I know I'm kind of late, but yesterday was the 35th anniversary of American Graffiti. I just watched it, so I had to write this blog entry. If you haven't seen it, do so now, it was George Lucas' big break before he made Star Wars. The basic premise is a bunch of high school graduates in the last day of the summer of '62 before they leave for college. It takes place in Lucas' hometown of Modesto but could take place anywhere in small town America. It was based on Lucas' own experiences as a teen and shows the "innocence" of America before Kennedy's assassination and Vietnam and other tumultuous events. Anyways, I thought because of 35 years of this landmark film I thought I would post a general review.

The presentation of American Graffiti is very original with the ongoing Wolfman Jack radio show constantly playing. Lucas said he had always remembered Wolfman Jack from his youth and had him in the movie. The film is set around four guys: Steve Bolander (Ron Howard), the one eager to leave right for college, Curt Henderson (Richard Dreyfuss) the one who has misgivings about going to college and thinks about staying in Modesto, Terry Fields (Charles Martin Smith), the nerd, and John Milner (Paul Le Mat), the cool drag racer. The whole movie takes place during the night before Steve and Curt are supposed to leave for college in the East. For the duration of American Graffiti, you see Curt and Steve have various experiences and find out what they should really do with their life, such as with Laurie Henderson (Cindy Williams), Curt's sister and Steve's boyfriend, who is not at all pleased Steve will leave and go with other girls, as well as various experiences such as Curt seeing a blonde in a T-bird (Suzanne Somers) who mouths "I love you" and he ends up chasing her the whole night.

There are other subplots as well with Terry, taking care of Steve's car, picking up Debbie Dunham (Candy Clark) and having many amusing adventures such as attempting to buy liquor and getting the car stolen. Or with John as he mistakenly picks up a 12 year old girl, Carol (Mackenzie Phillips) and having a cruise around the town with her. Also, there is the subplot of Bob Falfa (Harrison Ford, in one of his first movie roles), a tough newcomer to town, looking for John for a race, as John is supposed to be the fastest in the valley.

However, the plot is merely secondary to what really matters in American Graffiti. Feeling like you're in a summer night in '62. Lucas, creates such an atmosphere that you feel you transported back to that time and once you're done with it, you start saying words such as "boss" and start humming Chuck Berry. Really, American Graffiti is a perfect preservation of what America was back then, with the cruising and the drive-ins, before many things happened and America pretty much could never go back to that age of innocence.

***POTENTIAL SPOILERS***

At the climax of the film, John and Falfa begin a race (with Laurie in the car with Falfa) and Falfa soon blows a tire and rolls his car. Laurie is freaked out of her mind and in a moment of hysteria, pleads with Steve not to leave, and Steve, reverting from his stance in the beginning of the film, promises to Laurie he will stay. Curt then receives a phone call from the blonde and she tells him to meet her up while cruising. Curt then makes his decision to go to the East, regardless of the blonde, and even sees her car while in the plane. The epilogue shows that John was killed by a drunk driver, Terry was M.I.A. in Vietnam, Steve ended up staying in Modesto and becoming an insurance agent, and Curt is a writer living in Canada, apparently dodging the draft.

This leaves a stale taste with the viewer, but had to be done, to show that after the summer of '62, things changed, and mostly for the worst, including for our main characters.

*** SPOILERS END***

You have to hand it to the actors as well. Each actor brilliantly portrays their characters, especially Richard Dreyfuss, as he puts his attitude of not really knowing what he wants and as a romantic, and I fell in the love with the character immediately. Harrison Ford is exceptional as well, but I guess I'm biased about that. But he does, put Falfa's brand of arrogance and manliness across, and I think Falfa is one of cinema's bad-#####.

Overall, George Lucas made a true masterpiece with his brilliant story, setting, design, characters, atmosphere, etc. The actors are brilliant, as well as the camerawork and the choice of music just transports you to 1962. What makes you love this movie, is its ingenious portrayal of that time (and I wasn't even alive then) and the plot and characters. The only reason you might not enjoy this film is if you have no interest or connection to the early 60's. There is nearly nothing wrong with this film and is one of cinema's great classics and rivals Star Wars in my book.

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