"You haven't seen American Grafitti?" my dad says, in a shocked voice; the same shocked voice he had when I was 27 and told him I'd never seen one Star Wars movie.
So tonight, I watched it.
American Grafitti, not Star Wars.
Now, I'd seen movies like this before...Dazed and Confused, Superbad...those "it all happened one crazy night" coming-of-age movies that totally capture a specific period of youth in a specific decade of time. In this case, it's a movie made in the 70s, set in the 60s.
Just a little American Graffiti Trivia from good ole' trusty IMDb....
It was released in 1973. It cost $777,000 to make and grossed $115 million worldwide - it's one of the most profitable movies ever made. It was the second production of Lucasfilms, with Frances Ford Coppola as the director. Apparently, George Lucas had trouble finding financing for the film and after seeing how much money it made, Coppola said he never quite got over not financing the film himself. He would have made $30 million back then ($173 million today).
As I watched it, I just thought back to what it would have been like back then, to worry about nothing more than driving up and down a road, eating with my friends, and being young and carefree....on the cusp of crossing into the next phase of life, which were the beginnings of adulthood. I just think about how many main drags there were in towns all over the US, with drive-ins, awesome cars, greasy-hair boys and adorable girls just being young and excited about life together. The nostalgia of that time period was hard to ignore in this movie - it made me want to wear skirts and tennis shoes and go to a dance with my friends.
I also loved the soundtrack. The only soundtrack for a movie prior to this one, that contained songs already released in a compilation track was Easy Rider. One of the main draws of these types of movies is the music it offers. Numerous hits from one decade, all brought together in one single movie. Music helps tell such an amazing story and this movie certainly used the music to do that. The soundtrack to American Graffiti sold 3 million copies, and I totally see why. You'll notice though, there aren't any Elvis songs (too expensive). It would have been hard as a radio listener back in the 60s to listen all night to a station and not hear one Elvis song....but our characters in this movie weren't so lucky. Even still, the music was absolutely amazing. The scenery in general was awesome. The costumes, the cars, the drive-in, the sock-hop - all of it was a lot of fun to watch.
Now onto what I didn't care for.....I tried to watch this with the attitude of a kid back in the 70's, watching this for the first time and NOT with the mindset of a 40-year-old mom. That wasn't the easiest thing to do because there were parts of this movie that bugged me to no end. For example, the relationship between John and Carol. Mackenzie Phillips was 12 during the filming of this movie. The actor who played John, Paul Le Mat, was 28. That just made every scene they were in together completely disgusting to me. And the number of times the script called for her to use the word "rape" just made me absolutely cringe. It's hard to believe things that were OK just a few decades ago, vs things that are OK now. The state of California required Phillips to have a guardian on set at all times and since her parents were off being rock stars, one of the producers got temporary guardianship during the movie. I didn't understand why this relationship was in the movie, to be honest. It was so off-putting and I couldn't quite understand how this poor child was pawned off by a car full of her sister and sister's friends, to go joyriding around with an older boy who was a complete stranger. I'm sure that's how things were back then, but sheesh.
Since this movie was one I'd heard so much about, I loved what Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote about it, "'American Graffiti' is such a funny, accurate movie, so controlled and efficient in its' narrative, that it stands to be overpraised to the point where seeing it will be an anticlimax." I did kind of feel like that myself. I feel like with movies like this, it's not just about the movie itself, but it's also about the time of life the viewer is when they watch it that makes it special. I think there are also movies that make you yearn for your youth in a unique way, and for many teenagers who watched this back in the 70s, this movie epitomized all the things they couldn't wait to be a part of when they got older. I feel the same when watching movies, now, that were made in the 80s - or even more so when I watch nostalgic shows like Stranger Things, that speak to my childhood in a way other movies can't do. I think what Dazed and Confused did for the 70s, American Graffiti did the for the 60s, - it was able to look back with some perspective and found just the exact right parts of the era and romanticized them to be even better than they might have actually been. The cars, the music - they were all glitzy and gorgeous in the movie, even if they might not have been exactly like that in real life. When I watch Stranger Things, for example, the producers were able to take exactly the parts of our childhood we remembered and put it on a screen in such a way that you don't remember the boring details of a childhood in the 80s, but you see all the amazing parts of your childhood in the 80s - even if certain parts weren't actually in your childhood. In the same way, not everyone drag raced on main streets on a Friday night in small towns. Not everyone had a hamburger joints with carhops.....but everyone could see themself in that time frame and remember what it was like as a kid and picture themselves in that movie. I feel like that's a nostalgia I'll never feel when watching movies like this. So while I appreciated it as a piece of story-telling, I don't think it really spoke to me as much as it spoke to someone of my dad's generation, who were teenagers when they movie came out and remembered both being a kid in the 60s and being a teen in the 70s.
I read Rober Ebert's review of the movie from 1973, and more so than anything, he talks about the way he felt while watching the movie than he talks about the movie itself. It's almost the equivalent of time travel; a movie like this sends you straight back to that exact period of time and thrusts you into feelings that exist only in your distant memories. I can relate to that feeling, as my generation is entering into our 40s and those types of nostalgic time-pieces are coming at us, reminding us of how fast time goes but how amazing things used to be 'before.' Substitute drive-in burger joints for the mall food court; the main street for the mall, the cars for skateboards, the poodle skirts for leg warmers and spandex and it's the same movie, just set in the 80s. I get it and I appreciate it, for sure.
I read Rober Ebert's review of the movie from 1973, and more so than anything, he talks about the way he felt while watching the movie than he talks about the movie itself. It's almost the equivalent of time travel; a movie like this sends you straight back to that exact period of time and thrusts you into feelings that exist only in your distant memories. I can relate to that feeling, as my generation is entering into our 40s and those types of nostalgic time-pieces are coming at us, reminding us of how fast time goes but how amazing things used to be 'before.' Substitute drive-in burger joints for the mall food court; the main street for the mall, the cars for skateboards, the poodle skirts for leg warmers and spandex and it's the same movie, just set in the 80s. I get it and I appreciate it, for sure.
All that to say, I'm glad I've finally seen it. Would I see it again? Probably not. But I'm glad I watched it at least once. I won't even have the appreciation for it that some might, but I did appreciate it.
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