| A classic Road Movie released in 1971 and directed by Monte Hellman. It was
made almost entirely with non-professional actors, and is peopled
exclusively by characters with no names.
Two drag racers played by folk singer James Taylor ('The
Driver') and Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson drive a primer
grey 55 Chevy ('The Car') across the American South West. They
display a fanatical devotion to the vehicle and little in the way of
conversation passes between them.
Somewhere along the way the pick
up a hitchhiker ('The Girl') (played by 17 year old high school
graduate Laurie Bird) who just gets in the car and is accepted
without question. Then at a Gas Station in New Mexico they meet the
character known as 'GTO' - named after his car, a bright yellow 1970
GTO. Played by Warren Oates (the only professional actor in the main
cast) who gives a fantastic performance as an aging playboy undergoing a midlife crisis who
takes an instant dislike to 'The Driver' and 'The Mechanic',
though like them he also shares an obsession with his car - they
challenge each other to Washington, D.C, a race for 'Pink Slips' - the ownership of
the others vehicle
The film then follows their progress in the race through a landscape
of small-town diners and gas stations. As is common with the genre
the journey becomes a metaphor for the search for meaning and the
two sets of characters become intertwined, helping each other with
repairs and so forth with the race eventually being abandoned somewhere
near Memphis,having lost it purpose somewhere along the way.
Of particular note in this film is the sense of a tired alienation
achieved in part by the directors technique of subjecting his (non)
actors to a series of punishing re-takes, only allowing them to see the
script a few pages at a time, resulting in a series of (world) weary
performances. Sound also plays an important part in the movie, though
their is no sound track, instead it is entirely supplied by the sound of
the cars and the music the characters listen to as they drive along.
The film also has Harry Dean Stanton as 'Oklahoma Hitchhiker'.
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