[Mister Pontiac]

Wow Lloyd, great detective work finding these episodes! I don't know about you guys, but I cringe inside when I see the Judge rear end that Bel Air before blowing thru the fence. Yikes!

That's interesting to see the 70 'vert as well. So many cool cars...

btw, sorry for not being in the loop on the Judge, but who owns the car today?

[richard sargent]

At about 21:43 in the Adam 12 episode, the quarter panel has a pretty bad kink it in and the rear bumper is pushed down. I wonder if that happened in TLB filming?

[richard sargent]

here ya go

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

"Two-Lane Blacktop" is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Some good car scenes, but it's boring, slow moving, poorly acted (except for Warren Oates), and overall a total disaster. Yet somehow, the critics seem to think it's a classic. Leonard Maltin gives it 3 stars out of 4, and that's the rating the cable channels use when they air it. So in Maltin's opinion, this POS movie is as much of a classic as Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, and a hundred other true classic films that made hundreds of millions of dollars and have spawned another billion dollars in sequels.

"Two-Lane Blacktop" is a 1/2 star movie, on par with "Plan 9 From Outer Space".

What's happened over the years is that because Maltin loved the movie, other reviewers feel like they missing something when they watch it, like it's too sophisticated for them to understand. So they analyze the movie, every line of it, as if it's poetry. They begin to interpret scenes and dialogue as if there's something more there than there really is.

So let's say there's a scene where the girl is quiet, staring out a window of the '55, a writer starts going into a whole description about how she's longing for true love, wandering the country, her parents don't care about her, she wants adventure, etc.

In reality, it's a lousy scene, no dialogue, there's nothing there.

Then you have modern writers using OTHER reviews from the past, and then they take their own intellectual slant on the dialogue and direction of the movie, as if that gives them credibility. Like they "see something" that others don't get.

No, it's just a horrible, boring, slow moving movie, only interesting for a few car scenes.

And this coming from me, a James Taylor and Beach Boys fan!

Apparently "Car Craft" didn't think too much of it either when it first came out....











K

[Jeff Hamlin]

I know this site should be old news but this link may be of interest, based on the direction this post is heading it contains 170+ images of Pontiacs from many films...

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=Pontiac&model=

[gtohurstjudge]

I'm sure most people on this board know this already, but for those of you
who don't......The black 55 chevy in the movie American Grafitti is the same car that
stars in Two Lane Blacktop......just has a new black paint job.

[geeteeohguy]

Starlight Black and Mechanic 17 know exactly what's going on. This movie, IMO, is an excellent reflection on what was going on in 1970-71 in the US. There is a lot more than what's on the surface, if you're a true "car guy". This is how it was....grimy, unvarnished, warts and all. I love the idea of the drummer of the Beach Boys buying an overhaul kit for a "1970 Quadrajet" and doing a roadside rebuild while Warren Oates falls asleep trying to steal a license plate. James Taylor has a few choice lines about the blandness of Detroit Iron...how they all look the same and "perform about the same." Great soundtrack, and an excellent performance by the late, great, Warren Oates.

[gto4evr]

somewhere about a year ago this GTO surfaced with a new member here. I can't seem to find the thread but I'm thinking he's in Canada or something?

unrelated car but I was crying when I saw the original Night of the livng dead from 1968 the other night and it starts off with them driving around in a 67 Lemans, then the chick rolls it into a tree crushing the drivers side. It was a horrible thing to watch. As bad as the first episode of that new AMC series "The Walking Dead" when they killed a 71 GTO Judge (abviously a clone but it was a T41 car regardless) What is it that zombies have against Pontiacs?!

[gtohurstjudge]

I can explain the problem with zombies and Pontiacs. The uninformed masses were
drawn to Fords , Chevies and Mopars back before the zombie plague hit, so it is only
natural that they would prefer Fords Chevies and Mopars after they became zombies.
It's just that when they become a zombie, due to the previous dislike of something special and unique, they become agressive towards the special and unique Pontiacs after the plague hits.
I suspect that they would dislike Hudsons and Studebakers as well.

[455Grandville]

Originally Posted by Ron Landis

I watch it just to listen to that M-22 whine! At least they got THAT right! Also...it's Oscar material compared to that "Fast and Bi-curious" comedic garbage. Had to use special effects to even make those cars look interesting...let alone fast.

Dumb movie, but it had some hot women. And Ron; you'd be surprised how fast some of the imports are running now at the strips and down on Hall street in St louis.

Probably the best race movies ever made were Lemans, Grand Prix, or Funny Car Summer.

[Ron Landis]

Originally Posted by gto4evr

somewhere about a year ago this GTO surfaced with a new member here. I can't seem to find the thread but I'm thinking he's in Canada or something?

unrelated car but I was crying when I saw the original Night of the livng dead from 1968 the other night and it starts off with them driving around in a 67 Lemans, then the chick rolls it into a tree crushing the drivers side. It was a horrible thing to watch. As bad as the first episode of that new AMC series "The Walking Dead" when they killed a 71 GTO Judge (abviously a clone but it was a T41 car regardless) What is it that zombies have against Pontiacs?!

we have some "zombies" here that hate GM...don't we? Must be outta the same "gene pool"! j/k...do not send this to the CH! Ron

[PonchoV8]

Originally Posted by Lloyd-TX

From "Kojak" season 1 (1974), episode 14 . . .

So the "drooping bumper" look is not just on my car.

