Two-Lane Blacktop (1971)

Four people coming from nowhere, drifting, heading nowhere but rich in stories to tell, even if there are no words to describe them as their life is embodied solely in their racing vehicles or their never ending journey. This fiery classic by Monte Hellman has all the ingredients of a great cult movie: brilliant screenplay with extremely weird characters, passion, dark underbelly, fantastic photography and music. It's one of these late 60's & early 70's artifacts, which made to the silver screen only due to the fall of Old Hollywood, using created gap. Financed by Universal, Hellman's film flopped at the time of it's release against high expectations and very favorable press reviews, which dubbed it "the best movie of 1971". A blame in this case has been definitely on the studio executives, who folded the marketing machine promptly after the premiere and then tossed the picture down from big theatres to the drive-in circuit, where it played with exploitation goodies of freshly founded New World Pictures.

Nevertheless, the film eventually found it's public by becoming an obscure night player on American TV. This was fortunate and helped a lot to shelter Hellman's vision in fandom, which slowly has put it up to a cult status. By 2000 it was finally released on DVD after members of The Doors agreed to pass on the royalties to Moonlight Drive, one of many classic songs featured on the soundtrack. Since then "Two-Lane Blacktop" has begun it's second, glorious run, discovered by next generation of movie geeks and die-hard diggers of auteur cinema. Justice has been definitely reclaimed as next to "Easy Rider" and "Vanishing Point", this ravishing road flick is the shit, which shouldn't be missed by any serious cinema fanatic... and it's viewing is highly rewarding, bringing you these uncanny emotions of embracing the acid vision or a dream – both important levels of the epoch's speech. "Two-Lane Blacktop" is indeed an unique piece of creative lunacy.

Monte Hellman was initially another chap, stepping up the ladder of Roger Corman's "shoot today & edit tomorrow" film school in the 60's, which served as a catapult for such personalities as: Francis Ford Coppola, Dennis Hopper, Martin Scorsese or Peter Bogdanovich. He was actually one of this legendary crowd, who glued together "The Terror" (1963) when Corman left it after shooting few nonsense scenes on leftover props from "The Raven" (1962). In 1965 Hellman managed to get $150,000 from Corman to direct two westerns almost simultaneously. They were "The Shooting" and "Ride in the Whirlwind", both starring Jack Nicholson, released in 1968 and considered first "acid westerns" in history – today explained as a bizarre cross of revisionist western and hippiesploitation movies. Although these pictures never made a huge blast leaping high over exploitation pot boilers with their enigmatic plot structure, they are fascinating works, which have lead directly to Hellman's early 70's cult classics like "Two-Lane Blacktop" or "Cockfighter" (1974).



By the time Universal agreed to finance the production of "Two-Lane Blacktop" and forked $850,000, Monte Hellman has been already loking into a firm script by William Corry, but felt it's essence was kind of subpar and should have been reworked to match his ideas. This was assigned to Rudolph Wurlitzer – a fresh writer who just published his experimental novel, Nog (1969) – and Floyd Mutrux, who never got the credit by losing his case in Writer's Guild. Wurlitzer rewrote the screenplay completely, coming up with a copy of a more sophisticated nature, leaving a lot of symbolic space to play around for Hellman. Almost all shots were taken on Route 66, before it was transformed into a transcontinental highway and lost it's mythical allure, and then... the main actors were actual cars: heavily tuned up Chevy '55 and a brand new Pontiac G.T.O. '70 – both machines representing diverse values of car culture.

The film hits as an experimental theatre on the road featuring two hot rodders without a name: The Driver (James Taylor – a cult singer) & The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson – The Beach Boys drummer) going after any fluke in their Chevy '55. They're not really into money when dragging, they're just simply looking for means to make next part of two-lane blacktop... always ahead in their machine, which seems undoubtedly a centre of the world due to Hellman's witty frames, catching it as purely alienating space. Director seems to say with his camera: "That's it, man. There's nothing else" as dialogues are scarce and usually involve running a car or it's technical problems (very nerdy stuff, understandable only for club members). Even when guys meet a young hippie girl – another Summer Of Love dropout – who sneaks into their car to get a lift, they are not destined to end in some place with her. It's just another part of the game.

Action gets raised when they meet Mr. G.T.O. (fantastic role by Warren Oates) - a Pontiac driver, a guy who takes the road challenge and a compulsive liar, who keeps fabricating exploits about his life, passing them to hitchhickers... all for sake of going further down the road as if he'd like someone to cover his lack of purpose. The only moment when he starts to unveil his identity happens during the race, at front of The Driver, who squashes him immediately... as nobody really cares on the road, especially if they're racing for the wheels and the only thing that matters is the moment – very 60's psychedelic, hot rod ZEN message indeed. As they travel across America, the emptiness of their lives becomes strikingly apparent, but it's the only thing left after countercultural dreams went under... a freedom to ride.

