In the wake of every race there lies a place and a person that will be missed. Hellman's existential fable about a driver, a mechanic, a girl and a square becomes the amalgamation of the American Dream and its boundaries. Ultimately it's about the places you never saw and the people you've never met.<br /><br />"Two-Lane Blacktop" is a benchmark film in every possible way. Beautifully shot and edited it hurtles towards an incredible anti-climax. Singer James Taylor, Beach Boys-Drummer Dennis Wilson and the wonderful Warren Oates (who was Tommy Lee Jones before Tommy Lee Jones) race and pine through the American vastness in search of, well, that's anybody's guess.<br /><br />I doubt a single Hollywood Studio would finance a movie like this today. Which is all the same, since Hellman has already made it, and with the Criterion release the road-dreamers of this and the last century can cherish it, before they get into their 55 Chevy to head out again.<br /><br />See you out there...with the shut down strangers and hot rod angels.