American Graffiti (1973)

Deeper than the descriptions

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

The first must-see film of the year.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I don't know why this film is considered a classic. I felt like it was one of those jokes that you "had to be there" to fully appreciate. Maybe I'm just not nostalgic enough for the 50s, or something. And George Lucas seems to be afraid of silence because every second was filled with songs on the radio. Still, this film gave Lucas enough money to make Star Wars. . . .

45 years ago, just a few years before Star Wars, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola brought to the world a coming-of-age teen comedy called American Graffiti, which was somewhat of a nostalgic project for Lucas himself. Considering the film is set in 1962, one would imagine the whole movie could have been made around said time by Lucas on a Z-movie budget with no big studio involved. Either way, what followed was both a critical and commercial success, while helping kickstart the careers for the likes of Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Charles Martin Smith, Paul le Mat and even Harrison Ford. With all that said, upon watching this movie, it is relatable enough to any teen who has to come to terms with their own life decisions after high school.The whole movie doesn't have one singular narrative, instead it is told through a series of vignettes that show a group of teenagers cruising around Modesto, California over a single night and getting into all sorts of mishaps. Whether it'd be Curt Henderson (Dreyfuss) getting involved with a street gang, Steve Bolander (Howard) facing a relationship crisis with his girlfriend Laurie (a.k.a. Curt's sister), or drag racer John Milner (le Mat) having to deal with an annoying 12 year old named Carol (Mackenzie Philips), each storyline really details the small struggles that teens may have faced back then, such as dueling, arguing, and relationship issues. Even with all these storylines happening at once, the film never feels messy, and the script contains many lovable characters who practically embrace the American culture of back then. In addition, the humor that mostly relies on dialogue is deliriously funny without getting lost from the more serious moments.Arguably the funniest arch comes from the bumbling insecure dork Terry Fields (Smith) and the adventurous blonde Debbie (Candy Clark), as Terry constantly tries and fails to hide his insecurity from her, like buying booze or lying about his car. In addition to displaying some of the more heartfelt and earnest moments on camera, both these characters display the best personalities on screen, and their dizzy albeit warm bubble-headedness is enough to grant even the tiniest of giggles. In addition, Harrison Ford is hysterical as the arrogant driver Bob Falfa, a man who wants to challenge Milner to a race but also feels that he's lost his touch in the spotlight. The film's soundtrack, consisting of multiple 50s and early 60s rock & roll songs, also becomes provocative throughout the movie, especially with disc jockey Wolfman Jack speaking through car radios and announcing all the hits, helping establish a parallel dramatic subtext. While it may run a little slow, the film's steadiness serves the story well to add into the character's disciplined nature, and even the pace at its most hectic never becomes overwhelming. Honestly, steady might be a good word to describe American Graffiti, as it's not meant to be some heavily faced paced screwball comedy, but more of a laid back teen movie that perfectly captures the antics of adolescents living their glory days before going out to the real world. I'd say give this a watch if you're into seeing the crazy shenanigans of teenagers during the happy/heavy times of the 1960s, or if you'd like to check out what else George Lucas directed besides Star Wars. Even if you won't entirely get all the references, you may end up feeling empathetic to these teens, since you yourself might have been one of them before.

The film itself was pretty bland. While it was suppose to be just a slice of life about teenagers getting ready to go off into their college days, the actors all seemed more like people who were in their mid 20's.. And when I check the birth days of many of the stars in it, I was right,, many in their mid 20's ,, hell, Harrison Ford was 30 when this was made. Just seemed weird. Best thing about it was the cars and of course the music. A potpourri of great late 50's and early 60's hits. Maybe it was novel at the time it came out, today it just looks cheesy, miscast and worst of all, boring..

It's the summer 1962 in a small town in California and one evening we spend time following various teenagers on the brink of adulthood. There's a college-bound young guy with doubts if he wants to leave, there's a nerd who gets a date with a blonde fox, there's a drag racer who gets lumbered with a thirteen-year-old girl and all the while a DJ called Wolfman Jack plays music throughout the night on the local radio. There are street gangs with logo'd leather jackets, waitresses on roller-skates and continual car cruising. There's no real plot, it's all about a moment in time. When it was released in 1973 it told of a time a decade in the past but it truly seemed like an aeon away on account of the transition of the counter-cultural 60's when everything changed so dramatically and radically, meaning that the early 60's pre-Vietnam small town America seemed like an alien landscape but one with more innocence and clearly one that held much appeal in the cynical landscape of 70's America.Produced by Francis Ford Coppola, this was a breakthrough film for his friend George Lucas who directed it. It was more accessible than his previous left-field sci-fi movie THX1138 (1971) and it was the film he made before the ultimate blockbuster Star Wars (1977) which changed cinema forever. American Graffiti shows the capability of Lucas and proves he could make very human stories. It's not always the most engaging film due to its lack of plot, it works more as an atmospheric period piece, helped greatly by its rock-n-roll soundtrack which plays continually in the background. It's a coming-of-age teen movie and one that definitely is on the more intelligent side of the spectrum of that particular sub-genre.