American Graffiti (Collector's Edition)
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Movie Reviews of American Graffiti (Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: A fun trip back to a more innocent time in America
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie will take you back to the fun times of the early 1960s.
Director George Lucas lived it in the early 1960s in Modesto, California.
If you were a teenager or young adult during the late 1950s and early 1960s, then you're sure to remember the kind of fun that teenagers and young adults had back then - going to drive-ins, drive-in movies, drag racing, cruising, etc. It seemed like everything that was fun seemed to revolve around cars. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration, but there is some truth to it. People back then worshipped their cars just like people today worship their computers, blackberries, and other technological gadgets. In this era society was cleaner and safer. The middle class prospered. Jobs were plentiful and paid well. Wealth was distributed more evenly. A person could work at the same company for 30-40 years and retire with a pension. Generally speaking, most people were decent people with morals and values. People weren't nearly as greedy as they are now. Illegal drugs were rare in society. Radicalism was at a minimum. America was still in an age of innocence. To quote Bill Maher, "The early '60s were the '50s. There really wasn't much radicalism going on".
My mother was a teenager in the 1950s and in her early 20s in the early 1960s. She always used to talk at great length about all the fun times she had as a teenager cruising Woodward Ave. near Detroit, going to drive-ins, drive-in movies, going on dates, the rock music of that time period, etc. and how the young people of today missed out on all the fun and can't relate to what she did as a teenager. She always proudly said she had 78 boyfriends before she met my father, and a lot of that resulted from cruising. She was a fan of American Graffiti and used to mention it quite frequently and said it is an accurate depiction of what cruising was like in the '50s and early '60s.
If you're someone who lived these fun times back then, then you can relate to this movie, as this movie is set in September 1962 in the area of Modesto, California. Even if you weren't alive back then, you can appreciate this movie. The basic plot is this: It is September 1962 and it is the last night of summer before everybody goes to college. There are actually four stories that are all happening simultaneously (classic George Lucas style - think of the Star Wars movies), but in this movie, they're not related to each other. You'll see scenes showing cruising, school dances, drag racing, drive-ins, and many mischievious acts. Kids out to have a good time before they enter the real world and go their separate ways. The movie takes place almost entirely at night, from sunset to sunrise the next day.
This movie stars Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Suzanne Somers, Mackenzie Phillips, Paul LeMat, Candy Clark, Charles Martin Smith, and legendary disc jockey Wolfman Jack.
This movie is LOADED with rock 'n roll songs from that era. The music starts at the beginning of the movie and never really ends. There are a total of 41 songs that can be heard throughout the movie, and all are big hits from the '50s and early '60s. There is no actual musical score, no background situational music. Instead, the rock songs ARE the soundtrack. Everything from Buddy Holly to Bill Haley & The Comets to The Beach Boys to Chuck Berry, this movie has it all.
This DVD comes with excellent extras, particularly the documentary called The Making Of American Graffiti. It has in-depth interviews with director George Lucas, executive producer Francis Ford Coppola, and nearly all the cast members. It runs about 1 1/2 hours. The stories are very interesting, particularly the stories about the mistakes that were made in the movie, but were kept in the movie by George Lucas. There are also production photographs, the theatrical trailer, and never-before-seen screen tests of the cast.
I can relate to this movie, at least somewhat. Every year near my hometown there is an event called the Woodward Dream Cruise, a car cruise on the third Saturday of every August where people cruise down Woodward Ave. near Detroit in their classic cars from yesteryear. It's a huge event that easily attracts over a million people and is even televised locally. I've been to all 16 of them, from 1995 to 2010. This event was invented to bring back the nostalgia of cruising down Woodward Ave. in the '50s and '60s. Radio stations play songs from that era all day long. Myself, I listen to my hard rock and heavy metal while driving. Generational gap!
