More American Graffiti -or- Sequels: What were they thinking? SPOILERS!

Cafe Society
1

Not all that long ago there was a thread about the film “American Graffiti.”

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=503490&highlight=American+Graffiti

I have it on VHS but I moseyed into Deep Discount DVD to see what the sequel would cost. It turns out that they have original and sequel together on DVD for $11.

http://www.deepdiscount.com/viewproduct.htm?productId=5752807

So I ordered it and it arrived today…finished watching the sequel about a couple hours ago.

***Suggested format: Film title, Original vs. Sequel, and how it compared, favorably or not. Where did you feel ripped off? What was necessary that wasn’t covered or what was unnecessary that they should have left out, weird things in general…? End with verdict, recommendation to see, etc.

  1. Original: charming in that it followed the lives of four guys for A) one momentous night B) in one location.

Sequel, A) time sequence is spread out over a year plus. There’s some tricky nesting and foreshadowing, and I think some may not add up, e.g. the age of Steve & Laurie’s kids.

Sequel, B) characters spread out (Toad in Nam, Curtis in Canada and he never appears).
2) Original: Music that seemed evocative of a period in time. I say “seemed” because I was born in '63, so “Where were you in '62?” Me, I was just a gleam in daddy’s eye.

Sequel: Soundtrack doesn’t evoke a particular sentiment for me. It was such a period of flux that maybe I’m asking too much. “Sounds of Silence” vs. “Fixin to Die Rag” vs. others, I don’t know. Not so homongeneous.
Strange: Mackenzie Phillips played both Carol and Moonbeam, though I wasn’t clear if they were supposed to be the same person.

Strange: If I’m not mistaken, the car dealer who tries to give Toad a deal on his car in the original turns out to be Debbie’s boss (strip club mgr) in the sequel. 36 years after the original I’m meh about that. Maybe back in the 70s it would have been more ironic.

Felt ripped off: Well, this is unclear. IIRC I posted in a spoiler in the other thread, but in the screenplay it turned out that Holstein, (Officer) Falfa, Buddah, and blonde T-Bird lady Suzanne Somers were out boozing New Years Eve and were driving home when they ran Milner off the road (“Killed by a drunk driver, December 1964”).

Harrison Ford did indeed appear in this as a motorcycle cop. wikipedia and imdb.com note that he is “uncredited,” but wikipedia calls it a “cameo.” Maybe he previewed the finished product and decided it was a dog he wouldn’t want to claim.

Oh, what a night! That’s what I lurv about the first one. That imminent, gotta get it done urgency à la Curt. That cusp of leaving youth behind forever. The sequel meanders, which is accurate in a way—their lives aren’t going to sync for dramatic purposes. But it really pulls down the energy IMO.

E.g. Debbie—she was beautiful in the original, flawed but wholly desirable. Remember that “goat’s head killer” bit? The reality of how she turned out leaves me wanting her less. True life, maybe…but I’m far less invested in her.

And the DVD ending shows Milner driving home…he disappears over a hill and a car is coming from the opposite direction, over its own hill…they’ll meet in the “valley” between, out of the line of sight. There’s no telltale sound effects or anything but neither set of lights re-emerge.

I bought the screenplay to this. Read: I hadn’t imagined the film would come out in my nearby podunk town and I saw it in a bookstore as a paperback, so I bought it. I was right; if the film came out in theaters, I missed it and I’m just now seeing it.

So weird as it is, I’d read the film but I hadn’t seen it. And they changed it around, which I suppose happens a lot. I’ve read that GWTW was written, rewritten, directors changed, blah blah. And who knows? Maybe they filmed scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor. In any event, the script had the T-Bird people arguing about whether to stop to render aid, etc.

Overall if you loved the original, yeah, see this. Rent it. Just don’t expect the energy or charm you got from the first one. If you’ve ever attended a high school class reunion, you know there are bizarre twists and anticlimactic turns of fate. It’s interesting for sure and sometimes compelling…but the stakes aren’t what they once were, nor are the prisms you viewed them through.

2

Having slept on it, something clicked.

John sees Carol at the race track. She’s nice, a lot more mature, with a nerdy guy.

In the screenplay, IIRC she was with a female foreign exchange student and Carol was described as a total babe who’s still after John. That function was handed to Mary Kay Place, who played “Teensa.” I don’t recall Teensa at all from the original.

Meanwhile it’s intercut with scenes of Debbie and the hippies. I guess Debbie never met her in the original but it seems like the associations have continued and overlapped because Debbie goes to watch John race. Anyway Debbie addresses her as “Moonbeam,” which made me think they gave her a different role.

Conclusion: we’re supposed to infer that Carol went hippie and insists on being called “Moonbeam.”

Secondly, a few moments were brought back from the original. E.g. Toad ends up in Viet Nam with Joe from the Pharaohs. They talk about Toad joining the gang once they get back. I would have liked more stuff like that to connect it to the original.