Burning Up

The 1971 film Two-Lane Blacktop, directed by Monte Hellman presents itself as almost the antithesis of the traditional road film. Lacking a true narrative and have a more meandering pace, the story follows The Drive, the Mechanic, GTO and the Girl, among others, as they drive around the United States under the guise of drag racing. By reducing the characters and acting down to the bare-bones, the film gives off an off-putting vibe with no true ending and at the same time gives something greater.

As the film ends, we see The Driver beginning a race after the girl leaves. He begins the race set up and gets into his car, closing the window which gives a echoing slam. The music and engine noise around him fades as he focuses forward. As he begins to drive the film moves to freeze frame and burns up.

To discuss this more clearly let me reference two things. The first the the movies own internal characterization of the Driver. Like many other characters he comes off as flat, almost masking by emotion. Around the 32:20 mark he makes a speech about how bugs come from the grounds to mate and then die much like his own relationship to the girl. And yet the film, through acting, music, mise-on-scene , seems to actively suppress this emotion for the characters.

This brings me back to the films ending, how the film burns. Driver has slammed his window shut, almost like closing a coffin, and has insulated himself from the outside world's affect on him. In many ways hes not only blocking the outside but preventing the inner world of emotions and desires out. He has trapped himself in a coffin, that is his car, and begins to stall and burn up as symbolized by the films burning.

Now my second point. As this films was created during the Hollywood Renaissance it can say it drew influence from the art cinemas of Europe. This burning reminds me of Inmar Bergman's 1967 film Persona, which predates this film by almost four years. In Persona, towards the middle of the film, the stock burns after an emotion crux and gives way to a non-narrative set of images that do not truly relate to the plot. This film shares many elements with Two-Lane Blacktop; both feature the lack of a true narrative and contain a “flat” character dealing with the world.

A layout of the burning film stock from Persona (Bergman 1967), which is a "home film"

Where they differ is that Persona begins to show its two characters, Alma and Elisabeth, can not exist fully where one is masking their emotions and feelings, like the Driver is, and thus the relationship becomes one of the parts they bring and the film can revel in that. Two-Lane Blacktop refuses to engage into this, it breaks this with the more emotional and free Girl leaving and Drive shutting himself in his car.

And thus we are left with burnt film. Film burns, back when we used celluloid film stock, when it becomes trapped in a projector. The Driver is no different except that his projector is the car he races.