by Mark Rabinowitz (July 2, 2007)
In town to screen his 1971 road trip masterpiece "
Two-Lane Blacktop," director
Monte Hellman gave one of the best intros I've ever seen. He started off with a little joke: "Most filmmakers usually do not have the time to think about what the film is about; when people ask me I usually say about an hour and three quarters..." Many yuks ensued! To the delight of film fans everywhere, Hellman also announced an upcoming two-disc DVD from the
Criterion Collection, for which he's been shooting new documentary material, including an interview with
Kris Kristofferson about how his song,
Me and Bobby McGee, and how its themes of freedom have become so closely associated with the film. Hellman also discussed the fact that because of the nature of the film, he was able to shoot it in sequence, but only gave the script to the actors page by page. Star
James Taylor was not exactly enamored by that approach and "about halfway through the film [he] became upset about this and said he would mutiny and would not act any more unless I gave him the script," recounted Hellman, continuing "I gave him the script and he never read it. To this day he still has not seen the film." [Mark Rabinowitz]