Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams Directed By: George Lucas Average Rating: Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: VHS Tape Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, Special Edition, NTSC Label: Universal Studios Number of Items: 1 Release Date: September 15, 1998 Running Time: 112 minutes Theatrical Release Date: August 11, 1973
Amazon.com essential video: Here's how critic Roger Ebert described the unique and lasting value of George Lucas's 1973 box-office hit, American Graffiti: "[It's] not only a great movie but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie's success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant." The time to which Ebert and the film refers is the summer of 1962, and American Graffiti captures the look, feel, and sound of that era by chronicling one memorable night in the lives of several young Californians on the cusp of adulthood. (In essence, Lucas was making a semiautobiographical tribute to his own days as a hot-rod cruiser, and the film's phenomenal success paved the way for Star Wars.) The action is propelled by the music of Wolfman Jack's rock & roll radio show--a soundtrack of pop hits that would become as popular as the film itself. As Lucas develops several character subplots, American Graffiti becomes a flawless time capsule of meticulously re-created memory, as authentic as a documentary and vividly realized through innovative use of cinematography and sound. The once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast members inhabit their roles so fully that they don't seem like actors at all, comprising a who's who of performers--some of whom went on to stellar careers--including Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, and Paul Le Mat. A true American classic, the film ranks No. 77 on the American Film Institute's list of all-time greatest American movies. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com: Here's how critic Roger Ebert described the unique and lasting value of George Lucas's 1973 box-office hit, American Graffiti: "[It's] not only a great movie but a brilliant work of historical fiction; no sociological treatise could duplicate the movie's success in remembering exactly how it was to be alive at that cultural instant." The time to which Ebert and the film refers is the summer of 1962, and American Graffiti captures the look, feel, and sound of that era by chronicling one memorable night in the lives of several young Californians on the cusp of adulthood. (In essence, Lucas was making a semiautobiographical tribute to his own days as a hot-rod cruiser, and the film's phenomenal success paved the way for Star Wars.) The action is propelled by the music of Wolfman Jack's rock & roll radio show--a soundtrack of pop hits that would become as popular as the film itself. As Lucas develops several character subplots, American Graffiti becomes a flawless time capsule of meticulously re-created memory, as authentic as a documentary and vividly realized through innovative use of cinematography and sound. The once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast members inhabit their roles so fully that they don't seem like actors at all, comprising a who's who of performers--some of whom went on to stellar careers--including Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, and Paul Le Mat. A true American classic, the film ranks No. 77 on the American Film Institute's list of all-time greatest American movies. Befitting that reputation, the collector's edition DVD includes a full-length commentary by Lucas, a behind-the-scenes featurette about the film's production, a photo gallery, and extensive production notes. --Jeff Shannon
The wonderful 60's My favorite movie of all time - after Titanic. I grew up in the 60's, and relate to this wonderful movie. I love everyone in it, and sometimes play it just to have the music playing while I'm doing housework. Great plot, great acting, and love Modesto for the small town set. Great, great movie!!
Happy Days American Graffitti, released in 1974, takes place near Modesto California where George Lucas (the films director and co-writer) spent his high school years. One of Lucas's stated purposes in making this film was to document the practice of "cruising." For those of us that didn't grow up in that era cruising basically consists of driving around town all night looking for something to do. A practice unthinkable for most of us now thanks to gas prices. The whole town seems to revolve around doing everything in a car. The drive in movies, the diner that you eat in your car at (Sonic is the modern equivalent), and the secluded outdoor area where everyone goes to "park." One of the films funniest plots revolves around Terry (Charles Martin Smith) who is usually carless being lent a car by a friend and jumping into a world that he is wholly unprepared for.
The entire film takes place in the space of one night, the night before Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) and Steve (Ron Howard) are supposed to leave for college. The movie takes pains to show us what a solitary figure Curt is. He is shown at the school dance walking in a dark hall by himself, he is sitting alone on a car watching storefront television, he is the only main character to sit in the back seat of a car (usually by himself). Curt has relationships and interactions but they are very brief in nature. Throughout the course of the film the characters are defined by their relationships. Steve is trying to figure out what to do with his girlfriend Laurie (Cindy Williams) who cannot come to college because she is still a junior in high school. John Milner (Paul Lemat) is the local hot rod legend that accidently picks up Carol (Mackenzie Philips) a girl perhaps 13 or 14 years old. Terry in the course of his only night with a car picks up Debbie (Candy Clark in an Oscar nominated role) who is the cause of most of the "fun" that Terry has to endure.