But you see? People yearn for this sort of thing. People want to at least pretend to escape back to a time when America was more innocent, safer, more prosperous, cleaner, more secure, had nicer people, far less greedy, and when people weren't so obsessed with chasing the buck as they are now. That's why we've got a national drive-in chain called Sonic. People want to be taken back in time, even if it's just for an hour. I even went to a drive-in movie a few years ago in the parking lot of the now unused Pontiac Silverdome. I hadn't done that since the '70s, because they all disappeared.
So, if you're somebody who lived what is portrayed in American Graffiti, this movie should bring a smile to your face. If you're a younger person, you need to see this movie, and I'll bet you'll like it.
Movie Review: A Portal Back To 1962! .... A Winning Film (& DVD To Match)!
Summary: 5 Stars
I think you'll find that the cash you'll fork over for this DVD Collector's Edition of 1973's "American Graffiti" will be money very wisely spent. Because the outstanding, in-depth, 78-minute documentary feature, "The Making Of American Graffiti", is worth the cost all by itself.
Every single one of the film's major cast members takes part in the documentary program. Director George Lucas and Producer Francis Ford Coppola (plus other members of the production staff and crew) also participate in this fascinating behind-the-scenes "Making Of" feature, which is one of the best documentaries I've ever come across on a DVD.
Mr. Lucas talks openly and extensively about the making of "Graffiti" and guides the viewer, step-by-step, through the many aspects of creating this unique film -- from the difficulty in getting a studio interested in the project, to the movie's filming on the streets of two small California towns, and through to the release of the picture in theaters (the movie opened on August 11, 1973).
Many interesting tidbits of information are revealed in the documentary, including Harrison Ford's recollection of his "cowboy hat". It seems that Harrison was opposed to getting one of those awful '60s-style haircuts (as were others in the cast). So Ford talked Director Lucas into letting him wear a cowboy hat instead. And then there's Charlie Martin Smith ("Toad"), who had some problems parking his motor scooter in the film's very first scene. But Charlie's gaffe was left in the final cut of the movie by Director Lucas. (Which is a good thing too; it's a great moment in the picture.)
Some original actor Screen Tests are also included in the Making-Of documentary. If you keep your eyes peeled on the "clapboards" that are shown in a few of these Screen Test shots, you'll note that the date of filming is "May 26, 1972" (which is 15 months before the movie finally got released into theaters).
"Graffiti" took just four weeks to film, but Mr. Lucas, during the documentary, said that it took him six months after filming was completed to edit the movie down to a manageable size. He tells us that his first cut of "Graffiti" was a mammoth three hours in length. Therefore, much paring was required.
Other bonus features on the DVD include the Original Theatrical Trailer, which I found very good. Plus, a goodly number of "Cast & Crew Bios" to scroll through; as well as some informative Production Notes. All text pages I found most rewarding as well.
Then, of course, the DVD (which was originally released by Universal Home Video on September 15, 1998, to commemorate the movie's 25th anniversary) offers up a nice-looking Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 version of "Graffiti" itself. Colors look rich and saturated and the black levels during the many outdoor night scenes look very sharp as well, with little in the way of video distractions. Some fans of the film will no doubt be disappointed that a Dolby 5.1 re-mix was not included here (just a 2.0 Surround Sound track is employed for this DVD). But I think the Surround track does quite nicely. But a full-fledged 5.1 would also have been nice, to highlight the amazing number of rock-and-roll oldies in the film.
OTHER INFO ABOUT THIS DVD
Feature Film:
> Video -- Widescreen 2.35:1 (Enhanced for 16x9 Widescreen Televisions).
> Audio -- English (2.0 Dolby Digital Surround); French (2.0 Dolby Digital Mono).
> Subtitles -- English and Spanish.
> Running Time -- 1 hour, 52 minutes.
> Chapter Stops? -- Yes. There are an abundance of chapter breaks here (49 total).
"The Making Of American Graffiti" Documentary:
> Video -- Full Frame 1.33:1 (With clips from the actual film shown in 2.35:1 Widescreen).
