spot-on subtle sociology (before the deluge) - but weak film processing

Good movie | American Graffiti (Collector's Edition) (High School Reunion Collection) | Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard

DVDs:


	• American Graffiti (Collector's Edition) (High School Reunion Collection) Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard Universal Studios, 1998 average customer review:based on 175 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Movie for All Time!!!!

Fun music!!! Fun people!!! What more can I say? This movie accurately depicts a night of cruising back in the 60's, at least where I grew up in California. I will still be rocking out to this movie when I'm in the old folks home.

spot-on subtle sociology (before the deluge) - but weak film processing

AG is a narrative masterfully poised (late summer, 1962) at the brink of a big culture shift, that is BEFORE: the Viet Nam War got more consuming; the civil rights movement expanded (& produced its accompanying legislation); the womens' rights movement began to bud; the Beatles and the counterculture changed American rock and roll; and safety and mileage standards were mandated for automobiles, changing this industry.

The enduring success of this film is largely owed to the writers' letting the 6 protagonists' own lives suggest what was to follow by the decade's end. They are allowed to be themselves in a time and place and we watch with trepidation and irony, wondering how the future will interrupt them. It was no small achievement to resist spelling things out via screenwriter's hindsight. Lucas was also wise NOT to place his story in a major urban center like the affluent northeastern suburbs or, more likely, Southern California. Fresno was the ideal choice for AG's mise-en-scene -- part rural, mid-size, provincial and more like middle America than the left and right coasts. But it DID have the California car culture that provided the leitmotif for (literally) moving its characters through the story.

It was also the right touch to have disc jockey Wolfman Jack as a sort of Greek chorus - the choice of rock songs and ballads complements the unfolding narrative. On a second level, Wolfman Jack stands for the larger world, and perhaps a bit too literally, when he counsels Curt in the radio station - though this is an effective scene. WJ's broadcasts from the remote desert southwest were said to reach much of the lower half of the US, and at night the right sort of atmospheric conditions extended his signal to the Canadian border. This reach projected the new youth culture across the continent, challenging local traditions. With a few notable exceptions, nearly all of the new "youth music" was produced in LA, Philadelphia and New York and mass-marketed to the rest of the country and Canada.

The major problem I have with AG, when I saw it in its theatrical release and on the DVD I recently saw, was that it was underlit and appeared murky. This is a serious hindrance to a film that relies on the nuances of facial expression and gesture, especially when the action takes place in darkened car interiors.

Finally, the mysterious (and beset with "urban legends") blonde cruising in the white T-Bird that initially enraptures the indecisive Curt was a clever symbol for the power of local provinciality to keep its kids at home. We know she is a fantasy type that never will balance out the equation of personal fulfillment for those who invest in her.

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Good movie

I saw this movie when I was a teen and after all these years, it's still a feel good movie. I highly recommend it.

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Who Ever Said Graffiti was Bad?

American Graffiti (1973) ***1/2 |C--112 min.| D: George Lucas. Richard Dreyfuss, Ronny Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charlie Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams, Wolfman Jack, Harrison Ford. PG

Pre-STAR WARS George Lucas was still an enormous talent. Here is a film that almost was never produced, that everyone in the studios hated, and that was sure to be a bomb. It then went on to become the highest grossing (percentage wise) film of all time. It's a wild and rambunctious story of the coming-of-age of four guys on the night before they leave for college. It's a quick-witted story full of rye and rowdy humour for everyone to enjoy. Although it's a little over the top sometimes, we can still sit through it and be swept away by its originality. It was a movie ahead of its time, even though it's set nearly ten years before it was released. Better than most of the coming of age films which are nothing but a bunch of dumb, doped up teenagers in frat parties. The soundtrack is a swimming medley of all the popular songs of the 1960s. George Lucas made the right choice not to have any real soundtrack going on, but instead chose to have just the music from the radios of the cars as the music. Feels a little too long in some points, but ultimately it's a good movie, without a lot of fluff to slow it down.

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A look at one hectic night in the life of a group of high school friends just before they go off to college, jobs, or the army.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 31-MAY-2005
Media Type: DVD