Two-Lane Blacktop

Two-Lane Blacktop
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Monte Hellman
Produced by	Michael Laughlin
Written by	Rudolph Wurlitzer Will Corry (also story)
Starring	James Taylor Warren Oates Laurie Bird Dennis Wilson
Music by	Billy James
Cinematography	Jack Deerson
Edited by	Monte Hellman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	July 7, 1971 (US)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$875,000

Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, the Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. "Blacktop" means an asphalt road.

Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, and even published the entire screenplay in its April 1971 issue, but the film was not a commercial success. The film has since become a counterculture-era cult classic. Brock Yates, organizer of the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (better known as the Cannonball Run) cites Two-Lane Blacktop as one source of inspiration for the creation of the race, and commented on it in his Car and Driver column announcing the first Cannonball.

Two-Lane Blacktop is notable as a time capsule film of U.S. Route 66 during the pre-Interstate Highway era, and for its stark footage and minimal dialogue. As such, it has become popular with fans of Route 66. Two-Lane Blacktop has been compared to similar road movies with an existentialist message from the era, such as Vanishing Point, Easy Rider, and Electra Glide in Blue.

In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."