California Provincial Town of 1962. Four alumni friends spend their last night on the eve of entering full adulthood. The fattest prospects are drawn by two friends Kurt and Steve, who in the morning should fly to the East Coast to study for college.
However, if Steve has already decided everything for himself - it's time to get out of the wilderness and expand his capabilities, then Kurt still doubts whether he should go to an unknown college far. But the brutal guy John, the best racer in the district and who found his vital niche at the station, everything is already determined - he will remain here, even until the very end. And completely incomprehensible prospects for the vain "four-eyed" Terry, for whom just to meet a girl is already a accomplishment. And here for all this group begins an unforgettable and very bright night.
“American Graffiti” is such a periphrase of “The Last Film Show” by Peter Bogdanovich, only performed in a fundamentally different atmospheric range. Bogdanovich events take place in the 50s and the young also say goodbye to his childhood, but says goodbye in obviously black and white tones, and the director himself puts an end to black and white cinema. But the 27-year-old unknown boy George Lucas is not so much saying goodbye, as he allows you to nostalgia for his very short-lived youthful childhood, in which the trees were large, and cars are more beautiful, and tomorrow seemed like honey. And he turned out surprisingly well, and most importantly - very subtle and soulful.
And after all, the success of such a movie, as Lucas directed, is possible only through the prism of a clearly felt atmosphere. Formally, “American Graffiti” has no central plot or even any global issues. Yes, young people are facing the “entry into adulthood.” Yes, there are curiosities in every storyline. The hero of Richard Dreyfuss falls on daring gangsters, with whom he becomes his own. Future iconic director Ron Howard rethinks his place in the world and gradually bows to the fact that he does not need more. Glasses self-realize on a cool car in the company of a loose blonde (personal Oscar nomination for Candy Clark). A brutal guy broke down with a girl and on his head and in his car got a minor, which is impossible to get rid of. It’s all funny, but the merit of Lucas is that he managed not only to tie all this haphazard confusion together, but also spiritualized the picture with romantic nostalgia for very recently. It seems that America existed only 10 years ago, and Lucas managed to draw a red line between then and now. And that's at his age as yesterday's kid.
A separate rhythm of the film is set by cars that stand out not only for their winged form of the already forever lost 50-60s, but also the way of life. Lucas’s car is not a means of transportation, nor even a luxury – it is a way of life. Without leaving the car, the young man meets and frames the girls, fucks in the salon, walks away from the chase and asserts himself in racing. And so that all this was not boring, from the radio receivers there are always flashy melodies of rock and roll, interrupted only by the stem comments of the cult radio host Wolfman, whom Lucas adored in his 17 years, and whom he brought especially for filming in this movie.
American Graffiti is also an open door for young actors. For the production of the film, Lucas received money from his friend and senior friend Francis Ford Coppola as part of the support program for the director’s youngsters. I didn’t give anything at all – the film’s budget was about $750,000 – but it’s certainly not the kind of money that you could invite even remotely recognizable actors. But Lucas managed to conduct such a casting that almost all the actors in the near future shot loudly. Richard Dreyfuss, who played the most interesting role of the boy Kurt, still not decided for himself - to fall or not to fall on the "big ground", in the 70s will become the crown actor of Steven Spielberg. Ron Howard in a couple of decades will become the top director of Hollywood, which will have such films as “Mind Games”, “Apollo 13” and other “Da Vinci Codes”. Unknown blonde Candy Clarke for this film will receive his only Oscar nomination, and the same unknown Paul Le Mat will win the Golden Globe. Young Bo Hopkins will succeed in the colorful role of the leader of a hooligan group. Here the future scandalous actress from the TV series “Once at a time”, 14-year-old MacKenzie Phillips will brighten up. Finally, the still very small role of the bully cowboy, who claims to win the race on the highway, will play an unknown Harrison Ford. You could say that these are random coincidences ... but by chance you can drag into the film 1-2 future stars, and Lucas mucked up a whole bouquet. And this already speaks not about chance, but about the aesthetic tastes of the director.