> Audio -- English only (2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo).
> Subtitles -- English, Spanish, and French.
> Running Time -- 1 hour, 18 minutes.
> Chapter Stops? -- Yes. There are 7 total chapter breaks.
>> Menus -- All "Static". No music. No animated transitions.
>> Packaging -- Keep Case. (One Disc.)
>> Enclosures/Inserts? -- Yes. There's a very nicely-done 8-page fold-out booklet, which includes behind-the-camera photos and quotes from George Lucas and many other cast members on their memories of the film. Plus: Full Chapter Lists for both the movie's Scene Selections and the Making-Of Documentary.
"American Graffiti", IMO, is in a class by itself. It has the perfect 1960s "feel" to it, that Director George Lucas strives so hard for (and succeeds in portraying). Each time you re-visit this film you are immediately transported back to the Summer of 1962, and to all those great oldies blaring away on the car radio.
Movie Review: Where Was I In '62? Where Were You?
Summary: 5 Stars
"Where were you in `62?"I wasn't around in `62 -- I was born in `63, as a matter of fact, and I was 10 when George Lucas' American Graffiti was released. I wasn't really aware of either George Lucas or American Graffiti in 1973, although four years later I would know Lucas from his next -- and most popular -- film, Star Wars. I did not go to the movies much in 1973, but I saw this wonderful film when it was broadcast by ABC some years later. (ABC, capitalizing on its "hot" new sitcom, Three's Company, shamelessly promoted it as "starring Suzanne Somers." In fact, Suzanne is not even billed with the eight "stars.")
If film and television historians have it right, though, American Graffiti was the catalyst for the 1950s Nostalgia fad that begat TV's Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and the blessedly short-lived Joanie Loves Chachi (not to mention Sha Na Na and Broadway`s Grease). And it isn't terribly surprising that Happy Days and its spin-offs owe their inspiration -- if not their very existence -- to Lucas' first major culturally significant film. Happy Days starred Ron Howard, who (as Ronny Howard) had second billing in Graffiti, while Laverne and Shirley costar Cindy Williams was the female lead.
American Graffiti is a bittersweet yet comedic look at what the DVD publicity blurb says was "America's last age of innocence." In the summer of `62, JFK was in the White House, the Beatles were still unknown in this side of the Atlantic, and drive in diners and movie palaces were very popular. There was no Internet or even Studio 54 just yet, so kids went cruising, looking for girls to pick up or rivals to race in their souped-up hot rods. (Lucas, in the Making Of documentary on the 25th Anniversary DVD, says his intent in making American Graffiti was to document cruising as a socio-cultural phenomenon that died in the more turbulent half of the 1960s.)
The movie's structure -- commonplace now but it was revolutionary at the time -- intertwines several plots involving a group of recently graduated Southern California high school seniors on their last night before going to college. Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) is fretting about going to college in the East with his friend Steve (Howard). Wracked with indecision, he spends his last night in town searching for The Blonde in the White Thunderbird (Suzanne Somers in her first, albeit small, role). His misadventures cause him to step out of character, especially when he crosses paths with The Pharohs, the local gang of miscreants.
Curt's sister Laurie (Williams) must not only cope with her brother's last minute bout with "cold feet" but with the fear of losing Steve. In what may be a typical situation for couples who are "steady" but are going to be separated by circumstances, she's devastated by Steve's suggestion that they "see other people" while they are in school. "I can't expect you to be a monk," Laurie says with false bravado, but in "The Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" sequence, it is obvious that she is hurt and angry.
The other two subplots of this wonderful film center on Toad (Charlie Martin Smith) and John (Paul Le Mat). Toad is the car-crazy, girl-deprived nerd that we either knew in school or that we recognize in ourselves. His attempts to impress the lovely Debbie (Candy Clark) are hilarious -- rivaled only by a similarly themed scene in Summer of '42 -- only to discover that Debbie likes him for who he really is. John, on the other hand, is the Han Solo of this bunch, the high school dropout who loves fast cars and even faster women. He, too, discovers a tender side as he is saddled with 12-year-old Carol (a pre-One Day at a Time Mackenzie Phillips). Not only must he learn patience while driving around with Carol, but also he is being challenged as the top drag racer by Bob Falfa (played by the man who would be Han Solo, Harrison Ford).
All these stories will converge in a climactic, winner take all race, and several Lucas touchstones will resurface in his later Star Wars series -- the choice to either take or reject a certain path, the relationship between men and their machines, and the quest for either love or adventure.
Serving as a unifying thread to all these subplots is Wolfman Jack, mostly heard on the radio but seen briefly in a Yoda/Ben Kenobi style of mentor for restless Curt.
Lucas uses music here very effectively. Each song (and there are over 40 here, ranging from Rock Around the Clock to The Great Pretender) was chosen to provide emotional context, not just period atmosphere. He envisioned American Graffiti as a musical "with no singing or dancing."
This film is fun to watch and definitely deserves having been votes as one of the American Film Institute's top 100 Films of All Time. Watch it with a friend or alone, and if you were of age in the 1960s, answer the movie's famous log line: "Where were you in `62?"
Movie Review: In The Great Teen Night, Circa 1962
Summary: 5 Stars
Well, let me run through the plot line for those who are not familiar with idea behind the film, or are too young to have a clue as to such goings-on but might want to know what the old fogies, their parents or (ouch) grandparents were up to (or thought they were up to) back in the days, or are the peers of those 1960s baby-boomers enshrined in the film, but have forgotten a thing or two since they watched the thing in 1973 (another ouch).
The opening scene sets the whole film up. A very spiffy, well-dressed, well-scrubbed, well-mannered (mostly), middle class crew of 1962-era Southern California suburban valley kids with plenty of disposable income at hands, are gathering for one last tribal meeting before they go their separate ways in the great adult grind-it-out, eyes-straight-forward, shoulder-to-the-wheel, little boxes world at their main club house, Mel's fast food drive-in (already I have lost the younger set on that last point, on the non-mall food court, drive-in thing, right?). How did they get to said gathering spot, you might ask? Come on now, this is wide open-spaced California suburban valley how else would they get there other that in their own personal "teen mobiles." Jesus, do I have to tell you everything.
They come in one and twos, mainly, in some of the best-looking "boss" car (excuse my reversion to an old-time term for excellence, automobile division) that you will see these days outside of an automobile museum. And besides that, many of them, the cars that is, are "souped-up" (look that one up yourself), especially valley hot-rod-king of the hill, John (played by Paul LeMat), and his yellow (mustard yellow, wow, can you believe that?) little deuce coup (ditto on the look up). Here is the point though, the main point even in this pre-1960s rebellion period, none of the cars look anything like any parent would drive, or could drive (except the few dweeby cars borrowed for the evening from some plaint, or beaten-down, beaten down by teen argument parent). Yes indeed, this is a gathering of the California branch of "youth nation" in all their tribal finery.
As is to be expected of a teen-centered (amazingly teen-centered, adults get merely cameo appearances in this one, and that seems about right) drama the plot line thins out considerably after the flash at Mel's. Mainly, it is about a single night's search for the 1962 version of the California blue-pink night (more on this below). And what drives that search? Cruising, natch. Why spend the time and expense involved in a "boss" car (you know that word now, right?) if you don't create a stir up and down the main drag boulevard looking for.... , you can easily fill in that blank yourself. The rest of the plot centers on such eternal questions as the young leaving home and hearth to face the great wide world (here to be or not to be a college freshman by stars Ron Howard, as Steve, and Richard Dreyfus, as Curt), the usual boy looking for girl thing (including by oldster hot-rod king, Johnny) that I have endlessly reported on elsewhere in this space and that is not worthy of comment in a teen film. What else could such a film be about? Teen break-ups (Howard and Cindy Williams, as Laurie), cruising, stopping at Mel's for some car-hopped fast food, cruising, a little hot- rod duel ( between Johnny and, ah, one Harrison Ford) on those open California highways (what else are they for?), and then daylight and the rude old work-a-day world intrudes, even on sanctified teen life.
