One of the ultimate road movies and a classic of minimalist Americana. See this along with Vanishing Point and Easy Rider to get the impression that American highways in the 1970s teemed with haunted loners who lived to drive and didn’t do much else. We learn remarkably little about the characters here, but the film is so beautifully made that we feel nestled in the passenger seat as they cruise past desert vistas and rural forests.
James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (each in their sole feature film acting roles) star as two friends who tool around the country and get in on street races in an old ’55 Chevy sedan that’s built like a tank and modified under the hood like a nuclear jet. They barely say a word to each other unless it’s about spark plugs and carburetors. Then there’s the great Warren Oates (the film’s only seasoned actor) who’s out doing the same thing, but all alone in a sleek lemon-yellow GTO. He loves to talk, but tells so many lies that we never know if anything he says is true.
The pivotal character here though is Laurie Bird as a wandering girl hitchhiker who manages to get the men to think about something other than cars for once. She’s a shaggy-haired beauty who looks like she smells of cinnamon incense and Dr. Pepper. Her presence provides the chord change in the dog-simple plot about a cross-country race to Washington DC between the Chevy and GTO.
It’s not exactly a love triangle story, though. These men aren’t big on emotions. The film isn’t even about the race to DC even. Above all, this is a film about cars, engines, roads, driving, and silence. It’s about traveling thousands of miles, but going nowhere. It’s about how gas stations and small town streets looked in 1971. It’s about nearly pitch black nights and big beautiful daytime skies.
Universal Studios treated the film like Hepatits C in 1971. They hated it and released it with next to no promotion. Critics took notice, though. Esquire famously went crazy for it, declaring it the best of the year and even publishing the screenplay in its entirety. Audiences ignored it, but over time the film found a devoted cult among cinephiles interested in the new wave of maverick American movies of the late 60s and early 70s, muscle car lovers, and people into the street racing scene, many of whom consider the film and its cars iconic.