The 1971 cult film “Two-Lane Blacktop,” which starred a young James Taylor and was shot in several spots on Route 66, was released a few days ago as a two-disc set by the Criterion Collection.
Amazon.com has it here for $29.99, a discount of about 10 bucks.
Warren Clements of the Toronto Globe and Mail has a good overview of the film. Seeing it a few years ago, I found it tedious and even a bit sleazy — the romantic interest “The Girl” looked like she was barely out of middle school. The car was cool, though.
The film is for Route 66 completists only.
Here’s the film’s original trailer:
This is a bio from IMDB of the actress who played “the Girl”…
“Laurie Bird was a cute and charming actress who appeared in only three pictures during her regrettably short-lived career. Bird was born on September 26, 1953 in Long Island, New York. Laurie was working as a model when she was chosen by director Monte Hellman from nearly 500 women to portray the Girl in “Two-Lane Blacktop.” Bird gave a fine and impressively natural performance in her film debut as the chatty and rootless hippie wanderer the Girl in Hellman’s extraordinary road movie masterpiece. She was likewise excellent as Harry Dean Stanton’s snippy young wife Dody Burke White in Hellman’s bleakly fascinating character study “Cockfighter.” Following her small role as Paul Simon’s L.A. girlfriend in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” Laurie quit acting altogether and became a photographer. Bird committed suicide in boyfriend Art Garfunkel’s Manhattan penthouse at the tragically young age of 25 on June 15, 1979. Garfunkel dedicated his album “Scissors Cut” to Laurie. The album features a partial photograph of Laurie Bird on its back cover.”