This is one time though that I do not do justice to a film with a summary because this thing is well-directed, well-produced, and well-acted by a crew of then very young unknowns (mostly) that would go on to all kinds of other cinematic successes (including hot-rod runner-up, ah, Ford). The sense of déjà vu for this Eastern U.S.-born baby-boomer, including a great high school dance segment and a soundtrack that reads out of every classic "Oldies But Goodies" compilation that I have ever reviewed, was palpable, without being maudlin. Kudos
Movie Review: A great movie about ordinary people
Summary: 5 Stars
I grew up a few years later than the main characters in this movie, in a society in which millions of people were unlikely to agree about what life was all about, or whether anyone had the right to consider that a fair question. Listening to the documentary on this DVD, I was reminded of how many people would end up being nobodies in my society, and that being in a movie like this, which was about as big a hit as anyone with less than a million dollar budget was likely to make even once, could be just a start for the people who would have the opportunity to do things like say something and have everybody hear it.
If this movie was what being a teenager was all about, I missed my teen years completely, being even more of a geek than the geek character in this movie. I was even taught by some serious adult people that I knew at church when I was a kid that the music that the teen characters in this movie listen to was lame. It took me a long time to figure out how different most things are from whatever adults are thinking, and this is particularly true of some early rock songs that still sound good, even after they are no longer in the top ten. I had to count songs in this movie to find about ten songs that are still really great, and some of those songs are used in 2004 for exercise classes at the YMCA in Saint Paul, Minnesota, if you really want to know what little old ladies listen to before they do can-can kicks in the swimming pool. I was never a fanatic about cars, so that large element of this movie and the local cops were never a significant part of my life.
The best thing about this movie is that everything happens all at once. The documentary on the DVD explains how many years it took to get this movie written (by George Lucas, Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck), cast, filmed, edited to be less than three hours long, and marketed for showing in theaters. Most of the people making this movie were young, and have now been around so long that looking back so far makes them think they really were nobodies once. Harrison Ford in the movie is the only character who plays a big shot and tells Toad `I'm not a nobody.' The way the movie ends, he is just another loser, and even the guy who beat him can't see the sense of racing these nobodies. Cindy Williams complains in the documentary about having such a sad part, while the other girls get to have fun, but being head cheerleader with one more year of high school to go is the top of the social heap at that level, and knowing what she wants, by the end of the movie she has latched on to something.
I have often complained that entertainment values have become the main economic motivator of changes in American society. While this movie is a nostalgia boom that won't let go of a teen culture still unaware of the changes that were going to hit American society after 1962, the success of the movie started a drive to reproduce elements of youth culture in forms that millions of people could relate to on a personal level, as a form of entertainment that is superior to the extreme themes and clear villains of myths that have an obvious message. Consider the drunk Terry the Toad telling someone, `You are talking to the woman I love,' when she happens to be the first woman in the movie who would even go out with him. This is an easy mistake for someone in Terry the Toad's position to make, and laughing at him hardly helps to make the situation any better, but it is so damn funny that it even makes Curt Henderson's best line, about wimps getting all of the snatch, sound a little lame.
Three scenes that were deleted for the theatrical release of this movie have been restored in the film on videotape and DVD, and those scenes might be surprising for people who have not seen them before. The documentary on the DVD explains which scenes were cut to save six minutes. It didn't hurt the film much, but if you have not seen the long version, consider buying this DVD just so you can hear Terry the Toad telling a used car salesman, `For God's sake, leave me alone!'