American Graffiti

I was born at the beginning of the next decade--1970--yet "American Graffiti" was a chord that rippled throughout my life.

My father, who, like George Lucas, grew up in California's Central Valley, said this movie perfectly captured what it was like to grow up there--street cruising, hot rodding, picking up chicks, pulling pranks. Though this movie necessarily sidesteps the boredom inherent in growing up in the pesticide-choked San Joaquin Valley, the place itself is not as important the time it explores. It was a time just before the 1960s descended into the beginning of the end of American culture--the prototypical middle America that existed in almost all its small towns and now has substantively disappeared thanks to the urbanization and suburbanization of much of this country.

The ensemble cast, including so many that went on to become hugely successful in Hollywood--Ron Howard, Cindy Williams (well, with Laverne & Shirley at least), Richard Dreyfuss, and of course Harrison Ford (not to mention Lucas himself)--is handled with great skill from such a young director and reinforces the mystery why Lucas has so horribly mishandled Star Wars Eps. I and II. Lucas simply has been at the Ranch too long and his brilliant career has arrived parked in the garage at a large, entirely perfunctory business and media empire.

Anyway, regardless of Lucas' drift far away from the cutting edge, "American Graffiti" still stands as a kind of monument to his precocity. It is the kind of movie that hits every note with effortless precision, which I think is less the effort of great editing as it is a combination of youthful exuberance and actors and a director at essentially the beginning of their ascent as some of the best in the business.

This movie also withstands the test of time simply because it works magically both for those who have no particular emotional connection to the '60s and for those who were there on nearly equal levels. There is tremendous humor and naturalistic character play and dialog that few can help but be drawn into. Anyone with any sense of history will acknowledge that all the characters are standing at the edge of the deflowering and self-destruction of America in the '60s. It is a time of tremendous innocence, change, and harrowing decisions. The Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, and Vietnam haven't happened yet.

With Iraq and terrorism chewing at our consciousness every day, it's pretty easy for modern youth to identify and yearn for the nostalgia of such innocence.

In 1962, I was 19 years old. So, don,t ask me if I can relate to the movie American Graffiti. Music, emotions, friends, drive-ins, THAT WAS MY LIFE.. . and many scenes remind me of that good time, before making adult decisions.

Darn, Curt leaves friends and family to persue studies in the East. I left friends and family to start my carreer as a jounalist in a small town weekly newspaper in 1963. And YES, I sured danced to music and songs provided by a real little musical groups. The Platters were standard fare for slow dances. Those sock ups dances in gymnasiums were soooooo full of different kinds of emotions. My Wolfman Jack was Joey Reynolds, then a fast talking DJ, at WKBW, in Buffalo, that came in strong at night in Montreal. And yes, I went back years later to my old high school to walk in the halls, like Curt, and remember ... remember friends that I still had and those that had moved into their own world of responsabilities and out of mine. All the songs in me movie can stick to something I lived listening to them, as they came out, got airplay and made me dance or fall in love, if not both. My Mel'S Drive In was a A & W drive in and, yes, in our gang there was a 1957 Chevrolet, with a boosted motor under the hood. Milner would have loved to drive it. I could go on and on.... Don't ask me if it's a great movie. For me, it's a window on my youth and, darn, did I have a great time. So, for me, the movie is GREAT !. I always watch it with a broad smile on my face. No nostalgia goose bumps for me. Life is great also today but when I watch American Graffiti, I have the immense pleasure of reliving my teenage years and enjoy the magic of them, with all my heart and soul. Thanks Lucas !!!!

As many people know, George Lucas is most famous for the fact that he wrote a certain series of fantasy films. Most of those films certainly were a great achievement, but one thing that many Star Wars fans overlook is the other entries in Lucas' list of directorial credits; one of which is this film, American Graffiti. The movie tells the story of the last night in town for a bunch of school kids about to leave to go to college. Now, this might not seem like a great base for a classic movie to work from; and it isn't, it's the handling that makes it great. In spite of his latest batch of movies, Lucas has shown with this movie that he has the talent to create an innovative and groundbreaking movie in spite of the plot. It's this fact that made Star Wars work so well, and it's nice to see the same effort transplanted into an earlier film that doesn't have the special effects and grandiose that Star Wars had. The energy and vitality that Lucas gives his multiple stories makes for a great ride, and American Graffiti is a lot of fun throughout.

The film is most notable for the way that it captures the American youth of the sixties. It benefits from a great soundtrack that adequately helps to achieve this, and includes the likes of Buddy Holly and The Beach Boys. The film takes place in one night, and makes use of a number of different characters and story lines; all of which are interesting and unique. A lot of which are also really funny, and this is where my favourite part of American Graffiti comes in. The film works because it's such a good time, and the way that Lucas shows us that ensures that we have just as good a time as the characters on screen are having. The events that befall the characters in the movie will no doubt touch a nerve with anyone that has gone through childhood - things such as splitting up with your girlfriend, to being forced into doing things that could get you into trouble...all the way to asking an adult to go into a store to buy alcohol for you are shown with great care, and show that Lucas obviously knew what he was doing when he took on this movie. On the whole...it's very good stuff indeed.

This is the ground-breaking work by George Lucas, loosely based on his friends and his experiences as a teenager living in the San Joaquin Valley at the beginning of the 1960s, a time of gentle naiveté and innocence. There are no words to describe the edgy sweetness and humor that permeates this ensemble story of friends and enemies, jocks, brains, and punks maneuvering through the stultifying heat of the last weekend of summer vacation, 1962.

American Graffiti is a comedy, a drama, a tragedy, a musical, and a reminder of what small-town America once was, a mere forty years ago. From its breezy humor to its excruciating last moments (I remember theater-goers stunned in their seats, sobbing after the credits were done), Lucas's first major hit hits home. American Graffiti is pure magic.

While born three years after the events in the film, I could still relate to the plight of being a teenager on the threshold to adult life. I think it takes a pretty insensitive person not to be captivated by this excellent movie (boring? - because just one car blew up, or what?!). This was the 3rd or 4th time I saw it, and it is just getting better. It is unusual to see filmmaking of this caliber coming from Hollywood (not least when considering Lucas' latest offering - blech!), but like movies like "The Year My Voice Broke" and "My Life as a Dog", "American Graffiti" tells us something about where we came from, without being dull or preachy. ***½ out of ****