Director: George
Lucas
Screenplay:
George Lucas, Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck
George Lucas’s “American Graffiti,” is about its time and
place, the last weekend of the Summer of ’63. This sprawling multi-narrative was made after his debut sci-fi film “THX
1183”, and before his legendary “Star Wars,” films, and maybe that’s
appropriate consider how he’d spend practically the rest of his career creating
images of the future, that he would take one last step into the past.
(Although, technically “Star Wars” takes place in the past, so maybe he never
left the past...?) Thankfully Lucas was smart enough to not let the characters in the
film know that it was about nostalgia. With so many interesting subplots, I
almost wonder if Lucas was influence by filmmakers like Robert Altman when he
made “American Graffiti”.
Okay, here’s where I have to make my confession and if
anybody wants confirmation of this, ask, pretty much anybody who went to high
school with me. I first started wearing leather jackets because of ‘50s throwbacks
like “Happy Days,” “Grease,” and this film, and I took a lot of crap for it then.
That’s not why I’m writing on this film now though, but yes, I was heavily
influenced for a time of this nostalgia era of the ‘70s that was basically
invented by “American Graffiti”.
This is the movie that reflects the last
moment of American innocence for a generation. It takes place right on the last
Saturday Night in summer of ’63 right before JFK was assassinated, before
anybody ever heard of Vietnam, and before The Beatles, would cross the
Atlantic. I make special note of the last one because the ‘50s classics that
the film uses on the radio for the film are crucial to show the country’s
innocence. The radio was always on back then, usually to Wolfman Jack. There’s
only hints of that uncertain future for the country that’s yet to come. (It helped that the songs were mostly cheap; that's also why they couldn't afford Elvis songs though...)
Curt (Richard
Dreyfuss) spends the entire night struggling to find the elusive girl in the
White T-Bird (Suzanne Somers); it's the film’s most famous subplot but arguably the whole
film is just guys trying to get the girl, trying to get rid of the girl,
trying to get back together with the girl, and basically do anything they can
think of so they don’t have to be stuck at home on a Saturday. At least that’s
what’s on the surface. Curt’s frantic search for the girl in the t-bird is
spurred on by his sudden meandering on his decision to go off to college, despite
the fact that he just received scholarship money from the Moose Lodge. (It’s
amazing to me that those lodges still exist) Steve and Laurie, (Ron Howard and
Cindy Williams) are busy trying to consciously and/or subconsciously breakup as
Steve is also heading off to college. The two funnier storylines involve Toad
(Charles Martin Smith), the somewhat nerdy member of the clique whose been
placed in charge of Steve’s car, and the numerous problems he suddenly develops
with it that night, not in no small part to Debbie (Oscar-nominee Candy Clark),
who is clearly out of Toad’s league, and is continuously manipulative. The
other comic aside involves the local greaser John, (Paul Le Mat) as he spends
the night somehow babysitting a rambunctious twelve-year old (Mackenzie
Phillips), while trying to avoid a newcomer in town who’s out to challenge his
drag racing title (Harrison Ford).
When I was young, I watch the movie as a
homage to the Americana tradition of cruisin’, and as a remembrance of the
innocence and fragility of youth. Now, I see how Lucas was able to document a
zeitgeist of a moment, ten years after the moment had ended, and it remains his
strongest and most underappreciated film. I also understand why someone would
make one last grasp at their old youth, but also recognize that even if the
characters aren’t aware of their futures, the filmmakers do. The audience
probably does to. They and we have knowledge and wisdom they don’t and
shouldn’t have.
The movie has spawned many imitators, most famously Richard
Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused,” which took the structure of “American
Graffiti,” but set the film in the ‘70s, while making it in the ‘90s, and
instead of creating nostalgia, he created disillusionment. I’m a huge Linklater
fan, but I always thought that film of his was overrated, possibly because I
think it’s more fun to look into the past, and see joy, whether we were
actually joyous or not. It’s not the overall that we remember anyway, it’s
those briefs moments that actually stick into our mind, like the girl Mr.
Bernstein talks about seeing that one time in “Citizen Kane”, or that girl in
that elusive white t-bird. I wonder about what would’ve happened to Curt had
the result of his search been different....
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