can watch the best new, cult & classic cinema on demand. Showcasing hand-picked landmark British and independent titles, films are available to watch in three distinct ways: Subscription, Rentals & Free to view.
See something different today on player.bfi.org.uk
Join the BFI mailing list for regular programme updates. Not yet registered? Create a new account at www.bfi.org.uk/signup
Programme notes and credits compiled by Sight and Sound and the BFI Documentation Unit
Notes may be edited or abridged
Questions/comments? Contact the Programme Notes team by email