The Fast and the Furious, but it’s not supposed to be. The sometimes awkward dialogue and the less-than-stellar acting from two American pop-music icons
can distract viewers. Even still, all of the gaffes make the movie feel somehow more genuine and raw.
More important to some than capturing the American experience,
Two-Lane Blacktop literally captures street racing of the early 1970s. Similar to how
American Graffiti encapsulated car culture in the 1960s, Two-Lane Blacktop expertly, if not accidentally, paints a wholly accurate picture of the cars that dominated local streets and drag strips. Most notably, the opening sequence features cameos from members of The Brotherhood of Street Racers and Willie Robinson’s 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona. Even for its idiosyncratic, art-school approach to dialogue and character development, Hellman’s work will stand the test of time at the very least for its accurate depiction of its era.