One last thing. Perhaps not bring "American Graffiti" such fabulous money at the box office - and the picture grossed 115 million! - we would watch a very good director George Lucas, who periodically indulges in different genres and from time to time shows very good results. But Lucas, whose salary was registered at a modest 50 thousand dollars, also broke for himself 15% of box office and eventually became a dollar millionaire. And then this very lazy man will make only one more film (not counting the reanimated franchise in the late 90s), become a billionaire – dollar – and quit with active directing. But it will be a film that will change the idea of cinema. We are talking, of course, about Star Wars, which grew out of the overcoat of American Graffiti.
Stylish, soulful and entertaining. Even if Star Wars had never appeared, George Lucas would have left a very high-quality aftertaste with this film alone.
7.5 out of 10
The second Lucas as a director of the film is unlikely to appeal to fans of Star Wars.
Before traveling to universities in megacities, graduates of the local school walk “to the fullest”. The film shows only one night, during which the paths of the children strangely cross.
Sometimes the paths of critics and reviewers are inscrutable. It’s a complete mystery why American Graffiti is a comedy, because there are at least five funny episodes. And more of it is still an existential drama about the unfulfilled. It contains the director’s autobiography. Because of the three characters 'bright' the future was only one of them. The rest of the future has been stolen by war. In a sense, Lucas opened in the cinema and the theme of the Vietnamese syndrome. Just digging a little deeper. Who cares? In the end, Coppola offered him to shoot something light, and the audience voted for ' ease' dollar.
A couple of sources of graffiti can be guessed - there is something here from Salinger and Rebel for no reason, only realized 10 years later and acquired the features of a lost generation and at the same time with a strange but optimistic. With Lucas gone to Star Wars and Indiana Jones, the generation (not) is completely lost.
I think of myself as a schoolboy. Myself in high school. It's summer. Summer is when you realize that this is the last chance to rest, that now childhood is over, and then a long adult life lies ahead. And now she's with me forever, and this summer, this day of summer, when you're still considered a child, you can't come back. But what are the horizons, what achievements I have to open and overcome? And the whole future seems exceptionally positive, but there is sadness about the past. Nostalgia for literally yesterday. Moreover, there is growing concern about the upcoming choice of the road to the future. And how right this choice will be determines your fate for the rest of your life.
These are the feelings that I personally felt. You feel the same way when you watch this amazing movie. It's nighttime buffoons, it's running from the police, it's the realization that you're kind of not a kid anymore, it's the first tight embrace of boys with girls, it's fashionable music, it's fast cars, it's partying until morning. The film is like a kaleidoscope of events that throws out a bunch of scenes connected by common characters, a common place, and literally the last few days of total irresponsibility.
Nostalgia is supported by a constant reminder that it is 1962, and those who have something to remember about those times feel additional sadness. But the boys and girls shown are not just buffoons. They're alive. They're real. And they all have a purpose and a dream. And at the end of the film, I really want to know what happened to these characters. And how wonderful that already in the credits the authors reveal to us the secret of the future.
Comedy and drama in one bottle. Very warm, funny, but such a serious film.
In most reviews of this film, cars are mentioned as the heroes of the film, as what the plot is built around, as an important sign of the time, and so on. It’s all true, but the typewriters in Lucas’s film seem important to me for revealing this point.
In one episode, the hero walks through a dump of broken cars and tells, pointing his finger, how one of his acquaintances crashed on this car, on this other, the third. Cars at the same time look completely intact, maximum slight bruising, no glass, broken headlights, and why? Anyone who understands cars will understand - American classics, the sixties, not plastic, but steel, zero passive safety, in a serious accident, the car is safe, and inside everything is soft, so it was with us, well-known stories about how other Muscovites experienced two or three owners, only to wash blood.
And I look at the characters in the film, the people in the typewriters, and I realize that the cars were much stronger, but the people in the typewriters were as fragile as they are now, in every sense. And the strong steel shell around them is false security. I thought that was very important.
