Wednesday, April 23, 2008
ROAD TRIP
At long last, I have seen the wonderful, long unavailable, road film
with James Taylor, Dennis Wilson and Warren Oates, a favorite of mine.
There are even great supporting bits by Clu Gulager and Harry Dean Stanton (as a gay pickup cowboy).
Oh yes. There is a girl. Laurie Bird. A mild distraction.
This film is so easy.
It flows along with the road trip the two car freaks are taking. They earn their living by betting on small drag races. Town to town. Across the country and back.
They encounter Oates who has a late model Pontiac GTO, stock. High powered.
He is such a wonderful blowhard. They get him into a long distance race from Texas to Washington DC.
There are many many side trips.
This film proves that it is the journey and not the destination.
I just got embraced by the whole thing. Gently taken along for the ride.
Very nice.
Nothing happens and everything does.
There is not a lot of talk. The director Monte Hellman is a past master at "show don't tell".
The film was only out for a short time in 1971. Then it went out of circulation and was very hard to get. I was never able to see it or think to look for VCR versions, if any.
This restoration by Criterion is just like new. I think that it is 16 mm.
It has been difficult to get it through Netflix. First a 'very long wait", then a "long wait" and now, I have seen it.
I am glad.
This is a 4 out of Netflix5 easy. Maybe 5 after it sinks in.
Labels: film
