Two-Lane Blacktop

Two men who exist only to drive race a middle-aged fantasist across the country for pink slips, and almost nothing is said. Monte Hellman strips the road movie down to engines, asphalt and silence, and casts two musicians who can barely act, which is somehow correct.

It flopped, baffled its studio, and became the quiet cornerstone of American car cinema. The ending, in which the film itself appears to catch fire in the projector, is one of the great final images.

Hypnotic, empty in the best way, and utterly uncommercial.