Culture has imposed on us a stereotype about the absolute importance of “accidental meeting”, which must necessarily have a continuation, fate. At the same time, what we do with this continuation of the culture does not specifically explain us, figure it out for yourself. It is difficult not to fall for this stereotype and deliberately refuse to continue, enjoying the moment itself, the moment, which will surely collapse if you do not stop in time. But the hero seems to have succeeded.
American Graffiti is George Lucas' second film before he took on his most ambitious, famed Star Wars project. “American graffiti” is covered with nostalgic haze, longing for the 50s, an era of rare, bizarre cars, rock and roll, school novels. Lucas’ film is almost entirely shot, which is called “off wheels”: the action takes place in cars, four heroes who dream of outdoing each other, arrange adventures in order to show themselves better than they are.
Love stories unfold on a problem-free, conflict-free field: in the film there are almost no sharp dramatic clashes, no emotional explosions, no tragic experiences. In this sense, he is significantly inferior in drama to the masterpiece of P. Bogdanovich “The Last Film Show”, in which the love stories of characters from the 50s become a symbol of a dying era, the destruction of the urban environment, the decay of a small backwater.
In the end, in contrast to his debut TNK 1138, in which Orwellian dystopianism testified to the genuine drama of what is happening on the screen, Lucas made of American Graffiti movie problem-free, easy, although in some ways technically virtuoso, scenes are fastened through a very skillful editing. But apart from anecdotal, funny scenes, there is nothing overly emotional, opening new horizons of drama in it. Because the film is difficult to attribute to the “new Hollywood”, it is rather Lucas’ first step towards commercial cinema. What was the second step, we all know.
This film is a hymn of youth, a farewell to childhood. The last day of childhood is full of recklessness, frivolity, unrestrainedness, danger and fun. Cars moving through the evening, night and then the dawn city in the light of showcases and neon advertising. People get in cars, drive, talk, kiss, clarify relationships, swear, sullenly silent, compete for speed, laugh at inept drivers, laugh at the jokes of the radio host, go out, sit down again, and some are forced to be sidelined. Someone will be less lucky and will be sprayed with water through the side window of the car. And someone will have to prove their right to exist in order to avoid execution at the bumper. This is a film filled with humor, irony and nostalgia for moments of life that many people have and do not repeat. And on a larger scale, it is a soul-stricken memory of the early sixties: Kadilaki, rocknroll, roadside diners and joyful nights, when all life seems ahead and the whole world at your feet.
White T-bird, the leitmotif running through the entire narrative. Kurt's gaze through the window of a plane carrying him into adulthood. An endless road among the same endless fields, and the only white car moving along it. Girl or mirage. Unattainable. And that's good. Let him stay that way. A beautiful memory of a stranger in a white car on the last day of his childhood.
10 out of 10
I will not hide – the film is quite a remarkable spectacle not only because of its content, but also because of the fact that in our time, when watching, understanding who shot it, you come into a kind of respectful rush: after all, you observe one of the first creations of the legendary George Lucas.
But, unfortunately, except for the simple reverence in me, this film aroused little.
Yeah, she's definitely good. This is a film that perfectly shows the youth of the 60s with all their characters, aspirations and problems. But there is one point, in view of which everything is by no means unambiguous: here the life of Western youth is demonstrated, and therefore for us, the inhabitants of another continent and adherents of more different rules and orders, much can seem a little tricked, strained and as if “inanimate” – a completely different ideology, that’s all.
But what is this film about in the synopsis? It's pretty mundane, especially in those parts of the world, where we're watching the night of 1962. Newly graduated teenagers Steve and Kurt fly off to college the next day, and therefore Kurt is constantly in a moral internal struggle over this issue, while trying to find out the name of a girl of angelic beauty, which he accidentally noticed. Steve tries not to ruin his relationship with the girl before leaving. Their friends, John and Terry, are also busy. The first is preparing for the next race, at the same time trying to get rid of the minor girl who acceded to him. And the second, having got at the disposal of a beautiful car, "to pick up" somehow a beauty, and since he was not lucky with his appearance, he hopes more than zealously on the car.
This is a very simple context.
