Two Lane Blacktop (1971)

"Two Lane Blacktop" is a difficult film to describe. It's equally difficult to explain how I feel about it. I rented it from Netflix a few years ago because Dennis Wilson was in it and I love the Beach Boys. I watched it and didn't feel as if there was enough going on in the plot to hold my interest. Later, a film-buff friend of mine who's opinions I value raved about this movie in a discussion about Warren Oates and I felt like maybe I missed something. Criterion had a half-off "flash sale" a few months ago, so I picked this up on Blu-ray to watch again.

James Taylor (the driver) and Dennis Wilson (the mechanic) are two twenty-something gear-heads traveling the country in a souped-up '55 Chevy challenging locals to race for money. The two don't even seem to like each other, really, but their livelihood depends on their shared interest in the car. Stoic and soft-spoken, the two of them are codependent nomads existing from their racing winnings. Along their travels, they bump into Warren Oates (GTO) often enough that he thinks they're fucking with him. After a verbal confrontation, they agree to a cross-country race to Washington DC for pink slips. Oates is the complete opposite of Taylor and Wilson; brash and flashy, talking loud and saying nothing, driving a brand new 1970 GTO, but lacking any mechanical know how. While talking to hitchhikers he picks up along the way (including Harry Dean-Stanton), Oates' backstory story changes each time he tells it. He's a man on the run from his past, but no explanation is given as to why. There's also "The Girl", a bored and disconnected hitchhiking hippie played by Laurie Bird, starved for human contact, but finds herself surrounded by people who care only about their cars.

Director Monte Hellman's use of space might be too much for a lot of people. There are long periods where there is no dialogue and there really isn't a plot to speak of. The race to DC is the only real plot element and the people involved don't seem to care one way or the other how it turns out.   The characters don't even have names and are referred to only as "The Goat", "The Girl", etc.  As a road movie, we're treated to an abundance of great exterior shots. We see America as it will never be again, both in it's landscape and in the freedom the characters experience. While the illusion of freedom exists, the players are all trapped by either their interests, their past, or in the case of "The Girl", her present.

I liked this a great deal more than I did the first time around, but I still feel as if I'm missing a lot of what I'm supposed to be taking away from it. I tried to just enjoy it for what it is, and I did this time. Warren Oates is especially good in this, possibly my favorite role I've seen him in. I'm still not convinced this is the masterpiece people claim it to be, but that might change next viewing. If you liked "Easy Rider" but thought it was too "hippie", give this one a try.

4/5


 

Walkabout (1971)

A teenage girl and young boy are driven into the Australian outback by their father for a picnic. After inexplicably firing shots at them, torching his car and turning the gun on himself, the two are left to fend for themselves in the harsh conditions. Just when survival seems most unlikely, an Aboriginal teen finds them and helps them back to civilization.

It's a simple set-up, but there's a lot going on in this movie. The father's suicide is never explained, and while the older sibling (played by a very young Jenny Agutter) tries shielding the younger boy (director Nicholas Roeg's son, Luc) from reality, he's aware of the situation and seems to deal with it better than his sister. While the boy takes to the Aboriginal youth (David Gulpilil in his first role) immediately, even learning how to communicate with him, the older sibling makes no effort and communicates with him only through her brother. Sexual tension is made apparent through lingering upskirt shots and fixed gazes at Gulpilil's nearly naked body, but the girl doesn't act on it. Because all of Gulpilil's dialogue is in his native tongue, we can only guess at what he's saying. His attraction is more apparent than her's, though, and in a scene in which I assume he professes his love to her, her lack of reciprocation is quite clear. The closer they get to civilization, the less need she has for him.

This was Nicholas Roeg's first solo directing effort and his last cinematographer job. The latter is superb. The harsh, barren outback has never looked better; everything deceptively beautiful. The aforementioned lingering shots of Jenny Agutter, both in and out of her clothing, caused "Walkabout" to be slapped with an R rating on it's release. Nothing remotely sexual occurs on screen, though, so the ratings board eventually knocked it down to a PG. The shots were particularly pervy, though. That sort of stuff wouldn't fly in American cinema today. Roeg flexed his muscle as a director on this first outing, inserting multiple freeze frames and juxtaposing scenes of Aboriginal hunting with those of a butcher chopping meat in a shop. The number of animal deaths in this film were unnecessary to the telling of the story, likewise the graphic detail in which it's shown, but hunting is essential in surviving the outback. Vegetation is scarce, so meat is all there is. All of the performances were excellent, but especially so from Luc Roeg. How he could act so well at such a young age is a mystery. Nicholas had an eye fit talent, I guess.

This film leaves me with many questions, even after multiple viewings. I've watched this several times looking for an explanation for the suicide, but haven't found one. I suppose it's possible there aren't meant to be answers to those unanswered questions. Who knows? I only know that I've thoroughly enjoyed this every time I've watched it and will watch it several more times in years to come.

5/5

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Shit like this is the reason I can't throw my full support behind this movie.

This is only my second time seeing "A Clockwork Orange". The first time was at some point in the late 90s. Well before that, I was aware of it's reputation of being a stylized, violent masterpiece and hearing it was banned in certain countries (true or not, I  never bothered looking into), but it fell flat with me when I finally got to see it - mostly because of how vocal people were with telling me how great it was. These were the same people, mind you, who would go on and on about how great the Misfits were, and I could never get into them, either. Recently I bought a 3 pack of Kubrick's films on Blu-Ray, so I revisited it today for the first time in almost two decades.

It wasn't as stupid as I remembered it being, but Alex's narration was still mostly annoying to me. I've gotten to know some British people in the past few years by chatting with them online, and I guess they do talk like morons a lot of the time. No clue as to how exaggerated Alex's dialogue was compared to how people really spoke to one another in those days, but it bordered on "baby talk" most of the time. I know people love Kubrick for how stylized his films are, but the costumes and set designs really date this and often distract from the story itself. Sure, we all like seeing milk pour from the teats of ceramic women at milkbars, but what did it have to do with the movie, really? And those white jumpsuits and masks were fucking stupid, admit it. Every time I see those things I think of that shitty punk band, The Adicts. Fuck that band.

Those things aside, the movie was pretty enjoyable. Everybody's seen it by now, so there's no point in recounting the plot. The movie really takes off for me in the second half when he's in prison. The prison guard that looked like Michael Palin and sounded like John Cleese was awesome. The whole bit with the Ludivico Treatment was great and I like that he came into contact with characters from the first half of the film again towards the end. I know Wes Craven said "Last House on the Left" was sort of a remake of "Virgin Spring", but there was a similar sort of thing going on in this movie released only a few years before. Wendy Carlos' score was excellent. The cat lady's low-brow porno artwork was excellent as well (see below).

Alan Clarke probably could have made this book into something I would have enjoyed a whole lot more. I probably wont feel the need to revisit this for another 20 years or so, but I liked it okay. As far as "essential" movies go, this one was pretty "meh". I enjoyed "2010: A Space Odyssey" from this set a lot more. 

3/5