I just saw American Graffiti for the first time

Cafe Society
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I’ve been catching up on old movies now that I’m on Netflix. I’ve got quite a queue going. Recently, I watched Rock Around the Clock. I was amazed at how similar it was to The Girl Can’t Help It, but that’s another thread, and I think the song “Rock Around the Clock” deserves its own thread, although I don’t mind any sort of hijack in this thread. There’s a lot to talk about.

In researching Bill Haley and the movie, I found that “Rock Around the Clock” was used for the theme song of American Graffiti. I thought, “I’ve always wanted to see that movie.” On the queue it went.

Usually I end up disappointed at popular old movies, and one thing I’ve noticed that hinders my viewing appreciation is through no fault of the movie. What ruins movies is when I’ve seen all the funny scenes or heard references to them. I’ll never really know if Young Frankenstein is really just a mediocre, nonsense movie (my suspicion) or if it was the fact that I had half the movie memorized before I saw it because it’s such a target for pop culture references. On the other hand, in the same vein, I loved Blazing Saddles, but 97% of the movie was new to me. But I still think Blazing Saddles is a much better movie.

Knowing Ron Howard was in AG, I wondered if it was the inspiration for “Happy Days,” but HD was technically around first, and Lucas asked to see the pilot to see if Ron Howard could play a teenager in AG. It was kinda strange watching Howard play a jerk. I don’t think he’s the greatest actor out there; he seems more suited at playing the nice guy.

The music in the movie is fantastic, and I really liked that it played nonstop in the film. I liked that it seemed to always be magically coming out of car radios so that it was the characters listening to it.

I’m big on plot not on story. If a movie doesn’t develop a plot soon, I get bored. But I can also appreciate a well-done story movie, but the problem with most story movies is the ending. Endings tend to leave me unsatisfied, and I think Lucas tried to address that by telling in words at the end of the movie what happened to each character. This always seems pretty hokey to me, although I wonder when the first use of that was in the movies. It always reminds me of Animal House which kinda satirizes the convention.

One thing that helps just the “story” aspect of the movie is that it takes place in one night. Having only night scenes really added a coolness to the movie that would have been lacking if it had taken place over several days. The symbolism of the sunset at the beginning and the sunrise at the end could have been heavy-handed, but I think it worked well.

All in all, I really enjoyed it and will look forward to watching it again.

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I found this film amazing. It’s the only film I’ve ever seen that directly addressed the car culture of the US in a realistic way. The music and cars were fantastic too. It’s amazing how elegiac it feels considering it was only made about a decade after it is set. I must buy this on DVD because both times I’ve seen it I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Happy Days was technically spun off an episode of “Love American Style”

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This is something I forgot to write about. It takes place in 1962, and was released in 1972. The differences between 1962 and 1972…it feels more like 50 years not ten.

What other ten year stretch could have such stark differences? I can’t imagine a movie coming out in 2009 about 1999 being like that. or…is it because I was born in 1969 and lived through the last 40 years? Is my proximity to the last four decades blending them all together?

I dunno…seems like once Rock n Roll hit, pop culture was changed forever, leading the way for John, Paul, George, and Ringo to hit the scene, ending the “fabulous 50s,” which didn’t even last that long. After that, things changed so dramatically and so fast. Yeah, there’s a big difference between 1979 and 2009, but the shift seemed gradual to me.

And I’m not trying to ignore the music/musicians that came before Rock n Roll. I’m just trying to say that I think pop music changed and morphed so fast after 1956, when before it seems like it didn’t.

I need to get out that dusty copy of The History of Rock and Roll again!

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Some things are the same even now , some small towns still have kids cruise in cars on weekend nights. Towns have passed anti-cruising laws that say you can’t drive by a spot more than 2 times an hour.

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American Graffiti was filmed largely in my hometown - I went to the high school in the film.

It’s surreal to see it in a movie. Seeing so much familiar stuff in a film makes it pretty much impossible, for me, anyway, to just enjoy the movie.

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You might like the 1979 sequel, More American Grafitti. Amazon has a collective review rating of four stars, but it seems people either like it or hate it.

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Lots of intersting people in it that went on to be famous:

Suzanne Sommers
Mackenzie Phillips
Cindy Williams
Richard Dreyfuss
Harrison Ford

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Our cars weren’t as cool and it was Iowa, but I had friends to match every character in the movie and we did all that stuff, especially the drinking and puking. A friend’s first husband was a dead ringer for Paul LeMat (Milner). Man, he was cute!

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Ron Howard has told the story that American Graffiti saved his career.

Prior to that film, he was having troubles getting any roles due to everyone still thinking of him only as Opie from the Andy Griffith Show.
Things were getting so desperate, he and a couple of buddies were thinking of making a porno called, “Opie Gets Laid”.

He claims he was thisclose to making that porno when he got the call for American Graffiti, and the rest is history…although I have to admit, “Opie Gets Laid” would have been one hell of a film to see!

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Hey, I drove a 1960 Rambler. And it was pink, which scarred me for life. Girls would be thrown 30 feet if I even drove past them. But yeah, the whole drive-in scene and cruising “the gut”, the hoods, the booze. Very nostalgic.

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I’m confused by this statement. What do you mean is the difference between a ‘plot’ movie and a ‘story’? AFAIK, plot is a basic element of a story, it’s the outline or framework for it. You can’t tell a story without having a plot to it.

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Chefguy, I woulda rode with ya. As long as the radio worked. Your radio worked, didn’t it?

What I liked best about the movie was that the characters were the “ordinary” kids. And that their angst was real teenage/almost adult angst. They weren’t too mature or too immature either, just on the cusp.

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Don’t be so sure. The radio worked and the front seats folded all the way back (insert teenaged leer). Sadly, all they ever got used for was camping. But I spent a lot of happy hours with my friends in that POS, and it got me there and back again, just like Bilbo.

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Hey, don’t forget Toad—Charles Martin Smith!

Some others who were either famous before or after—not sure which:

Kathleen Quinlan
Kay Lenz (Mrs. David Cassidy)
Joe Spano (Hill Street Blues)
Debralee Scott (Mary Hartman)
Susan Richardson (Eight is Enough)

Of course in a movie like this, a lot of them are in cameos.

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If you liked American Graffiti, Dazed and Confused might be a good choice too. It’s a lot more down-to-Earth and realistic, but still a good flick.

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and a little more raunchy take on the subject

The Hollywood Knights

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Hi, there:

This is obviously arguable, but I define plot as a series of events in a story where each event causes the next event to happen. A story is just a series of events.

I’m afraid I can’t cite this, but the example in my lit books was:

The king died, and then the queen died.

That’s a story; one event didn’t cause the other.

The king died, and then the queen died of grief.

That’s a story with a plot; the king’s death directly caused the queen’s death.

American Graffiti doesn’t have a plot. It’s just a bunch of stories loosely thrown together.

I’m not saying it’s good or bad. Some people prefer character-driven stories as opposed to tight plots with an obvious conflict that must be solved by the end. I prefer plots, but a well-made “story” movie can be awesome…just rarely so.

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I saw it in the theater and actually kind of liked it. However, it’s structure may be a bit disorienting. It’s four separate stories set on New Year’s Eve of 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1967 and frequently shifts back-and-forth between them. Also, they were unable to get Richard Dreyfuss to come back and reprise his character and they were unable to get any Beatles songs for the soundtrack. I found the absence of both conspicuous but YMMV.

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That’s from E. M. Forster’s ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL.