Two-Lane Blacktop
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 7, 1971 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
89
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatStaff (Not Credited)
This minimalist masterpiece is one of the greatest American films to come out of the 1970’s. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Certainly not an average car chase movie, Two-Lane Blacktop is perhaps director Monte Hellman's finest film. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Hellman gives viewers plenty of time to study every detail, dwelling less on action than on quiet, small-town vistas, rundown diners, and forgotten stretches of Route 66. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
While some of the second-generation road movies are interesting, few have retained the hypnotic force of Two Lane Blacktop, an intense curio of a troubled era. Read full review
100
EmpireDamon Wise
This is not a film about narrative but loneliness and life on the road, which it captures with a mysterious brilliance. Read full review
100
The GuardianPhilip French
Two-Lane Blacktop should have established Hellman as one of the great directors of his generation. Instead, its box-office failure made him an enduring cult figure. Read full review
100
IndieWireVikram Murthi
Two-Lane Blacktop is primarily a mood piece, and Hellman wants the audience to be imbued with the uneasy feeling of living without any roots. It’s that feeling that’s elevates Two-Lane Blacktop far beyond genre trappings and into the heights of cinema. Read full review
90
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
An excellent combination of in-depth contemporary story-telling and personality casting. Read full review
90
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
It's absolutely riveting. Read full review
90
SlateElbert Ventura
A movie that looks off into the distance and keeps its gaze there, Two-Lane Blacktop is a lean and melancholy beauty. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The movie starts off as a narrative but gradually grows into something much more abstract—it's unsettling but also beautiful. Read full review
80
The New York TimesVincent Canby
Two-Lane Blacktop is a far from perfect film (those metaphors keep blocking the road), but it has been directed, acted, photographed and scored (underscored, happily) with the restraint and control of an aware, mature filmmaker. Read full review
80
The New YorkerRichard Brody
In Hellman’s film, Taylor and Wilson exert a negative charisma: their presence is both powerful and blank, deeply expressive in its neutrality. They offer one of the few original post-sixties reconfigurations of the movie star. Their manner is a perfect match for the story, and for the mythic, symbolic landscape in which it’s set. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
What I liked about Two-Lane Blacktop was the sense of life that occasionally sneaked through, particularly in the character of G.T.O. (Warren Oates). Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJoseph Jon Lanthier
America exploded in the ’60s; Two-Lane Blacktop is the post-apocalyptic road trip. Read full review
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