But it is also attractive in this picture, especially for the inhabitants of America, because the picture is simply indescribably impregnated with him by everyone familiar and native color. And if you consider that this tape, in fact, one of the first that put forward in the category of “ordinary” such “broken” into the stories in the setting nights with teenagers, then there are no more questions about the fact that “American Graffiti” is included in the “National Register of American Films”. I don’t know, maybe the creators and for their own native viewers in something approximate reality, but the essence does not change: the film “enters” with such a respected list, and therefore the value is for local critics and the people as a whole is not small.
This film can and should be considered a classic and one of the best indicators of the subclass of cinema "Road-movie". But it is unlikely to be of interest to us, people who do not understand the purpose of this bombastic pride and bitchiness of many American girls of those years; do not understand this unhealthy passion and long-awaited love of young people for their idols of those years; people for whom the beauty of that immorality, and with it the pretended “coolness”, of many guys of that time remains a mystery. For us it is quite, so to speak, "far away," as well as for those people "far away." Our soul...
I’m not even sure if you should watch this movie. I unquestionably remove the sloop in front of George Lucas. Of course, I was really happy to see my favorite Harrison Ford in the picture. I am happy to agree that this film is a cult film and is considered to have influenced the culture of American society. But for Our man, it is quite “distant”, as it seems to me, so decide for yourself: look, or not.
I would like to add that I liked American Graffiti. But they left almost nothing behind; again, they did not fall by the Spirit. However, if something exactly the opposite happens with you, I ask you to forgive me for misleading you – everyone has his own vision of the world, and quite possibly you are much closer to Western culture than I am.
P.S. But the rare cars of me, as a great lover of the North American automotive industry of those years, delighted right to the core ... but this is true, aesthetics. Anyway, thanks for listening.
The self-replicating flying Dutch surf the Internet under the motto “Schools do not understand!” Their creators, bearded and not so old uncles (born in the USSR!) are nostalgic for the pictures “The wolf collects eggs in a bow”, “Dairy Tetrahedra” or “Bruce Lee Poster. A bright sense of light sadness about the times when the trees were greener, and Fanta fizzier, puts blinders on the mind, which on any argument of the opponent like “Would they change the cloudy today for the sunny yesterday?” gets an ineradicable trump card about the incomprehensible schooling.
"American Graffiti" is a pronounced nostalgic picture. About One Night No Longer Small and Not Big Graduates, 1962 Sex was already rubbing a light breeze of briolin hair, rock and roll spilled a bottomless ocean, only with drugs was strained. No drugs, no beer, evil shopkeepers did not sell, the law on minors was blasphemed. So this cornerstone in the film had to be replaced by cars. Every self-respecting American sixteen-year-old confidently dissects on the Kraisler or Chevrolet, Cadillac or Plymouth. Moreover, the eyes of the sad about the past youth were presented not some stoatbucks scumbags, which the fathers allocated to practice the skills of dodging telegraph poles. No, the young and, as it turned out, very promising director George Lucas organized a park of retro rarities for filming. And what collector of cars will keep a broken copy, everything is as it should, sparkling "Snow" and chrome. And the average speed of transport in the frame did not exceed twenty kilometers per hour. Even in spite of the neat street racing.
As soon as this moment was fixed in consciousness, so immediately began to dissolve the atmosphere that brought the film the love of critics and the material means of the local audience (quite considerable, it should be noted, the film is still in the twenty most profitable). The romantic ideals of the sixties Yankees are painfully far from mine. Although the limousines were inaccessible to us at that time for a hundred and one reason, on the twenty-year-old Muscovites, not to mention the Java and Bukovina, we also cut, and the speed on potholes was inversely proportional to life experience. What a sin to hide, filmed and girls jumping in the back seat, and vodka could get. And the fights were not limited to two drops from the nose to the tennis. But remember hiking and songs to the guitar, night duty at the entrance without much chance of a kiss, some stupidity like jumping from a three-meter bridge. Surely the girl would not say “I love you, but to test your feelings, let’s meet with others” (although met with others, and third, ehm).
