Do we stroll back to the year the movie was made or the year it depicted?
I say let's go with the year it was all about...so get out that letter sweater and fire up the hot rod...
Where were you in 62?
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
Did you know this was a George Lucas film? Yes that George Lucas! Young George Lucas' influential hallmark film American Graffiti (1973) recreates the feel, landscape, and sounds of early 60s, small-town America - an historical time period (of JFK's Presidency and the New Frontier before the jarring assassination of late 1963 and the rest of an unpredictable era) that has since been irretrievably lost. Advertising posters and theatrical trailers for the film asked: "Where were you in '62?", making viewers reflect back to the pre-Beatles era.
The film from Lucas (an ex-USC film student and intern at Warner Bros.) was almost not made when every studio in Hollywood refused it, except for Universal. With its great financial success, 28 year-old Lucas joined the ranks of a new breed of directors, including Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. It was his second feature film, following THX 1138 (1971).
The film was Lucas' homage to the memories of his own teenage years in Modesto, California, remembered with vintage cars and dragsters, drive-ins (Mel's), an almost non-stop rock soundtrack, teenage activities (hot rod crusin' and makin' out), and characteristic hair and clothing styles.
Today if you happen to visit Universal Studio's in Orlando you can visit Mel's Diner and really stroll down memory lane. I was only 10 years old in 1962 but I remember the boys and cars and couldn't wait to grow up...boy was I foolish to want to rush it.
All of the major characters in the ensemble cast are recent or soon-to-be Dewey High School graduates aged seventeen to twenty, during one momentous, hot, late summer/early fall night in 1962. While cruisin' and hanging out at the local watering hole (Mel's Drive-In), the four weave in and out of each other's lives as they are on the brink of major decisions (about attending college or finding a job) and suffering from various traumas.
The film is seamlessly laced with a classic rock-n-roll soundtrack composed of over forty hits (often emanating from cruising car radios, or the school dance's record player). They frequently function as background music to define the emotions, dreams and frustrations of the group, ranging over almost a decade (from 1955-1962). Many of the songs are served up by legendary outlaw disk jockey Wolfman Jack who appears on the radio and as himself. Other later youth-oriented films imitated this film's use of a pop soundtrack.
At the start of the closing credits, the character and actor names for the main characters randomly appear in time to the opening xylophone notes of the Beach Boys' All Summer Long, which continues to play over the credits.
Worded epilogues prior to the credits shows what happen to the characters following the movie. While this has since become commonplace in films, it was considered innovative at the time.
Most people remember the film as the one with early acting appearances for unknown but up-and-coming actors, such as Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Ron Howard (best known as child actor Opie on TV's The Andy Griffith Show, and currently a film director), Harrison Ford, Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Charles Martin Smith, Mackenzie Phillips, Kathleen Quinlan, Suzanne Somers, Debralee Scott, Joe Spano, and Bo Hopkins. Many of these stars went on to further film and television careers, appearing in hit TV sitcoms such as Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, One Day at a Time, Three's Company, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and Hill Street Blues, or films such as The Lords of Flatbush (1974), The Conversation (1974), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), The Goodbye Girl (1977), Star Wars (1977), Melvin and Howard (1980), and Apollo 13 (1995).
Although the film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (for 26 year old Candy Clark), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing, it came away empty-handed.
The cars were also the stars of the show and brought back an interest in American Classic cars. Two of these were:
Main Car 1– Equipped with a 427 crate motor, M-22 Muncie, 4.88 Olds rear, fiberglass front end, doors, and trunk lid, straight axle front suspension when built and later modified and used in American Graffiti.
Stunt Car– All steel-bodied car equipped with a 454 crate motor, TH 400 automatic, Olds rear of unknown gearing, modified for American Graffiti. It was used for interior shots as it was equipped with an auto tranny and drove smoother than a stick.
George Lucas had the license plate on the ’32 Ford hot rod read: THX-138. This was a reference to THX-1138, his 1971 sc-fi flick. Later in his Star Wars saga, the yellow airspeeder Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan use to chase bounty hunter Zam Wesell is said to be a tribute to John Milner’s iconic coupe in American Graffiti.
"American Graffiti" follows a group of teenage friends who meet in the parking lot of a local drive-in restaurant on the last night before two of them (played by Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Howard) plan to leave town to go to college. They spend much of the night cruising the streets of their hometown of Modesto, California (where Lucas himself grew up and developed an early passion for automobiles and car racing), in cars ranging from a yellow "deuce coupe" (a slang term for the 1932 Ford Model B coupe) to a 1958 Chevy Impala, while some of the film's most memorable scenes feature a white 1955 Ford Thunderbird driven by a mysterious blonde.
For many of us it was a last tribute to the 60's...and one that was done perfectly. If you have never seen this movie you need to do so. Show this to your kids so that when we talk about a simpler time they will see what we mean and maybe respect that this time in history laid the ground work for what was to come...
I hoped you enjoyed learning about this film....and like that other Candy, Candy Clark says.."Peel out, I just love it when guys peel out".
Until we meet again...... This Candy says.....
