| Notes | Criterion Collection Blu-ray edition
Drag racing east from Los Angeles in a souped-up ’55 Chevy are the wayward Driver and Mechanic (singer-songwriter James Taylor and the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson, in their only acting roles), accompanied by a tagalong Girl (Laurie Bird). Along the way, they meet Warren Oates’s Pontiac GTO–driving wanderer and challenge him to a cross-country race. The prize: their cars’ pink slips. But no summary can do justice to the existential punch of Two-Lane Blacktop. With its gorgeous widescreen compositions and sophisticated look at American male obsession, this stripped-down narrative from maverick director Monte Hellman is one of the artistic high points of 1970s cinema, and possibly the greatest road movie ever made.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Monte Hellman, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, supervised by Hellman and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
Two audio commentaries: one by Hellman and filmmaker Allison Anders and one by screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer and author David N. Meyer
Interviews with Hellman, actor James Taylor, musician Kris Kristofferson, producer Michael Laughlin, and production manager Walter Coblenz
Rare screen test outtakes
Performance and Image, a look at the restoration of a ’55 Chevy used in the movie and the film’s locations in 2007
Color Me Gone, photos and publicity from the film
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones; plus appreciations by director Richard Linklater and musician Tom Waits (Blu-ray only), and a 1970 on-set account from Rolling Stone by Michael Goodwin (Blu-ray only); and Wurlitzer’s screenplay (first-edition DVD only)
New cover by Marc English |
