Panida hosts two car-themed screenings for Lost in the ’50s

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

Sandpoint’s car-centered civic holiday Lost in the ’50s will take over downtown from Thursday, May 15-Saturday, May 17, and the Panida Theater is also getting in on the action with screenings of Two-Lane Blacktop and Cars.

The former is a cult classic 1971 road action flick starring Dennis Wilson and James Taylor as “the mechanic” and “the driver,” respectively, who blaze across the American Southwest in their souped up ’55 Chevy 150 two-door sedan challenging any and all comers to white-knuckle drag races.

Things get exciting when Wilson’s and Taylor’s characters pick up a young woman (Laurie Bird) while heading aimlessly east from California, sparking a jealous love triangle. Meanwhile, a hell-for-leather GTO driver (Warren Oates) accepts the challenge of a cross-country race to New York with their cars as the ultimate prize.

Cars. Courtesy photo.

Though Two-Lane Blacktop was a hit with many critics, it didn’t make much money; however, in the following decades, the film earned a cult following and has been reassessed by movie aficionados as an important entry in the “New Hollywood” movement, with an entry in the National Film Registry for its cultural, historic and aesthetic significance.

The Panida will screen Two-Lane Blacktop on Friday, May 16 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5, available at panida.org or the box office (300 N. First Ave.). 

The next day, on Saturday, May 17, the Panida will bring the 2006 animated film Cars to the big screen at 1 p.m., also for $5 available online and at the door, which opens 30 minutes before both film showings.

Thanks to the Pixar Cars franchise, it’s hard to imagine a time when the idea of anthropomorphic vehicles was a novelty. 

Since the original film came out in 2006, the wheeled residents of Radiator Springs have featured in a total of three standalone features, six short films and series, 10 video games and have an entire section devoted to them in the Disney California Adventure theme park. (None of that is to mention the various spin-offs and shorts stemming from Planes.)

For those unfamiliar with the Cars premise, the story follows a hotshot race car named Lightning McQueen whose self-centered, over-ambitious attitude is challenged after getting waylaid in sleepy Radiator Springs on his way to a big race.

With an all-star cast of voice actors including the likes of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, George Carlin, Michael Keaton, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger, Jay Leno and no less than Mario Andretti, Cars is a tale of unexpected friendship and how slowing down can also lead to big wins.