What does Lucas propose to sigh over? Almost two hours sterile cars drive on the sterile pavement. Night, lantern, pharmacy (in the sense of a diner where a waitress brings directly behind the wheel on rollers). Do you love me? Yeah. You want me? Yeah. Romantic, like a McDonald's hamburger. And to cry, at the end of the running line - he died in Vietnam, he became a burgher. However, we must give credit, the musical accompaniment was an order of magnitude higher than the plot component – however, it can be attributed more to the late fifties than to the allocated 1962, but it does not matter. Well, the trick with tearing off the rear bridge is a sin not to note, although the notorious destroyers of legends proved its impossibility.
And comrade George Lucas was, after all, not so green and inexperienced. Not every debutant has a film studio under his wing, named after himself and a safety belt in the face of the super popular after the Godfather Francis Ford Coppola. “American Graffiti” opened the way for the director to a big movie, without them, perhaps we would not have learned about lightsabers or an archaeologist with a playful whip. That's just a really favorite for the current domestic viewer of the film not to become. School doesn't understand, so to speak.
After the financial failure of the THX-1138 project, the story of a fantastic and perfectly functioning underground city, Lucas became frustrated and depressed. Therefore, the next creation had to determine the fate of the director: go to the cinema or read books. However, sitting on the neck of his wife ambitious film school graduate was disgusting.
The second picture of Lucas was a story far from fiction. He decided to make a retro comedy about his youth, moving the action to 10 years ago - in 1962. It was then that 18-year-old Lucas was in trouble: he was hospitalized with fractured ribs and a fractured skull. The road accident was the result of his passion for racing. Produced by American graffiti again made Coppola, who gave the young director almost the same funds as the debut — 777,000 dollars.
Early autumn of 1962. A small town north of San Francisco. All events take place over a single night before the expected departure of two of the four teenage protagonists. For the most part, this partly autobiographical tape is devoted to the manic love of Americans for cars: almost half of the action takes place in the cockpits of cars. That is why the main events are an extravaganza of cars circling the city, sparkling with chrome coatings in the neon of night streets.
For 17-18-year-olds, cursing becomes something of a major life ritual. It helps to somehow distract from provincial boredom and bring closer the dream of rushing somewhere into the big world from this sleepy kingdom. Although in the end, only one hero finds the strength to leave his native town: even dreams of a blond stranger who, like a phantom, will beckon him with a pen will not be able to keep him. Another, handsome class chief, on the contrary, prefers to stay at home, because at the last moment he realizes that he can not leave his girlfriend.
The film is dedicated to an ever-present topic, especially for young men contemplating life, the inner conflict between conformity and the desire to free themselves from “time and place.” The emergence of a sad nostalgic mood and a feeling that an entire era has ended are facilitated by musical hits (which are densely filled with the background), even though most of them have already gone out of fashion by the early 1960s. Today, out of a dozen and a half used hits of the middle of the last century, perhaps two things The Beach Boys have remained on the ear.
Interestingly, the 28-year-old Lucas invited almost his peers to the role of teenagers: at the time of filming, Paul Le Mat was already 26 years old, and Richard Dreyfus was 25. The youngest here was 18-year-old Ron Howard, the future Hollywood master, who in just 5 years will debut in a big movie as a director. Against the background of the central quartet in the shadows was Harrison Ford - the most successful performer of the 1980s. Here, in a 30-year-old actor, it is still impossible to recognize a future superstar.
Filming a picture of the cultural shifts that began to take place in America at the intersection of the 1950s and 60s, Lucas got into the epicenter of public expectations. He liked the feeling of triumph much more than the decadent mood that accompanied the failure of his debut work. Now he even made his way to the Oscar nominations (besides the film itself, Lucas personally could get the statuette as a director and co-writer of the script), but still in the end he was forced to give way to his more successful namesake - George Roy Hill, who tore the bank with the retro comedy "A Hustle".
But the financial success of the tape was truly grandiose - even the most daring expectations were significantly exceeded. For every dollar invested, the picture collected more than 50 USD, which meant only one thing – Lucas made one of the most profitable films in the history of Hollywood. So the aspiring director turned from a loser into a millionaire, and he never had any financial problems again. Studio bosses readily granted him unlimited loans, because they immediately realized that this guy has a sense of success: he knows best how to tame luck.
