Day 103 - American Graffiti



Day 103          American Graffiti [1973]
                          
Screenplay                    George Lucas, Gloria Katz & Willard Huyck
Director                         George Lucas
Cinematography            Ron Eveslage & Jan D’Alquen
Music                            George Lucas, Kim Fowley & Karin Green
Leads                            Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, MacKenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams, Wolfman Jack, Harrison Ford
Production                     Lucasfilm Ltd., The Coppola Company

IMDb                                 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes                 95%

Coming-of-age films may well just be my favourites at the moment. Probably because I am experiencing the purgatory between education and employment myself and films about the last days of high-school or college (as they are always American) take me back to that warm, fuzzy place where there is very little to worry about. This one did it less than Dazed and Confused (Day 52) and Slacker (Day 78), but probably because it’s a whole generation older. Set in Modesto, California in 1962, it follows a bunch of teens driving around the city on the last day of the summer holidays before their adult lives begin. It’s not about the plot really, it’s about being young, listening to music, looking for someone to cruise around the city with to show off your shiny motor car. I’m sure it influenced Linklater massively in the making of the aforementioned films. There isn’t a character to dislike, and each sub-plot is just as fun and quotable as the next. Full of ad-libs and goofs that Lucas kept in, the film is so good because despite being set nearly 60 years ago the characters and their feelings regarding their futures are relatable and their actions realistic. The constant verbal diarrhoea of young America is fantastic, all the guys hitting on the girls, all the girls giving as good as they are getting, making friends was easy back then. A bit too far back for me but this film is a cult hit because of the nostalgia it induces. It hasn’t aged too badly either.

Acting                            3 / 4
Writing                           3 / 4
Cinematography             2 / 4
Music                          3.5 / 4
HWF rating                3 / 4

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