warren oates play a gto driver who and on his road east and challenge two car nut for pink slip . the first to get to washington d. c. win the other car . the two young guy have also pick up a girl on their way and or more accurately and she just get in their car and no question ask while who she be and where she go and nada . she just tag along for the ride . all four major character be drifter and men ( and woman ) with no name and and their credit title reflect that represent g. t. o. and the driver and the mechanic and the girl . theyre part of a long tradition of genre anti hero and drifter and outcast and that include the like of sanjuro ( yojimbo ) and the man with no name . however they face the same paradox every cinematic anti hero face represent by separate themselves from society and by refuse to sit still and conform and theyre free while it just them and the engine revving and the road . the problem be that even though they be free and they do not seem to realize it . they keep try to define themselves through society value . a warren oates mus about settle down represent if i be not ground pretty soon and i be gon na go into orbit . the only thing that still permit these people identity and a place in society be through their car . if the end be a symbolic representation of this moral double bind that push them into two opposite direction and only monte hellman know . the reason i be muse about character in a car movie however be simple . two lane blacktop be not just about the race between a 1955 chevy and a 1970 pontiac . and that probably why the movie meander seemingly aimlessly in place and a if in a trance . it not a racing movie . it doesn not try to be a tight and grip thriller . in that light and the sometimes slow pacing becomes part of what define the movie . it feel more like some sort of existential journey through 70 america . but the beauty ( and hellman talent ) be that he refuse the easy way out of obvious allegory ( the kind of which jarmusch use in dead man ) . thing be pretty much open and leave for interpretation . but a the two car cross country on their way to washington d. c. and hellman capture the zeitgeist of the time in a unique way . i do not know how this slice of americana look in the eye of american and but for a european like me and it paint the country in the same mythic colour sergio leone movie do . the difference be this be not a reconstruction of a time and era see through the eye of a fascinated european director and but real location and people . in any way and two lane blacktop be closer to vanish point than go in 60 second . a superb road movie on all count and more than a road movie .