Two-Lane Blacktop : Powerful film (spoilers + interpretation)

Powerful film (spoilers + interpretation)

Excellent film, one of my favorites. I can feel the raw power, tension, anger running through my veins after watching it. It's a car movie but it's so much more than that. It's a film about people who cannot stay still.

First of all we have the driver and the mechanic. They are mysterious characters, cool, reserved, calculating, and unpretentious. This is in stark contrast to all the other hot-headed racers with their fancy cars. These two do not fit in amongst this crowd or anywhere else. They are driving across the country from nowhere to nowhere, funding their survival as they go. We may assume they are hoping to find something better, some kind of ultimate destination, but the film gives little hope for their future. When the driver retorts "you can never go fast enough", the film is suggesting they will never be allowed to sit still, they will continue accelerating indefinitely.

Next we have the girl. She is on a similar quest, hitchhiking with strangers and hoping to find a magical ticket to a better life. Although she takes a liking to the driver and mechanic, she becomes disillusioned with them and realizes that they cannot provide what she needs. When she takes off and places her future in the hands of yet another stranger we can only imagine she is on the same endless quest as the others. The tragedy is that they must part ways despite searching for the same thing.

Finally we have G.T.O. He continually lies and provides comic relief to the tension, but we can't forget that he's on essentially the same quest. Perhaps his story is the most depressing of all as he's older than the others and is in over his head as far as cars and racing goes, suggesting he's in some peril. His perpetual optimism and weaving of fantastic stories becomes evident as nothing but mad desperation. He tries to connect with numerous hitchhikers but finds nobody compatible. Everyone is wrapped up in their own lives and he has nothing.

The driver, mechanic, and G.T.O began their race out of ego. The race is eventually prolonged inevitably, almost as though neither wants to win anymore. Perhaps they both realize that whoever loses will face great loss/destruction and whoever wins will not solve any of their problems. There is no happy ending in sight.

The tension the film mounts throughout is quite unnerving. In the final scene, the driver's anger builds to an unprecedented level which melts the film itself (the same technique seen in The Marathon Family). What is powerful is that his anger is not simply a whimsical emotion experienced by most people, it's rather his deepest life force straining against his reserve, threatening to burst out and potentially destroy him.

This is a serious film and I find it quite beautiful, haunting, and even a little inspiring. The story is the same old story of people who don't fit in well in the immediate world, who travel around in search for something more substantial. These are people who suffer through life in ways that most people do not understand, and that's why the film will never be widely appreciated or understood. Such people never are. In practice a few such people will eventually overcome their challenges and reach greater heights. Others will be lost forever and can only be viewed as sacrifices. In the end we respect these people for the potential they represent, feel their strong emotions, and recognize that we are in many ways on analogous journeys ourselves. It is necessary to travel far and fast to get somewhere, but traveling far and fast in itself does not guarantee reaching any destination. Tension is the beautiful stimulus for all action.



~ Observe, and act with clarity. ~

Re: Powerful film (spoilers + interpretation)

Man and wow...you really caught the big picture!;)

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Re: Powerful film (spoilers + interpretation)

"Very nice interpretation, eikosaedron"
seconded!

"well here we are on the road"

"yup that's where we are all right"

Re: Powerful film (spoilers + interpretation)

Wow. You are much deeper than me, my friend. Did you watch it orginally for the cars or for the plot?

Re: Powerful film (spoilers + interpretation)

I saw this film when I was a teenager in the 90's and I fell asleep missing the middle portion of it. I thought it was boring but I also knew there was something special about it.

I recently watched it again and this time it struck me. I was left with a feeling that I had just saw something exceptional and experienced what few people ever do. There are only a few movies like this and I'm lucky enough to have seen it.

I still couldn't put my finger on it as to what about it was so profound. There isn't anyone I know who can appreciate it for what it is and that initially was a factor in why I liked it so much. My grasp of the ending was/is that The Driver is upset with losing the girl but wastes no time to get back to doing what he does which is drive. But now he does it with more fervor.

* I killed god and all I got was this awesome signature!
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