The fact that Lucas really knew how to get into the “narrow zone of consensus” and knew best which spoon was the way to dinner today was confirmed two years later, when news came about the emergence of the latest computer technology of electronic control, allowing you to make an incredible number of cinematic combinations. Lucas was one of the first to adopt it immediately. So began a completely different story - the era of "Star Wars".
Before he became interested in cinema, which then entered film school, Lucas was fascinated with cars and races from his school years, that he even took part in them. In addition to this passion, Lucas also loved photography. And he combined those two hobbies. He began to shoot documentaries, namely racing races.
Among those who were just as keen on racing was one of the best cinematographers, Haskell Wexler. Wexler noticed a guy who was walking around with a camera and looking for spectacular angles to convey the atmosphere of the race. Young Lucas impressed the famous operator. For these two interests, they became friends. Wexler noted that George has a very good eye and thinks visually. Wexler advised Lucas to go to film school. He became Lucas' mentor. At the film school, Lucas was very impressed with abstract cinema, where the emphasis is not on storytelling, but on visual, editing and sound images. There, Lucas met his future wife, editor Marcia, who participated in the editing of “American Graffiti” (nomination “best editing”) of “Star Wars” (Oscar for “best editing”).
American Graffiti (1973) is a nostalgic film. It feels like a movie. Youth comedy nostalgia. A movie about the '60s. This is the first film of its kind. This movie can be seen regardless of the time. Each of us experienced the feeling when the school or student journey ended and a new one began. This feeling is both pleasant and exciting and frightening. There will be no “old gatherings on the bench”, friends-friends will go somewhere. Or something like that. Another life will begin and the usual moments, alas, will not be returned. The film tells several stories about friends, some of whom have just finished school and are preparing for a change. Different things happened to each of them during that time. Kurt accidentally saw the girl he was looking for from the car window. Steve is having a romantic crisis with his girlfriend Lori. Unlucky Terry drives an expensive car, trusted by Steve for supervision while leaving town. John, the city’s unbeatable super racer, is waiting for a challenge, but is forced to ride with an obsessive girl who is not confident.
The film perfectly conveys the atmosphere of the 60s. One of these is the visual style. One of the best in cinema. A dark picture in depth, but at the same time very bright. The visual is somewhat similar to Star Wars, which will be released in 4 years. It was one of Lucas' styles. Very nice visual. Also in the film constantly play (at different volume levels) hits of those years. Classic rock 'n' roll. One of the original and interesting features of the film is a conversation right while driving along the road. Literally, "Hi, how are you?" Hey, good! I really like this idea and how it is implemented.
It is worth starting with the fact that the director of this tape was made at that time by a young and unknown George Lucas, the producer was rich and cult after the Godfather Francis Ford Coppola. Immediately I want to add that this is the art of cinema, do not be afraid to open new names, new directors, and not to shoot a hundred times the stuff already known and venerable.
The plot of the movie. The dashing sixties, a small California town, several friends after graduating from school spend their last “children’s” night. One guy (then just a novice actor, and now a well-known director Ron Howard) is a good-looking boy from a decent family who has to go to college, so he can’t say goodbye to his girlfriend. The second (the famous Richard Dreyfus of Jaws, etc.) got in touch with a gang of bandits, they ride cars, play tricks and have fun. Another boy, quiet and ugly, met a chic blonde on the street. And the last, handsome racing driver is this night alone with a minor who stubbornly does not want to leave him.
Rock and roll, stylish cars, girls, cafes, dancing - all this is very kind, easy and stylish Lucas showed in "American Graffiti" - a cult youth comedy about the sixties. All of them are waiting for adulthood, someone is happy, someone is not very, someone will break through and become a “big man”, someone will die young. Everything seems as usual, we have seen a lot of such youth hits, but this tape seemed to me very special and soulful. It is sad when everything starts so beautifully in youth, and then everything develops differently, not always good.