pauleasterday

This film perfectly captures high school life and its bittersweet ending. The characters are all so recognizable - the jock, the tough-guy gear head, the frustratingly virtuous girlfriend, the boyfriend who can't wait for the virtuous girlfriend, the insecure guy who doesn't fit in, the easy girl and, of course the confused aimless guy with lots of potential and serious questions about whether that potential will ever be tapped.

I could say that Kurt's character was like most of us coming of age in the fifties, sixties and seventies (I don't profess to know what its like to grow up now, and I shudder to think), but I think we can all relate to most of these characters. I've been the popular guy (Steve), the brainy guy (Kurt), the hood (Milner & the Pharaohs) and the dork (Terry). I dated the good girl who wasn't so good but not quite bad enough, the girl who was willing, but who's sexual experience came at a social price that her boyfriends would never pay.

This movie shows the point at which all that changes. With few exceptions whoever you were, whatever you did in high school would change dramatically afterward and you could feel it coming. College offered a chance to remake yourself in a positive way, maybe the beginning of a great career or just finding the group of people that you could feel comfortable with, who wouldn't question your actions or ridicule your personality. Likewise, staying home offered other changes such as joining the work force, getting married or just hanging around like you did as a high schooler but without the social acceptance. Whichever choice you made, doubts and fear permeated your feelings toward the future.

The ending music to American Graffiti is the Beach Boy's 'All Summer Long', a sweet song with a slight regret about the return to school in the Fall, is made deeper and much sadder in the context of the ending of the freedom and innocence we all have before we have to face the adulthood and the knowledge that there will be no more Summers.

Not a great flick, but interesting to see that conflicts between foreign occupiers and arab locals has been going on for a long time, with similar results. Its a recurring theme in Arabia - foreign armies come in hoping to pacify the locals, only to fall into a bloody pattern of terrorism and retribution. The amazing thing is that its been going on for so long and in so many places. It's an insight on today's middle-east events.

And like so many middle-east conflicts, in this movie you are left being not very sympathetic to either side. Yes, its the Syrian's home, but their tactics are sickening. The French come off no better as the aggressors and oppressors. The third parties, such as Bogart's character, are just vultures feeding off the tragedy.

Good one to watch if you're thinking of invading an Arab nation.