This bitterswitness, soaked in post-revolutionary depression is a crucial undercurrent here, making "Two-Lane Blacktop" such a great picture. Even if we desperately try to grasp the meaning, it sneaks away as soon as the characters make another 100 miles. We basically run in the passenger's seat for this whole time just to get, that there are no simple answers, light always comes with a shadow and life will keep carrying on, no matter if you've already moved on or you're still hanging in there... the ending of the movie stands out as one of the greates scenes of American auteur cinema movement being correspondingly bold and confusing.

Death Proof (2007)

Another part of Tarantino's and Rodriguez's concept double feature – Grindhouse, was named "Death Proof". After Rodriguez managed to wrap up the production of "Planet Terror", Quentin followed with his own idea of molesting drive-in fantasies, concerning mostly early 70's road movies & slasher classics. In a way he landed with a fine piece of modern exploitation movie as it ticks all the boxes... the only remaining question is who actually re-opened these boxes first? Was it Tarantino with "Jackie Brown" and "Kill Bill" – the latter one being basically a homage to Filipino early 80's exploitation movies like "Cleopatra Wong" or "The One Armed Executioner" – or were they Japanese artists like Takashi Miike or Kinji Fukasaku? I'd rather point to Japanese, cause one of the flicks, which pushed Tarantino to reinvent the genre, was in fact „Battle Royale”... but that's for journalists and book writers to cover.

One of good things about Tarantino's effort is that we don't really have to sweat in order to crack the easter eggs. We get shoved all names down our throats as the characters start chatting on the screen and just drop them. Direct inspirations for the basic road frame of "Death Proof" would be such classic films as: "Vanishing Point", "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" and "White Lightning" while a slasher factor embraced by the artist would probably wink at such cult 70's flicks as: "Bay of Blood", "Friday The 13th" or "I Spit On Your Grave". As it became a sort of sport in film journalism to chain-link as many titles as it's possible in your super cool review of any genre movie, I'm gonna stop my guess hunting here and get down to it!



I liked "Death Proof", which doesn't mean it was as good as Tarantino's other dishes. I was actually pretty far from fulfillment experienced by watching "Pulp Fiction", "Reservoir Dogs", "Inglourious Basterds" or even "Kill Bill". Having said that, it's entirely possible that "Death Proof" is the worst movie Quentin Tarantino ever made... but it still does the job by delivering the viewers a fresh take on a classic exploitation formula, which made it's comeback since! I'm gonna remind you that famous Roger Corman's formula consisted of three things – sex, action & humour! It came directly from working with American International Pictures, but then got developed even more when Roger started his own company – New World Pictures and knocked out many brainless flicks, considered cult movies today! As Tarantino has deep affinity for this old school of exploitation, he shot his own picture borrowing from it, but using modern standards and his own, wild imagination.

The plot of "Death Proof" is obviously very simple, because you cannot toss a New Giallo on the mass market these days. Sophisticated intrigue would make people drop on the floor in the theater from brain activity overload caused by tension. Tarantino just took the classics onboard and by playing around came with a story of a stuntman-killer named Mike, who has a passion for stalking & finally slashing hot chicks with his death proof car. Character played by Kurt Russell is a fine example of psychotic maniac, his role is as professional as it gets and might be seen as the biggest acting treat of the whole movie. Then we get to watch the chicks, a great package without a doubt. There are eight hot girls, while only four are to survive. As Mike hits the first four victims with his death machine – which gives Quentin an occasion to show this bloody sequence in a replay from many angles – ripped limbs are flying around in handfuls and gals die at the spot! The only thing for Mike to do afterwards is to jump the state as he cannot keep low profile in Texas anymore!

A scene changes and Mike is now in Tennessee. The time comes for real heroines – four smalltime actresses or stuntgirls. A protagonist of the pack is played by Zoe Bell – a professional stuntgirl, who was doing a double for Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" and thus was a perfect choice for a character of the stuntgirl (easy as that). In "Death Proof" Zoe really shows off her line of work skills by riding on the hood of Dodge Challenger speeding 180 mph and making sure that stuntman Mike will get what he deserves for his naughty behaviour! There are some good dialogue lines in the movie referring mostly to pop & film culture and great music, which saves the day! At least here Tarantino didn't drop below a certain level. The Coasters, Jack Nitzsche, Joe Tex and the whole world of surf, soul, pop rock and indie lost gems. Lap dance done to "Down In Mexico" is one of the very best scenes of "Death Proof" reminding me of cartoonish sleazy vibe of "From Dusk Till Dawn". What can I say? "Planet Terror" comes as a much better shit in Grindhouse package, but then even classic drive-in packages had their lower end. I'd recommend to opt out if you don't like watching exploitation revival flicks at all!