AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)

Neha says

The title doesn’t quite prepare you for the loving and atmospheric homage director George Lucas pays to a bygone 60’s era and yet in retrospect there couldn’t have been a more enigmatic title to capture the dying vestiges of innocence, youth, spirit, rebellion and 60’s American culture. In many ways it’s semi-autobiographical as Lucas tries to recreate the mood, look and feel of a time that carved his own childhood and yes in many ways for someone like me who hasn’t been a part of that era, American Graffiti (1973) and the director’s personal insight immortalizes the period so skillfully and soulfully. It almost feels like a time travel device to the 60’s!!! Vintage cars dominate the screen in fine glory (Boys, it’s your Wonderland!!!). An American drive-in diner subliminally becomes a witness to the events of this high school story with interwoven stories of a bunch of young individuals and their difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood. A radio-jockey, The Wolfman, his commentary, his music and his omnipresence adds yet another intriguing and revealing dimension that captures man’s relationship with the radio at the time. Drag cruising and the intimacy of a small town existence captured primarily through the many conversations characters have, rolling down their windows and talking across cars at a traffic light or while driving becomes a wonderful counterpoint to their own internal conflict of moving away from the familiar and embracing the real world that’s full of the unfamiliar. The icing really is the foot-tapping, nostalgic soundtrack full of pop hits that occur almost continuously creating an energy, mood and character that’s so divine and so very 60’s. A fine ensemble cast including Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Charlie Martin Smith, McKenzie Phillips and a very young Harrison Ford got their first break in this low budget movie and as far as fans of the director are concerned- If you want an insight into the man and the road that led to his follow-up blockbuster Star Wars then American Graffiti must be on your to-view list if you haven’t seen it already. Romance, Racing and Rock n’ Roll- Buckle up for a sublime Blast from the Past!!!

Ira says

“Same ol Curt. All the time we were going together, you never knew what you were doing! (Pause) I gotta go”
“Where you going?”
“Nowhere”
“Mind if I come along?”

Straight out of an Archie comic book? Well, almost. Coming of age meets high school pains and pangs, in George Lucas’s American Graffiti, as a pair of friends tries to figure out where they want their lives to go, the night before they are scheduled to go off ‘east’ to college. The most amazing discovery for me in this one, which really is all about pubescent eye openers, experimentation, and lesson learning, is that George Lucas, the visionary creator-director of the Star Wars empire and one of Hollywood’s most successful effects wizards, (Industrial Light and Magic anyone?) writers and filmmakers to date, once made a slice of life of American high school life, circa the 1960’s. Set in the age of free love and rock and roll, he gives us a simple, accessible, relatable tale about all those angst’s, tensions and desires that we’ve all felt and struggled with. Nostalgic strains of that first love, punch, kiss, all those ‘first times’, complete with a “Freshman Hop” (prom/annual dance/social, whatever the equivalent is across schools and cultures) and a flurry of stock teen school characters you know actually do exist in every group of young teens everywhere!The second most amazing thing here is that the wonderful, underrated Richard Dreyfuss, 26 years old when he starred as our hero Curt in this one, pulls off a seventeen year with an effortless, infectious and totally endearing charm. And the third most amazing thing is that that lanky guy who plays Steve, the one dating Curt’s sister Laurie (Cindy Williams), is the man who made A Beautiful Mind and Frost/Nixon. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s Ron Howard!

Shook you up a bit yet? Right, lets get back to Lucas then. There’s no special effects, no fancy tricks, no science fiction just a friendly neighborhood drive in and one night of some serious realizations and decision making to unfold in this character driven tale which Lucas controls masterfully without fuss or frills. I love how he uses music, (the film has a fantastic sound score of some of Rock and Roll’s finest tracks) and cars in the film as both storytelling tools and as symbols of energy, laughter, sadness, fear and ownership, feelings that are synonymous with youth and imminent change. There’s lots of deceptively aimless driving around, lazily shot driving sequences with great looking vintage cars, sequences where the world of these teenagers comes alive, a world of cruising, teasing, making out, and making up, where finding strangers to ride with and falling prey to dangers is part and parcel of these characters’ scope of excitement and adventure. There are couples with problems, out of towners, bullies, and nerds, and girls of different shapes, aspects and ages to complement the boys. Where the high school sweethearts Steve and Laurie are having some issues, high school stud Milner (an adequately good looking, cool Paul Le Mat) finds himself stuck with a fourteen year old kid sister and group nerd Toad (the perfectly cast Charles Martin Smith) ends up having the most fun with an exotic looking blonde, and a night of unexpected mishaps.

Lucas’s tone is consistent, his characters real and living and his landscape just the right blend of colorful and dark. As tension builds in the narrative, once that climactic scene of graffiti spraying and trickery is complete, the mood becomes grimmer, the lighting dimmer, and frames are shrouded with foliage, dark roads, old garages, and murkier waters in the characters’ individual emotional journeys. There’s a road race and a hint of tragedy in the air, but life is just starting and these guys are too young for things to get so real, no matter what else blows up in their faces. A surprising, sweet, classic high school gem courtesy some of Hollywood’s best, it’s a keeper.