Pick of the week: Bourne Ultimatum
Dog of the week: Big Love: Second Season
The much-discussed but seldom-seen "Two-Lane Blacktop
"Blacktop" (1971) doesn't disappoint or show its age. Credit, in part, the naturalistic, dead-pan acting of James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, both famous musicians who never made another feature film.
"Blacktop" feels like a modern indie film, complete with a soundtrack of down-to-the-ground songs. The road becomes the ether for the heroes' listless detachment -- leaving the film with "an existential stigma" that's persisted for decades, director Monte Hellman says.
The print survives in terrific shape, colors and sharpness intact for the film's gallery-ready images of rural America. Hellman's unusual widescreen technique (the frame was sort of cut in half) unspools at 2.35:1 letterboxed, adding to the contemporary feel.
The road movie doesn't allow for much talking, but the extras sure do.
Director Hellman, a film professor, clearly is high on the chance to relive his glory months. He does a feature-length commentary and conducts drawn-out interviews with Taylor and Kris Kristofferson (whose "Me and Bobby McGee" plays prominently in the movie).
Hellman also chats his way through a student docu about his road trip back to Needles, Calif., where some of "Blacktop's" non-action occurs. The DVD extras feel like Hellman's vanity project. It's all interesting -- but it's also a bit much.
The movie's story feels stripped-down, even now. Two car guys hustle drag races in their '55 Chevy. They're identified as just the Driver (Taylor) and the Mechanic (Wilson). They set off cross-country with a barely legal hitchhiker, the Girl (Laurie Bird).
A big talker dubbed GTO (Warren Oates) lets the boys talk him into a race to Washington, D.C., for pink slips. "I could suck you right up my tailpipe," he tells the Driver. Total bullshit, but no one cares. They all end up traveling together, race blown off. The movie wanders around for another hour until its famous non-ending.
"The dialogue becomes a music track," Hellman says of the extreme economy of words. "It has nothing to do with the story." The Criterion set includes a booklet with Rudolph Wurlitzer's screenplay.
Hellman had on-set friction from young Taylor, irritated because the director doled out the script a day at a time. Reunited on-camera with Hellman after 35 years, the singer still seems a bit peeved as the talk begins. He says he's never seen the movie. (Neither musician plays or sings in the film.)
The director has high praise for the acting of Wilson, who died a decade after the film was made.
"He (seemed to) have no awareness of the fact there was a camera or even that he was acting in a movie. ... the perfect definition of what acting should be."
"Blacktop" was shot in sequence as the production made its way across the country, via the old Route 66.
"A lot of people appreciate the film because it's a time capsule," Hellman says.
Also circling the DVD blog's players this week: Universal's killer action movie "The Bourne Ultimatum
New and notable:
Beverly Hills 90210: The Third Season (Paramount)
Big Love: Second Season
The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal, also HD DVD)
Dirt: First Season (Buena Vista)
Frasier: 10th Season (Paramount)
Frasier: The Tenth Season (Paramount)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Warner, HD/BR)
High School Musical 2: Extended Edition (Disney)
Interview (Sony)
Lost: Third Season (Disney)
Mario's Story (Westlake Entertainment)
Masters of Horror: The V Word (Anchor Bay)
Two-Lane Blacktop (The Criterion Collection)
Walt Disney Treasures Wave VII (Disney)
Complete list of today's releases on my pal Harley's site, onvideo.org
RE "Blacktop": It looks amazing, and it plays like it was made yesterday. It was very clever of Hellman to cast three low-key, taciturn non-actors against Oates' manic, bullshitting GTO. Too bad Dennis Wilson never made another film. A great, lean script, too. It take a minute to get involved in its rhythm/non-rhythm, but it pays off. And I have to agree with Richard Linklater's notes: Cars never sounded this good in movies, before or since. It's like you're living inside an engine.
Posted by: Chris Morris | December 13, 2007 at 09:15 AM