[sal70lemans]

I remember seeing this movie for the first time on cable in the early/mid '80's and being completely oblivious to how bad it was simply because I was in love with the GTO Judge at that time. About five or six years ago a friend of mine bought a copy on DVD and let me borrow it and I watched it for the first time as an adult... WOW was it tough to sit through. Laughably bad movie (or maybe I'm just not that "deep"), but I still love that Judge and watched it anyway.

Scott

[PLAY400]

Pontiac version looks better

[gto4evr]

I found it. A year ago....three years ago....whatever! pretty interesting history.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...=556252&page=5

[70Steve]

First saw TLB on a crappy old video at the house of the bloke I bought my 70 GTO from. He had taped it off the TV at some ungodly hour and the quality was really bad. I was just excited that a 70 starred in it, but I also loved the real life American roadside in it as well.

Like Mike Noun mentioned, a movie reviewer out here also gave it a glowing report, it was Ivan Hutcheson's ( a popular and respected local movie reviewer) "Pick of the week" a few times, but it was always on at something like three am on a weeknight. Still have the video that I made and had cut out the review and stuck it on the case of the vid.

i know it is hard to watch, but there is something about the movie that gets me, not to mention the intrigue of the GTO. How can you not like a movie that has someone wiggling the ignition key to shut the damn annoying buzzer up? Or the scene where JT buys the 1970 Quadrajet rebuild kit, for what, 5 bucks plus tax? Or the very beginning, where the LA street racers are doing their thing? That took some real effort to hit the record button on time at 3am!

It wasn't available on video, or later DVD, for years either and that seemed to make the chance of watching it on TV some sort of holy grail.

The soundtrack is pretty good too, I knew it was Terry Allen singing on the GTO's stereo in the scene where they decide to race, but it drove me nuts trying to find what song it was. I eventually found it too, Truckload of art is the name, if you need to know. I even scored an original old Aussie TLB movie poster off ebay.

When I first got internet access there was nothing about Two Lane Blacktop out there, now you can retrace the movie in one of the 55's that has been found, saw the old Diamond T truck that the girl gets out of, it turned up on a farm somewhere, not to mention the 70 (or atleast one of them) right here on PY, turning up in Alaska.

I really enjoy the fact that the 70 featured in shows for years too, Adam 12 is running on TV at the moment and the few shows I've seen were the ones featuring the Judge, in fact Adam 12 is my new favourite car spotting show!

Just recently I got to see TLB on the big screen out here, that was really cool to sit and watch it, (some people in the cinema walked out though) the quality was really good too, almost like comparing crappy old taped video's to the new criterion release dvd...it was that good.

Geez, i rambled on a bit...guess I'm a fan of TLB.

[MikeNoun]

The street racing scene at the beginning of the movie was the highlight. After that, it's aimless and boring. Almost like they had no script, and winged it.

There WERE some great little scenes for us car guys. I love how Dennis Wilson casually unpins the fiberglass trunk and carefully lays it on the grass in a couple scenes. Also cool when they're in the gas station the first time, and the front end is flipped while Dennis checks out the engine. Also amusing was when it started pouring rain, Dennis reattaches the wiper blades.

Another great scene, but with a HUGE flaw, is when Dennis drives the 70 Judge (the girl is with him), and Warren Oates gets to ride in the '55. As they pull onto the road, Taylor and Wilson decide to race each other. As the '55 is winding up, Oates is getting pressed back in the seat, and the look on his face is priceless, as if he's truly scared to death. But the scene is killed when the Judge is running right along side, up to what appears to be about 100 mph. Why is Oates so shocked and scared in the '55 when his own car is just as fast?

The flaw here is that they should have had the '55 blowing the Judge away, by a dozen lengths, then it would have been believable when Oates exclaims "Ohhh...Sh*t!!!!" and looks scared as Taylor opens up the '55.

But from a movie standpoint, it's horrible. Slow and boring, with pointless dialogue sandwiched between long, uncomfortable silences, and James Taylor about as wooden as it gets. Thankfully, James went back to his music, and gave up trying to be a serious actor.

Dennis Wilson was great (and believable) as "The Mechanic", and Warren Oates showed once again how great of an actor he truly was. Oates is VERY underrated in my opinion. I've liked him in everything he's done, especially "Stripes".

"And Sergeant Hulka isn't always gonna be here to be that big toe for us. I think that we owe a big round of applause to our newest, bestest buddy, and big toe... Sergeant Hulka."

[Steve Hoog]

Mike

I might disagree with a highway comparison. I've had both Big Blocks and many Pontiacs; and a RAIV would probably pull just as hard from a running go. Obviously either could be built to a point of whooping the other; but the GTO is a stock RAIV which is no loser and the Big Block is what??? Mildly built 396 with quarter mile gears??? The GTO has 3.90 gears; so it will be a strong screamer up to about 115MPH where it falls on its face.

My point is they could easily be an equal match for their effective range.

[70Steve]

396?.......454. Lol.

[Steve Hoog]

70Steve

First I wouldn't believe one single thing that the movie people claimed the 55 motor to be; not one thing.

That being said; I have no idea what they claim was in it.

Now for reality; if you want to think the studio ran down to the local dealer and bought a brand new 454 over the counter, I guess that is possible if they were even available over the counter in 1970 ish. But more than likely they put in a 396 or 427 out of some pre 70 vehicle; and given the multitude of 396's, that is why I would guess 396.

But even so; if it was a 454 (which does make more power), I still say it would be an even match to the VI on a roll and go.