American Graffiti (Collector's Edition)
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Movie Reviews of American Graffiti (Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: Happy Days
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Graffiti Means the Writing on the Wall
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Movie Review: A truly incredible movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm not sure what it is, but alot of films that deal with the past and nostalgia (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) have held a fascination with me. Just the differences, no information age, cars that looked cooler, and the styles and music weren't as grained down and commercialistic as today. American Graffiti was a film I had heard about quite a bit (being a Star Wars fan), and it was last fall during the early morning hours that I sat down and watched it. Well, the people who love it are not kidding: it really is a great film!Taking place in Modesto, CA (a nod to George Lucas's hometown), we begin at sunset (redone for the special edition, the once overcast sky is now ablaze in orange and blue) at Mel's Diner. Here, we meet Terry, Steve, Curt, and Curt's sister Laurie. Tonight is the last night before graduation, and some of them are wondering what the future holds for them. As the sun sets, Steve and Laurie begin to question their future together (Steve wants to go to the East Coast for college, and Laurie is unsure of their relationship), Terry is loaned Steve's car, and picks up a cute blond (he manages to convince her that the car is his, and that he is of legal age to buy alcohol!), and Curt spends the entire night, tracking down a girl in a white Ford T-Bird(one of the most intriguing plots of the movie!), as well as getting into some fun trouble with a gang of teen punks. The plot also includes John, almost the image of the teenage rebel, who cruises down main street in his bright yellow hot rod (with his THX1138 license plate), and Carol, the only girl out of a carload next to him that wants to ride with him. However, John did not know that she was 13! But, the play off of John's toughman compared to Carol's "I know everything, I'm 13!" attitude is great dialogue. In a slightly cameo role, Harrison Ford plays cowboy hat-wearing Bob Falfa, driving a 56 Chevy, cruising for a drag race with John. Lucas does an incredible job piecing these teenager's stories together, with everything taking place from the dusk of one day to the dawn of the next. As you watch, you almost wish the night would never end. The town seems so small and almost intimate, it's an entitiy in itself, from the downtown crusing streets, all the way out to Mel's Diner. Right now, there are some parts that words just can't describe what I mean about the film.
But, I can't say enough about the soundtrack. I hadn't enjoiyed a timeline soundtrack since the 2-CD set of Forrest Gump. All the music is great, not a bad song in the bunch. The music fits in the entire film's continuity, being croadcast by The Wolfman, a radio entity that almost everyone has an interpretation of who he is (but only one of our teens finds out, but I'm not going to say which one). The film was Lucas's first major hit, and it almost did not get made. If you can believe it, Lucas worked like a dog on this film on the tightest of schedules and budgets (the same type of mood on Star Wars almost led him to a total breakdown). But, out of the complexity of his work came this hit. Almost none of the studio executives had confidence in it, except for Lucas, his friends, and Francis Ford Coppola (a man who is credited for helping Lucas in his early days). DVD is the best way to experience this film. In terms of teen movies, I'd choose this hands down over the 90's films being released today. Instead of a picture cranked out by studio execs leaning to make a buck, Lucas made Graffiti with his past and nostalgia in mind. It truly deserves to be seen and heard.
Movie Review: American Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I originally watched this movie in high school. Despite having been told about most of the best scenes in advance by my friends, it was still a lot of fun. Of course, a lot of other people thought so too, as it spawned a nostalgia craze for the 50s and early 60s resulting in many (too many?) seasons of "Happy Days," among others.
A few years ago, I saw the movie again on TV. I realized that, even though I was much more mature (at least physically), this movie still seemed very very good.
I recently got the DVD and watched it properly and I have to say that, after careful scrutiny, this really is one of the finest films ever made. I won't retell a story that's much better told by the movie, but: it has a lot of laughs, but it's not entirely a comedy (especially the ending); it has plenty of music, but it's not a musical; it has plenty of action, but no blood and gore; it seems incredibly realistic, but there is never a dull moment; there are multiple storylines and an ensemble cast, but it never gets confusing.
Every aspect of this movie is impressive, but I'm particularly struck by the genius of George Lucas and associates when it comes to casting. Every actor in this movie seems perfect for the role they play. If you look hard you'll see quite a few familiar faces getting their start (including Suzanne Somers very briefly as the girl in the Thunderbird). Many, particularly Harrison Ford & Richard Dreyfuss, went on to long, successful careers. Although they were all great in this film, I thought that Candy Clark was a standout.
If you get this collector's edition of the DVD you'll also be able to see an in-depth "extra" on the story behind the making of the film - very interesting. It's inspiring to see that somebody as currently renowned as Lucas had to be incredibly patient and persistent (and put up with a lot of incredible Hollywood idiots) in his early days before his idea was finally realized. His success in making this movie under such tough circumstances makes the end product even more impressive. It's also very impressive to me that George Lucas went from writing/directing/creating a movie like "THX 1138" to this and then to "Star Wars" - all three very good and VERY different films. I don't know of anyone else who has accomplished anything quite like that.
Although I'm now quickly approaching middle age, I wasn't really old enough to be a part of the era depicted in the movie, so this isn't a nostalgia trip for me. The music isn't my music - I'm more of a post-British Invasion fan. But the fact that a movie can make you relate deeply to characters from a realistic time and place you've never been says something significant. Also, the fact that it I've now enjoyed it on several different levels and at widely varying ages says even more...
Simply one of the greatest movies ever made.
Movie Review: Great Movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll love and protect this movie until death do us part. "American Graffiti" is one of my all-time favorite movies, if not most favorite. It's just so great that it's incredible, it's just about perfect. It's one of the most honest unpretentious depictions of youth in the history of the movies or of any other art form. All of the characters in the movie are almost too real to even be in a movie. George Lucas really is a genius without a doubt, even if he had never done "Star Wars". I love this movie so much that I have to see it at least once or twice a week. It's filled with fun, confusion, conflict, cars, girls, hamburger joints, high school, dancing, music, etc. Also, I have to say that the cinematography by Haskell Wexler and the cameramen is beautiful, the acting by the entire cast Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, Paul Le Mat, Candy Clarke, Cindy Williams, Richard Dreyfuss, Charles Martin Smith, and everybody else. The soundtrack is also incredible and revolutionized the way sound and music is used in the movies, sound supervisor Walter Murch, using more than 40 rock'n roll songs to guide the movie instead of a conventional composed score. Only Martin Scorsese used rock music in a similar way in "Mean Streets" the same year of 1973, however, not to extent of "American Graffiti". The "Collector's Edition" DVD is great, I highly recommend it to everyone who loves the movies and has a DVD player. The picture and sound could have been a bit better, but, overall it's very good especially since it's presented in it's original aspect ratio in widescreen so you can see the entire picture. Also, it has a great making of documentary that includes a wealth of information on all aspects of the movie's production, as well as interviews with George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Walter Murch, and all of the stars of the movie, and more great stuff. There are also some other bonus information on the people involved and the production, and the theatrical trailer. Get this DVD, if you're not sure about putting up a few bucks, than rent it first and decide for yourself afterwards. This movie is a genuine gem and a blessing, I'd like to thank everyone involved in making "American Graffiti" and for the priveledge of being able to see it on DVD as many times as I want to. It's too bad that all of the movies that tried to copy and immitate this movie ever since aren't even half as good.