1973 Movie
Dir. George Lucas · United States of America · English
Simple, sweet, and nostalgic, George Lucas’ first film will have you sighing about the good-bad old days
American Graffiti captures a very specific time in America; in fact, it’s so specific it feels more like a time capsule or a historical artifact than a movie. It’s a picture of 1962, Modesto, California, the setting of writer-director George Lucas’ own childhood, where kids would cruise aimlessly on Main Street and pick fights or girls, listen to the radio, mess around, be young, and have nothing else to worry about. It’s been described as the last breath of innocence, before America was plunged into new and neverending world wars. But as particular as that all sounds, American Graffiti is oddly relatable. I couldn’t be farther away from this reality and yet I felt a deep pang in my chest when the kids lied about owning a car to impress a girl, raced a guy who provoked them, fooled around with strangers, and promised they’d be friends with each other after their last night together, knowing full well college was the start of the end. American Graffiti may capture a specific time in history, but its themes of childhood innocence and adult nostalgia run deep and wide. Anyone who’s longed to return to simpler times will find much to like in this film.
A couple of high school graduates spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.
"Without unnecessary nudging or underlining, Lucas beautifully establishes his characters as both enslaved to the image of themselves which the media have given them and permanently in need of its company."
— Jan Dawson
"There is brilliant interplaying and underplaying, of script, performers and direction which will raise howls of laughter from audiences, yet never descends on the screen to overdone mugging, pratfall and other heavy-handed devices normally employed."
— A.D. Murphy
In 1962, teenage friends cruise around their town—some of them for the last time—during their last night of summer vacation.
Yep, that’s a young Harrison Ford, pre-Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame, right there.
This is one of those films that has you going “Nothing happens, and yet everything happens.”
Oscars
5 noms
Renee Cuisia is the lead curator at A Good Movie to Watch. In her spare time, she likes to watch K-dramas and analyze them to death. She's also seen You've Got Mail one too many times but is still convinced it's one of the greatest films out there.
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