All of these relationships have their touching moments but none like the unlikely pair of John and Carol. At first very antagonist John reveals himself to be full of empathy and seems to understand that no matter what she says Carol worships the ground he walks on. He condescends to be worshiped and in one moment after she angrily leaves his car, he drives around looking for her worried and arrives to rescue her from a car full of hecklers.
Since everyone is in their cars the whole night and they all have their windows down and their radios blaring, classic rock seems to pulse in every scene. There are several instances of superior sound design one in which a character runs through the streets and "Barbara Ann" flies out cars as they go by, simultaneously sounding exactly as it would in real life but also acting as a comment on the excitement the character is feeling. The music really is the heartbeat of the film and gives the whole story a rhythm. This omnipresence of the radio broadcast lends an almost God like status to the local disc jockey Wolfman Jack. The Wolfman represents everything that teenager's value. He makes prank calls, stays up all night, blasts rock and roll and has worked his way into adolescent mythology as an outlaw who broadcasts variously from Mexico and a plane that flies constantly around the country. In the course of the story the Wolfman will be unveiled as a normal person in a scene that is often compared to the famous "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" scene in the Wizard of Oz.
American Graffitti on the surface is just a teen comedy but the portrayl of adolescence is so blindingly accurate that it touches a cord with many people that see it over the years despite not sharing some of the cultural trappings. For me it inspires a personal longing for days gone by. The ending is bittersweet and the epilogue brings home the feeling that we all have when we learn that friends are mortal and that all things come to an end. An excellent film and George Lucas's best outing as a director.
Graffiti Means the Writing on the Wall What a glorious, nostalgic, and ultimately melancholy movie this is. It ranks in my top five, maybe top three films of all time. I saw this meditation on early '60s California again the other night on the big screen, and realized from the other men in the audience, and from my wife's ho-hum reaction, that American Graffiti appeals mostly to and is about men.
The hot rod cars are the first tip-off of course, and "cruising the strip" as street rodder Milner calls it (we used to call it "cruising Broadway") while answering drag challenges and scoping out girls are the main night activities. It's a heady and uncertain time, this one night the movie concentrates on. Curt and Steve (Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Howard)are due to leave town for college the next morning, and Curt's getting cold feet. You can't help but feel the exciting tug of the unknown in one direction and yet understand the comfort of the routine and the familiar in wanting to stay home. Anyone who left home for the big world as a teenager will understand very well what's going on in these guys' minds.
John Milner is supposedly content to remain hot rod king of the hill, but he seems defensive about Curt moving on. Curt gets into and out of trouble with the local toughs the "Pharaohs," while the characters of the outstanding ensemble cast go through their own little triumphs and failures in the night. In a piece of inspired casting Wolfman Jack is a running background theme throughout the movie, except for the part when he takes center stage when Curt asks him to broadcast a message for a beautiful woman (Suzanne Somers) who's been cruising around town.
What guy doesn't have some bittersweet memory of some gorgeous gal he couldn't or wouldn't approach? George Lucas captures the sentiment precisely, especially at the end after sunrise when Curt on the plane sees her one last time, driving way below him in her white T-Bird.
It all works. The great '50s music, Toad's (Charles Martin Smith) fumbling escapades with Debbie (Candy Clark), the showdown that caps the escalating encounters between Milner and the new hot rodder in town, Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford), the warm California night, the splits and reconciliations, Carol's (Mackenzie Phillips) funny and argumentative night riding with Milner, the end and beginning of an era individually and collectively.
Why did Lucas title the movie "American Graffiti"? Perhaps because graffiti is transitory. Being impermanent, one has to record it to save it. Perhaps he meant to say that graffiti is the writing on the wall, that the culture he so deeply portrays in this movie is in just a couple of years going to vanish, replaced by a hippie culture so radically different as to seem utterly alien. In 1962 the Korean war was a remote memory, and the Vietnam mess only the size of a man's fist on the horizon. The teenagers in this movie are coming of age in a fairly carefree era, one on the cusp of revolution in society and morals, an era that will end suddenly and pretty much completely in a brief time.
After seeing all that happened in the movie that one night, you might get an ache in the gut of differing emotions seeing the fates of several of the characters posted on the foreground of Curt's plane flying high. Rolling the credits with the Beach Boys's "All Summer Long" was perfect. I can't think of the song now without that mix of nostalgia, melancholy, and humor this movie inspires.
Where was I in '62? In the upper Midwest, a little boy. But it would've been fun to be in California on a soft summer's night, the entire future ahead of me.
Love the movie, not the DVD The movie is of course a classic and always fun to watch. What I was disapointed with was this recording. For this being remastered, the sound was awful. I was constantly turning it up and straining to hear. It was reallly awful.
American Graffiti Seen the movie several times loved it and now my son wanted to see it so I passed along to him and he loved it too.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
