Two-Lane Blacktop 1971

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: This exciting existentialist road movie by Monte Hellman, with a swell script by Rudolph Wurlitzer and Will Corry and my favorite Warren Oates performance, looks even better now than it did in 1971. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: It came nowhere close to the numbers on Easy Rider, but it is so much more worthwhile as a film. Indeed, I'm going to push my luck and say there has never been a better film about sweaters. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Some of the racing and road scenes, and the visual texture of the movie, make it worth seeing. Read more

Tom Milne, Time Out: It's absolutely riveting. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: The strange and sometimes pathetic world of barnstorming, hustling street-racing is explored with feeling by director-editor Monte Hellman. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Two-Lane Blacktop is a movie of achingly eloquent landscapes and absurdly inert characters. Read more